"Not entirely considered a classic for the system, but still a fun outing"

While Wrecking Crew was released by Nintendo for both the NES and the arcade, the game is not considered a classic among the ranks of, say, Super Mario Bros. in the history of Nintendo's earlier games. Of course, that is not to say that the game is bad, per se: suffice to say, some games receive poor reception for more superficial reasons, not because of poor gameplay.

The object of each stage in Wrecking Crew is to destroy all destructible objects, which include stone barriers, concrete blocks, and certain ladders. These do not obstruct the character's path; rather, they are set behind the paths, which allow the character to walk in front of it and smash it. This can be done by either walking directly up in front of an object and smashing it, or destroying several objects in a chain reaction through bombs.

Players take control of Nintendo's favorite jack of all trades, Mario. In each stage, Mario must take his sledgehammer to the various obstacles which must be smashed. Each stage scrolls up and down, and there is a lot to smash in each stage.

When Mario is on the ground, he can walk left and right to destroy various blocks and avoid enemies. Some require only one hit to be destroyed, while other, darker blocks require more than one hit. Also, on the ground, Mario can destroy a destructible ladder directly at its base. At this point, the ladder collapses entirely, and enemies fall from it.

If a sequence of blocks happens to be a bomb, a row of destructible blocks, and a bomb, a character can hit either bomb, and all blocks between the two will destruct. If a character is in front of the bomb when the explosion is done, the character will fall to the bottom of the stage from the explosion's impact.

Like Mario Bros. and even Pac-Man, Mario and his second banana Luigi can walk from one side of the screen and end up on the other. If Mario walks off the right side of the screen completely, for example, he'll wind up on the left side, on the same floor.

However, various enemies, such as robots, lizard men, and eggplants roam the stage only to cause havoc to Mario. They can not rebuild any damage made to the property on the screen, but one touch to the construction worker, and he is dead. Some enemies are quite intent on capturing Mario and Luigi, but others are rather unintelligent.

There is a way to stop these enemies temporarily, though. Special passageways which Mario or Luigi can hit with their sledgehammer cause enemies which walk through it to become blue and helpless. One of the characters will hit the door when an enemy is chasing them, the door will open and stay open for about ten seconds, and any enemy which walks through the passageway will become unable to hurt the character. This effect is reversed if a character goes through the door again.

Mario or Luigi can not take damage by falling, fortunately. but there are three ways that Mario can give up on a stage. Mario or Luigi can come in contact with an enemy, which means certain death. Additionally, small fireballs approach one side of the screen and quickly drift to the opposite side. This will kill the player in an instant. The third way to lose at a stage is one of unusual circumstance. If Mario or Luigi fall too far and have more things to destroy at the top of the stage, with no means of getting back up, the stage is unable to be finished. I do not believe there is a way to re-start the stage from this predicament, unless an enemy comes down to kill the player.

After a number of stages, the character has a chance to play a bonus round. In an entire line of breakable blocks, a special bonus coin is hidden. There is a small roulette which supposedly shows the general area where the coin will be hidden. If the character can break the block containing the bonus coin before the greedy competitor, the coin is won. These can be fairly frenetic and exciting contests.

Graphically, the game works. The sprites are all colorful and recognizable, and the stages are designed with a straightforward appearance. Some of the creatures have rather bizarre designs, but that makes the game all the more interesting.

A catchy tune plays during the game, but beside this, there is not music or sound to speak of. There are is an introductory tune as the stage scrolls upward and downward, and there is a tune when the character dies, but there is not much. Including the rudimentary sound effects that accompany whatever the character does, the sound experience is quite good overall.

There is a lot to enjoy in Wrecking Crew, including an easy-to-use level editor, and despite its general unfamiliarity with NES enthusiasts, it is a rather good outing for the mustachioed mushroom munchers, Mario and Luigi.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/05