War is hell. Beyond just being a throwaway line in an Ace Ventura film, it’s interesting to look at how many games use real-life conflicts as their source of inspiration, either mirroring the events that took place in an interactive form or telling a fictionalized account of the chaos that unfolded. World War II in particular has been a well that many a talented developer has tapped to craft incredible games in all genres. And why wouldn’t they?
It’s almost romantic: a globe-spanning conflict on multiple fronts; clearly defined “good guys” and “bad guys” in the form of the Allied and Axis powers; incredible stories of heroism and sacrifice and other storybook themes; it’s a setting that continues to be found in both big budget releases and smaller indie titles alike. Sure, the nuance of the conflict may be lost in something like Wolfenstein 3D, where the Nazis toy with occult shenanigans and mutant experimentation, but it’s a byproduct of just how transparently evil the Nazis were in real life.
But then you have a conflict like the Vietnam War. All of a sudden, the well is as dry as a bone.
While we may have a more romanticized view of World War II via propaganda films, archival footage, and a general detachment from the era, the Vietnam War was incredibly different in so many ways: ever-present journalism and advancements in technology allowed those on the home front to see the war in real-time; grey motivations soured morale both back home and on the frontlines; and the harsh treatment many veterans received due to a variety of negative factors left many with a bitter resentment of the conflict as a whole.
And that’s just scraping the surface. Someone can watch something like Apocalypse Now or Platoon and get a broad idea of how the war was viewed only a few years away from its conclusion. But what does this have to do with NAM-1975, though?
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Developed and self-published by SNK for their newly-released Neo Geo arcade system in 1990, NAM-1975 takes the geopolitical hell that was the entire Vietnam War and turns it into a hilariously exploitative romp lined with bullet casings, explosion residue, and digitized voice acting. It was one of the first-ever games released for the Neo Geo platform, kicking off what would become one of the most beloved staples of your local arcade along with one of the most ear-catching jingles of the era. But is it still worth playing today?
The Story Thus Far
“Summer, 1975. A nightmare awaits me.”
Admittedly, arcade games aren’t really known for their narrative prowess. But what’s here is entertaining enough to at least warrant a brief mention. After all, the big reveal at the end really makes it all worth it.
It’s the last few months of the Vietnam War. In this highly fictionalized version of the conflict, a pair of soldiers — Silver and Brown, represented by player one and player two, respectively — are thrust into Natorm headquarters with the intent of undergoing a special operation. Dr. Muckly, an ex-U.S. Army scientist, has presumably been taken captive by North Vietnamese terrorists. Now tasked with rescuing Dr. Muckly from their clutches, Silver and Brown find themselves trudging through endless streams of bullet casings and shrapnel fragments, filling the countryside to do so. But things are rarely as simple as they seem.
You may be wondering how this small terrorist cell managed to acquire dozens upon dozens of tanks, planes, helicopters, and more than enough men and rifles to win the war on top of what they’ve already sequestered elsewhere. Well, you’ve been had. Turns out that Dr. Muckly wasn’t kidnapped. He’s gone mad, taking a detachment of separatists with him in order to take over the world with his doomsday laser. Imagine Full Metal Jacket if it was as bastardized as Rambo: First Blood Part II was. At least here, it’s more funny than anything else.
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For 1990, NAM-1975 looks and sounds genuinely fantastic. Clear and crisp digitized voice samples, a surprising amount of detail in its numerous animations and death scenes, crunchy sound effects, vivid colors, and consistent technical performance really showcased the hardware differences between arcade cabinets and home consoles at the time. Bear in mind that the Nintendo Entertainment System was still in vogue, and though the technical powerhouse Super Mario Bros. 3 debuted in the United States earlier in the year, it still couldn’t come even close to topping something like Commando despite pushing every technological limitation of its system.
In fact, the year was excellent for arcade releases as a whole. Capcom’s Mercs, Toaplan’s Out Zone, and even Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker all debuted to positive critical reviews, with NAM-1975 in particular even snaking itself into Electronic Gaming Monthly’s “Greatest 200 Video Games of Their Time.” It’s #194, sure, but it’s still there.
Challenging Cabal Action
But then you get to actually playing NAM-1975.
NAM-1975 is affectionately referred to as a “cabal shooter,” a subgenre of action game lovingly named after the titular 1988 shooter Cabal. Instead of simply shooting right or left or donning a first-person perspective like in a typical rail shooter, cabal shooters offer an interesting mix of the two playstyles. In NAM-1975, moving left to right simultaneously moves your aiming reticle, with your character being permanently affixed to the foreground. Just about everything that presents a threat to you can be found beyond the foreground and in the background, forcing you to weave between the oncoming fire in order to stay alive. But here’s the kicker: attacking whatever is shooting at you from afar locks you in place.
