Classic GI

Vault Diving: Drug Wars

by Kyle Hilliard on Sep 27, 2011 at 12:08 PM

In this ongoing online feature we're going to give you a glimpse into Game Informer's prized collection. Today, we have every one's favorite 1993 blockbuster mega-hit for the 3DO, Drug Wars.

Based entirely on the front cover of the game, I would have to assume that Drug Wars is about two men and their fight either for or against drugs. The bald gentleman is clearly past his prime and is far too old to be handling a gun of that size. He looks as though he is going to lose balance at any moment and topple off of the side of that air-boat. The man with the bandanna is also old, which is evidenced by the squinting scowl on his face. He is struggling with his aging eyesight to see what is ahead. He also must be deaf in his right ear because there is no way he wouldn't be reacting in some way to such a large gun firing so close to the right side of his face. My final assumption, is that there is some sort of high ranking military officer monitoring their mission from the plane in the background Metal Gear Solid 3 style. Let's read the back of the box, and see how close I got.

You are fighting against drugs, so I suppose I guessed right in that regard. It sounds like you are on a mission to literally destroy all drugs, much like Solid Snake was on a mission to destroy all Metal Gears. There seem to be a lot of parallels between the two games.

In Drug Wars, you are making your way through the ranks (something LA Noire clearly drew inspiration from) to eventually head to South America and take on the biggest, best drug dealer, who coincidentally does the worst Scarface impression. The two old men on the front cover are just a couple of goons you take out during your drug destroying rampage.

If you had a 3DO in 1993, it looks like your only choice of game, at least from this publisher, were shooting games and one exciting maze game.

For some reason in the back of the Drug Wars booklet, it seemed necessary to acknowledge the Executive Producer of Space Pirates. I don't think Space Pirates had anything to do with Drug Wars, other than being from the same publisher, but Robert Grebe must have been really confident about his work. It's sort of like going to see Jurassic Park, and seeing a credit in the end that says, by the way, George Lucas directed Star Wars.

There are some strangely detailed instructions on how to start the game, as well as a listing of the difficulties which range from the Wimp (easy) to Rough & Tough (hard).

Clearly games like Metal Gear Solid and LA Noire took inspiration from Drug Wars. It makes you wonder if we would have even had those games with the widespread influence of this 3DO masterpiece. My guess is that, yes, we probably still would.