Yep, it's exactly like that.
- The roar of the helicopters overhead snaps us back into reality. We will never forget the nightmare of that summer...
NAM-1975 is a Cabal-esque shooting game developed by SNK for the Neo Geo in 1990. Going by its serial number, it is notably the first game developed for the system.
During the final months of The Vietnam War, two American soldiers, Silver and Brown, reenter the war to rescue Dr. Richard Muckly, a US Army scientist who has been kidnapped by the "North Side Terrorists" along with his daughter Nancy.
This game is one of those Cabal clones. It's also rather unusual for a Vietnam War video game, because the VCs are equipped with anachronistic, not to mention sci-fi weapons or vehicles.
This game provides examples of:
- Artistic License – History: Where to begin...The Vietcong were largely decimated after the Tet Offensive of 1968, and certainly did not field large reserves of US vehicles and mechs. Possibly justified that you aren't actually fighting the Vietcong.
- Big Bad: Dr. R. Muckly.
- Bittersweet Ending: After foiling Muckly's plan, the war may be over but the hero bitterly states that "the hell continues".
- Cheat Code: There is a hidden input sequence for triggering the secret stages
that otherwise appear at random between stages. - Colonel Kurtz Copy: Dr. R. Muckly.
- Damsel in Distress: Nancy Muckly. The moment you find her, she tries to spill her father's evil plan and is Killed Mid-Sentence for it.
- The End of the World as We Know It: What happens if you get the Bad Ending.
- Extremely Short Timespan: By the end of the game, it's taken 51 hours to go from South Vietnam into North Vietnam.
- Foreshadowing: The fact that the enemies speak English is not Translation Convention... they're US soldiers and deserters on Muckly's payroll.
- Have a Nice Death: All the bosses taunt you when you die against them, but the final boss does something far worse.
- Humongous Mecha: Of all things, the Dangerous Deserter slash Mad Scientist slash Colonel Kurtz Copy Dr. R. Muckly uses it against you.
- Luck-Based Mission: There are mini-boss battles between each levels, and whether they appear or not is more or less completely random. Downplayed a bit as even if they do appear, they're usually no more difficult to bring down than the mandatory mini-bosses throughout the normal levels.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Muckly is basically a Dangerous Deserter slash Colonel Kurtz Copy slash Mad Scientist who runs a private army there.
- Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Nancy.
- More Dakka: On your end, the Vulcan gun powerup gives you extremely rapid fire for a while. On the enemy's end, setting the game to higher difficulties sees enemies laying down EXTREMELY rapid bursts of fire and explosions to near-Bullet Hell levels.
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Nintendo Hard: Very much so. - One-Man Army: Or two, depending if there's a second player. Subverted according the cutscenes, which imply that there's a whole squad around Silver and Brown, along with offscreen fighting.
- Point of No Continues: Exaggerated. The very moment the final boss appears, you can no longer continue, nor can a 2nd player join in - if you lose all your lives at this point (hope you weren't on your last!), you will be given the Bad Endingnote and your game will be over for real!
- Rule of Cool: What begins as a fairly realistic military shooter ends up in a fight against a Mad Scientist and his Private Military Contractors.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: The player characters, even moreso once the game is over."Now, we are called heroes... But, the Hell continues."
- Shout-Out: Many of the game's cutscenes homage (and at times, outright trace over) shots from Full Metal Jacket. In particular, the first level's Dual Boss includes a man who's basically just Gomer Pyle in a straitjacket and who traded in his rifle for a flamethrower.
- Skippable Boss: The game will occasionally allow you to kill the two female snipers tied up during the final boss battle before Dr. Muckly emerges with his laser weapon.
- SNK Boss: Dr. Muckly and his superweapon predates Geese Howard by a year, having his insanely precise projectiles putting players down, and you don't even have a chance to continue nor invite a 2nd player to, should you totally lose to him, so while there IS a pretty distinct timing to his attacks, you'd better learn it FAST.
- War Is Hell: The protagonists certainly think so.
- Weapons Understudies: The VCs use American vehicles, but little to no Soviet equipment. Justified that they're not Vietcong, they're private armies and deserted collaborators under Muckly.
- Whole-Plot Reference: A US Army personnel went missing, and leading his own private army against the US? Sounds like Apocalypse Now, however the Kurtz equivalent here fields an entire military division, including air force, and the Kurtz equivalent himself built a large superweapon capable of destroying the world.
