NARC

"NARC: The game that taught you how to deal with hippies..."

As part of the city's latest bid in tackling drug related crime, the NARC Squad gets to work in this delightful classic NES outing. By playing as one of the NARC boys, you are given the ultimate duty of cleaning up the streets once and for all. There's no opening cutscene or intro movie giving you your objectives or anything, but it's clear what your superiors want you to do; move through the most darkest, vile and run-down parts of the city laying waste to the wasters (no pun intended), before going directly to the source of the latest killer drug. Enemies include wave after wave of drug dealers, junked-up crack addicts, mad as hell dogs, helicopters and all sorts as you just try to do your job. Don't worry though. It may sound like an endless battle with un-winnable odds, but the NARC Squad isn't some yellow-belly team of cowards, as they're 21th Century crime fighters, kitted out in state-of-the-art riot gear (in a variety of dazzling colours!), with high-powered rocket launchers and machine guns as you're persuasion to make dealers break the habit (or their legs, either ways good) and to finally clean up the city...

Thankfully, it's not just down to a single boy in blue, as a Co-Op mode is available for two friends to tear up the streets and make things easier. Having two players walk through the game together allows for some tactical skills to take place. For example, one person can stay back and shoot the attackers who approach from the rear, whilst the other goes ahead and collects the evidence. You may be wondering what I mean by evidence, but don't. Evidence is really the Bonus Points system of the game, where the more of the drugs you collect from the corpses or left by the dealers, the more points you rack up at the end of each level. It does add an slight level to the gameplay instead of just a simple "push-forward-blowing-everything-up" kind of game. Talking about blowing up everything, NARC adds a new twist and alternative to the Side-Scroller genre. Since cops are supposed to be the good guys, pumping them full of lead all the time takes away that feeling away. What do you do instead? Arrest them, or as the game calls it, "Bust" them. It's a simple thing to do, all is needed is to walk up to an enemy and a second later...boof...they're busted. The game's bonus point system takes into account how many busts you perform and gives you a score based on that, and as it turns out, NARC wants you to take this less-violent approach to the game, as arresting them gives you much more points than to simply shoot their heads off.

NARC is an extremely solid game in terms of gameplay, as it's a frantic side-scroller with some added new ideas, but is not frustratingly difficult at all. It even has a fun vehicle driving part of the game as well! Excellent. The visuals are great and very colourful, which might contrast against the serious nature (well, it has a anti-drug theme in it but I wouldn't call it serious) but that's why. Thanks to the colourfulness and beauty of the game, younger players are able to enjoy this and no worry about the whole horror of drugs thing. Sadly, it is a short game, but it is highly enjoyable (and the ending still brings a smile to my face...). It is hard to come by now-a-days in its cart form, but a quick glance into the XBox section will reveal this gem in a massive compilation of games for a very cheap price under the name of Midway Arcade Treasures 2. There is also the original NARC on the updated NARC as an unlockable extra. Get in!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/05