Introduction
Mythic Neogeo game, as it's the first SNK release (I think so), Nam 1975 is a fair hybrid shooter, that made me think about that good old Mercs megadrive spirit, and at the same time it reminded me a bit of prohibition (amstrad cpc) for the gameplay part.
hmm... Oh well maybe i'm going too far.
Story
Anyway, it's the FIRST title released by the famous SNK firm, to promote its little neogeo baby console.
Nam stands for the word VietNam, the country that got into a long and painful war against the united states, sad symbol of the international politics and revendications of the usa for quite a few decades now.
This human disaster is brought to our mind here, through a crazy video game, where the dramatic side of the events get rapidly caught by the insanity of video games.
Graphics
Graphics are not really awesome, but its achievement is great, and overall, you could say that SNK did pretty well for a first release.
Sprites are properly drawn, and there are no slow down problems, or anything like that.
Graphically, war has never been so well rendered, except maybe in the Ikari Warriors game, where the war atmosphere is pretty well rendered.
But if Ikari Warriors was a pure run and gun game, Nam 1975 plays statically, and gameplay is totally different.
For their times, cut scenes were absolutely fantastic, very impressive graphically. For the anecdote, let's notice that the vietcong girl that you see on the screenshot, shooting like crazy, looks exactly like the one in Stanley Kubrick's movie, Full Metal Jacket. Can't be a coincidence, ok. Wanted to say it.
One sympathic detail is that you start the game with a classic firing weapon, whose firepower can be boosted as you grab bonus items during the game.
Here is, for example, the essential flame-thrower, that is so useful when you want to "barbecue" your evil ennemies.
Gameplay
Here is the simple recipe that SNK followed to make a good game :
You see your small character at the bottom of the screen, and you can move him from left to right, and vice versa, in order to avoid the bullets, and all kind of grenades thrown by ennemies who move in the upper part of hte screen.
You need to fight for your sake, to survive to the neverending attacks from these bad dudes that seem to want you dead at all costs.
Atmosphere
The audio effects are a bit more interesting than the music in my opinion, cause I was very impressed at its time, by all these digitalized voices all over.
Always a pleasure, always impressive.
If the beginning of the game is totally dramatic, in its tone and atmosphere, one can notice the slight change around the second level. Things are getting really crazy, with the two bald guys, and the world becoming like armageddon with a single soldier destroying flying Mig-27 along with a few helicopters while running, and fighting robots and stuff. WOW.
Music / Sounds
Musics are quite ok, but nothing that you will remember for long, and nothing very interesting. They play during the game, in a mostly dramatic tone.
The interesting thing, is the actor playing of that mickael Beard voice. These digitalized voices made Nam1975 famous in the videogames world at this period, cause it was rare to have so many many voices in one game.
Replay Value
Nam 1975 gameplay and longevity are a bit anecdotic. It's mostly a game you need to possess for the history side of things, for the fact that it's technically the first neogeo release, and that is wasn't a bad game at all.
Let's also notice that the interest of the game can be increased drastically by the cooperation mode, it makes that game a lot funnier !
With another player helping you to deal with that mess, it's sometimes a lot easier to avoid bullets, and more precisely to kill these ennemies before they can shoot everywhere so that you get stucked in one side of the screen, forced to die. You can see sometimes bullets coming to you and you know you will die cause you just can't avoid them, as there are too much on screen.
Conclusion
Nam 1975 reste un de ces bons vieux jeux d'arcade, plaisants un moment et puis on peut s'en lasser. Nam1975 is a good game overall, one of these good old games that you can enjoy a lot for a moment, and then you just forget about playing it, and it die somewhere in your appartment, but you're still grateful to have played it once.
