NARC
System: NES
Release Date: August 1990
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
Join the never ending War on Drugs in NARC! Take the role of Max Force as he seeks swift justice against the pill pushers, dope dealers, and weapon wielding wasters. The citizens of this town have all been turned into drug fiends who want you as dead as you want them. Make it through nine levels of murdering everyone in your path to go face to face with the kingpin himself, Mr. Big.
In order to control your agent, you need to become adept at the difference between a tap and a press of a button and hope the game registers what you’re after. The A Button is your killing button. Pressing and holding fires your machine gun. This ammo is limited, but can be replenished as you shoot enemies. Tapping the A Button shoots a rocket, completely dismembering your targets. Shooting them with the machine gun allows for them to drop drugs, money, ammo, or missiles. Blowing them up with the rockets does not. You can also bust certain enemies for extra points by walking up to them and standing on them for a moment. You can jump with a tap of the B Button and crouch by holding it. Crouching will be the only way to take out the dogs who have obviously smoked bath salts and want to eat your flesh.
There are several different enemies that you have to deal with. Most of the time, there is a homeless man in a brown overcoat and no shirt shooting at you. These guys can be shot for drops or busted for points. There’s a guy who is out to infect you with every disease known to man by launching hypodermic needles at you. There are knife wielding clowns for some reason. I guess clowns are drug addicts? Guys throw dynamite at you. Cars try to run you over. Heavy machine gun toting commandos will fire at you non stop. Mr. Big’s security will stop at nothing to take you out. (26:36) Everyone wants you dead, but you also have to fight your own movement, which will sometimes change direction when you don’t want it to.
Stages mostly revolve around finding a safe card to open a door. Sometimes they are in the level where you will easily find it. Other times you have to kill enough enemies for it to drop. Other times you have to enter specific doors to find what you’re looking for. There’s a slot under the insert safe card sign that you need to touch to open the door. You get to hop into your souped up Porsche and then immediately run into a dumpster. This makes the Bridge level incredibly long. Outside of ammo drops, killing enemies is good for points. One level has a bunch of what I assume are pot plants that you can collect, but some are booby trapped.
When you finally get done killing hundreds of drug offenders, you face off against Mr. Big, complete in wheel chair. Once you get over your hesitance of blasting a handicapped individual to his death, he turns into a giant robotic head. If you want to take him down, you need to aim for his sunglasses, then his eyes. When he turns into a weird skull, hope you have enough bullets and just start blasting away. When you run out of machine gun bullets, you can still fire, but it takes upward of two seconds between shots. Better to just die, if you have more lives, to replenish your ammo.
Graphics: 2.0
I’m being overly generous here because the backgrounds of the streets have some detail. Animations are poor, as are character models.
Sound: 1.5
Serviceable, but not enjoyable. You hear the firing of your gun overtake the less than stellar music.
Gameplay: 0.5
The controls are a mess. Taps are frequently misinterpreted, which means you die.
Difficulty: 1.0
Bad controls make the game harder than it really is. Just shoot whenever you see someone and move slightly up or down to avoid their projectile.
Fun Factor: 0.5
I don’t take enjoyment in a game that turns everyone who uses drugs into a violent psychopath. This is how we create harmful stereotypes.
Overall Rating: 1.1
NARC earns a D. Not only does this game have a bad message, it has terrible gameplay. Try it at your own risk.