Yep, we’re back again for a look at drugs and altered states of conciousness in gaming. A light cast this time, but enjoyable still. Hit it up:

Seventy Two Pin Connector Podcast: Episode 024 – Drugs

And it’s been far too long since I’ve plugged OC Remix, if you’re ever in the mood for video game music and/or remixes, this should be your first stop. Some truly amazing mixes end up here, so check it out!

That’s right! We’re streaming live tonight and we’re talking drugs!!

Hit it up here to check it out, live stream starts at around 9-9:30PM EST:

http://www.ustream.tv/seventytwopc

Yea… we’re back. After the hell that was the land of hosting problems. Maintenance is over, the site is back. Tell your friends. We’re set to roll out the SNES or Genesis soon, depending on what you tell us. For now, enjoy Brett’s review of the classic NES game, NARC:

I decided to review a game that I remember stumbling upon in my younger years while I still had my NES. When I was four we had two local movie/video game rental stores. One day I went to the less popular one with my father just to see what games were there. Upon gazing for several minutes I looked at the box of one particular game and I then knew I had to rent it. That game was NARC. If you have never played this game before let me shine a little light on what the game entails before I review it. The game has you take control of a blue or red narcotics officer based on which controller port you are hooked up to. The game is your basic shoot em’ up sidescroller, which takes place in a city ruled by a basic drug lord named “Mr. Big”.

Now that I have explained the game a little, I must review it. The first problem with this game is that compared to the arcade version, there are barely any drug references in the NES cartridge version, due to Nintendo thinking that it was inappropriate to have a gratuitous amount of mature content. In the arcade the references are blatant, but on the NES they are more watered down than a bottle of vodka from Meijers. How the hell can you say no to drugs and be a narcotics officer when you really don’t have any idea that you are going after drugs?

During the game you must shoot tons of enemies which consists of people that appear to be flashers, and when killed or arrested they will either drop white papers with a dollar sign on them, or a bag of white powder. It’s obvious that its cocaine, but when you’re four years old and playing the game, you think its sugar, because you haven’t been hustling on the mean streets of Detroit where shit goes down all the time. You must also deal with Pit bulls, and good god you’ll kill so many you’ll make Michael Vick proud. There are also rapist clowns and men that look like Frankenstein. For the most part a lot of building names retain their “drug references” from the Arcade version such as Kwak Spot. But when it comes to walking by the strip clubs or porno stores, you will be hit with a name such as “UGH NES”.

As for difficulty this game is ungodly at times, and you will get pissed off….a lot. As for the graphics they are ok for their time. The music is average as well. Another problem with this game is the fact that two buttons control four actions. One for “jump & duck” and the other to shoot either “bullets or rockets”, which can be a bitch because if you tap it too light you shoot a rocket into one guy, which there is pretty pointless, but if you hold it, you will shoot bullets when you need to shoot that rocket.

The final boss, if you can somehow become a NES god to make it that far, is a man amongst boys. Mr. Big is an odd character to say the least. The first time you meet him he’s in a wheel chair, in his second form its just his head and he spits tongues at you, then he turns into a giant skull and does the same while moving at a ridiculous pace. I shit you not I have been to the boss twice in my life. Once when I played the game with my brother when I was younger, and last year when I cheated my ass off using an emulator to make it that far. The last time I just quit because I was so pissed off.

As much as it may pain me to say this… I actually love this game. I will not play it often, but when I do, I always get a joy out of the fact that I rented it when I was four and had no idea what the hell was going on. All while my brother, who was older than me, probably understood the entire time. I would suggest this game for anyone, and in all honesty, it’s a hard game to get into. But if you are in dire need of a challenge, then this game is a must have.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYUciTA8meE]

Download this video in AVI (11.8 MB)

NARC – NES