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WRECKING CREW

Wrecking Crew is one of those "Black Label" early release NES titles, which was actually a LAUNCH TITLE for the NES in America. As such, it's not commonly found in people's collections. It was a part of Nintendo's Programmable series of games (Which included Excitebike), where you can edit the playfield for custom levels. It was created by Yoshio Sakumoto.

In Wrecking Crew you play as Mario (and Luigi in 2 player) working as a Demolition Crew in various abandoned buildings. Basically, the game is spent smashing things while avoiding their Foreman Spike, who for unknown reasons goes around terrorizing Mario and Luigi by knocking them down and breaking stuff. SOunds like a very unhealthy work relationship for the Mario Bros if you ask me.

Like Excitebike you can edit your own levels. Each level is basically just a grid upon you can place objects to destroy, ladders to climb, platforms, and whatnot. This was a really cool feature and was among the first games to feature something like this.

Wrecking Crew today has more of a cult followng at best. It's one of those early Nintendo titles that Millennials find boring and Zoomers find twice boring probably. I, being a GenXer stuck in a millennial's body, enjoy this one a lot. It's like an old Atari game, simple, fun, and addicting - three good pillars to make a great video game.

Short & Sweet - My Experiences

Wrecking Crew is one of those games I discovered downloading NES ROMs from the internet back in the olden days. The minute I got ahold of the ROM, I wanted the physical cartridge, and as of January 2023, I finally have this one. I found the game rather addicting and fun, so that's why I put it in my roster.

Even more interesting is I have a hack of this on the Sup 400-in-1 Handheld called "Destroy 1". The "Destroy" variant changes the characters around a bit, though it's pretty much just a title screen and graphical hack. It seems that whoever made the Sup handhelds installed this to avoid any sort of copyright issues with Nintendo regarding the Wrecking Crew game. It is game #110 on the Sup 400-in-1 variant I have and it plays pretty much identically to the original version.

So then? Why did I buy an actual copy of this game then? Well, the "400-in-1" i a Chinese made famiclone console, and not as well made as a 1985-1995 NES, so I don't trust that it's going to last as well as my NES Has, and therefore, will likely not be in use as long as the NES will be (which will probably be until the day I die). Plus, it's much nicer to play on a large screen most of the time.

Videos

Let's Play Wrecking Crew (On Actual Hardware, 2023)