What you get as a result of this is a game that not only demands a level of precision, but also some sense of anticipation. Knowing what’s going to come next can only ever help you, and being able to more quickly affix yourself to a beneficial position to deal with it becomes invaluable as you get farther along. Not only that, using all three forms of movement you have available — walking, sprinting, and rolling — are all required in tandem to survive the escalating stream of munitions being thrown your way.
And dear God, do things escalate. What starts as simple boat ride with minimal opposition grows into a trek through war-torn Do Nang city, an aerial assault where you’re standing in a plane and gunning down incoming paratroopers, and war machines seemingly ripped out of a sci-fi novel instead of having any actual basis in reality. Agent Orange is a bit too dour, let’s just give everyone flamethrowers and sleeveless vests without shirts.
It’s not even really that detached from the realm of action-oriented arcade games. But just the fact that it takes place in this alternate Vietnam War, and everything is played fairly straight despite its fantastical elements, only to escalate into big dumb action movie shenanigans during the climax, makes the experience in getting to the end all the more rewarding. It certainly helps that the game is fairly short.
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A full, deathless run will take you around 30 minutes once you put in the time to really learn each of the game’s five main levels. But the time spent in getting to that point? And the sheer amount of theoretical quarters you’ll have to pop in to get to that point? You might easily quadruple that.
This is especially true when you find out that NAM-1975 has a particularly nasty trick. You see, arcade games are primarily designed with the intent to force the player to master their content. A common way this is done is by incentivizing a “one-credit clear,” or “1CC,” meaning that you beat the game on a single credit. Think of it as just beating an arcade game with a single quarter. Otherwise, you can just pump quarters into the machine until you eventually win via attrition.
Once the big reveal is made, and you take the fight to Dr. Muckly himself, a particular switch is flipped. After this point, as you’re trudging through the final level, you’re effectively in a sudden death mode. If you lose all your lives after you reach the final boss, that’s it — you can’t continue, the world ends, and you’re doomed to start the journey anew.
It’s annoying, sure. If you were playing it at an actual arcade, it’d be downright infuriating. But the upside of playing arcade games like NAM-1975 now, divorced from their original context, is that it’s just another extra challenge to overcome. Money is no object anymore. It’s just down to your own desire to overcome this nail-biting stipulation in order to see more of the game’s slightly uncanny pixel art.
Should You Play NAM-1975?
Is NAM-1975 worth revisiting today? From a historical standpoint, there are certainly a few interesting things about it. For one thing, it’s one of the very few, if not the only, Neo Geo game that lacks the iconic startup jingle, which is a shame. It’s the same noise many would tie to iconic franchises like Metal Slug and Fatal Fury, among the dozens of other prominent games in SNK’s library.
Though it’s difficult to pin down the game’s director, we can at least identify a few other prominent names attached to NAM-1975‘s credits. For instance, the game’s sound was handled by Yoko Osaka, who would later go on to work on the earliest Fatal Fury games on top of their brief work on Sengoku 2. Tomoaki Fukui was billed as a sub director here as well, later going on to direct Kirby & The Amazing Mirror along with programmer Katsuya Kuramoto.
What’s most interesting about NAM-1975, though, is that it was originally a pack-in title for the home version of the Neo Geo arcade system. Without getting into the nitty gritty of arcade technology, the Neo Geo attempted to solve a logistical complication by simplifying the process of swapping games in and out of a specific arcade cabinet. By utilizing a cartridge-based system, it was as easy as taking a game out and putting another back in, without having to heavily modify the surrounding cabinet or bring in a new one wholesale.
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The same technology allowed the Neo Geo AES, a dedicated home version of the arcade system, to exist. You essentially had the full arcade experience at home — for a similar price, that is. By all means, if you wanted to pay what amounted to three separate PlayStation 5 consoles at MSRP back then, you’re more than able to experience NAM-1975 from the comfort of your home.
Overall though, NAM-1975 isn’t necessarily a must-play title in the grand scheme of things. It’s certainly fun. But like many of SNK’s early titles, the simplicity here is outclassed mainly by other impressive action games that would debut throughout the 1990s. Wild Guns (and its modern-day rerelease, Wild Guns: Reloaded) offers a similar playing experience with a ton more visual flair, more interesting mechanics, and even some greater replay value. On the other hand, the total amount of cabal shooters that exist can barely be counted beyond two hands. If you’re already familiar with the genre and want a bit more of the same, there’s plenty of entertainment to be found here.
NAM-1975 has since been rereleased by HAMSTER Corporation under their ACA Neo Geo series and is currently available on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.
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