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"Winners don't use drugs" was the slogan on the box when this game first came out. "What about Ben Johnson?" the smart arses asked. No-one had an answer for that. Snappy slogan, though.

The anti-drugs diatribe continues through the game itself, which centres on the battle between the narcotics police and the evil drug barons. Well, actually it's more like the battle between one narcotics cop (you) and anyone who happens to cross your path. The unfortunate bullet cushions are normally spaced-out junkies. This begs a question: trying to stop the drug barons is fair enough, but surely shooting the junkies is going to do them just as much harm as the drugs are ever likely to?! Oh well, this is America, the country where they shoot first and order bagels later.

Narc wins several points for stupidity right from the outset, being a 128K-only tape! So if you've got an unexpanded 464. or non-doctored 6128 Plus, you... er, well you can consider yourself quite fortunate really. This is a sad game.

There are twelve levels of pretty much identical mindless shooting fare. The plot and so forth are soon forgotten in a game so tired and unoriginal that the ill-defined sprites and snail-speed scrolling are all you'll remember it by.

It's boring, it's repetitive, it's unoriginal, it's repetitive, it's dull, it's crap to look at, it's predictable, it's dull, it's unoriginal, it's boring, it's crap, it's repetitive and it's unoriginal. And I'm going to rip the tape to shreds right here... (rip, shred, etc) ...good. I feel better now. As a two-player game, this has moderate appeal. On your tod, you're better off talking to the wallpaper.

Original release: May 1991
Original publisher: Ocean
Original score: 60% (AA69)

Overall 29% Narc reminds me of Alien Storm, which is like being reminded of the day your cat died. Aaaaaaarrgh...