Before Mortal Kombat made a media frenzy with blood splattering fatalities, NARC introduced mainstream America to extreme video game violence. Choose between Max Force or Hit Man, two militant enforcers who hit the streets on the NARC project, in search of stopping infamous drug crime lord and terrorist threat, Mr. Big. It’s plain to see the originality spawns from the actual game and not the characters names.
Crackdown marijuana greenhouses and narcotic laboratories as you literally blow away and bust junkies, kingpins and drug dealers on the dope infested streets. This side-scrolling shoot’em floods the screen with so much bullets and drugs, it’s like Nino Brown and Frank White set up shop in a video game. Incorporating vehicles and the ability to arrest baddies is a unique twist for a game that hit the arcade’s in 1988, pushing the limits of cell-shaded pixels to a higher plateau.
NARC no doubt is one of the most difficult arcade games of all-time. It’s so hard that the latest ports found on the Midway Arcade Treasures 2 compilation are dumbed down to appease whiners. In typical Midway fashion, controversy surrounded NARC, as parents treated the game in the same light they see Grant Theft Auto today. They’re not fond of the vulgarity and violence either game displays, but like Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff said, “Parents Just Don’t Understand”. It’s only entertainment, intensely violent entertainment with a touch of old school swagger we continue to enjoy today.
