Wrecking Crew - Nintendo NES

Wrecking Crew for Nintendo NES

Wrecking Crew for Nintendo NES is an action-puzzle game in which Mario demolishes buildings with a hammer. You must remove all the designated walls in a field without being hit by monsters. Ladders connect the floors, while different walls require one, two or three blows. Mario cannot jump here. From your first hammer strikes, you therefore need to consider the route to the final wall and what happens if you remove a support beneath a higher section.

Dynamite destroys several walls at once, but its blast can also knock you off a floor. Doors give enemies another route, and falling drums can trap opponents. Meanwhile, Foreman Spike interferes by hitting you from behind and knocking you down. Stay on the same floor too long and a fireball appears. Between ordinary buildings are bonus rounds where you try to find a hidden coin before Spike. A clever demolition sequence therefore saves lives as well as time.

You can freely select from a hundred buildings and play alone or with two players taking turns; two-player play uses two standard controllers. In Design you create up to four buildings of your own with walls, ladders and enemies. The original European NES cartridge does not retain these designs after switching off: the visible Save and Load choices cannot be used here. There is also no battery-backed saving or password system for your score. Building selection does let you retry a particular field immediately.

Region and language

Our Nintendo NES games are PAL editions, unless stated otherwise. This product contains a loose cartridge for the European market. A box is only included if explicitly stated in the product details. We note any different region in the product details. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.

Manual

With Wrecking Crew for Nintendo NES, you receive a loose cartridge. A box and manual are not included unless we explicitly state otherwise in the product details. This is the standard way we supply this copy.

The history of Wrecking Crew

Nintendo released Wrecking Crew for the Famicom in 1985, followed by a NES release. Designer Yoshio Sakamoto had previously worked on pixel characters and Game & Watch. Gunpei Yokoi encouraged him to develop game ideas himself. Wrecking Crew became an early example of that transition: it involved not only moving quickly but also devising a workable order for demolishing a building.

According to Sakamoto, the main character was initially not Mario but a man without a moustache wearing overalls. Shigeru Miyamoto suggested using Mario because players already knew him and he was easy to draw. Mario and Luigi thus gained a profession other than the plumbing they are primarily associated with. The hammer remained, but their usual jump disappeared. Demolishing walls and keeping track of the remaining routes became the core of the game.

Nintendo also included a construction screen where you place obstacles and enemies yourself. The Western manual warned that Save and Load had only been prepared for possible future products and did not work in this release. Custom buildings were therefore limited to the current session. Later digital rereleases did add saving options, but these do not belong to the original cartridge. The hundred existing buildings and direct number selection still provide opportunities to practise a difficult demolition job without saving.

Similar games for Nintendo NES

Like Wrecking Crew, Lode Runner for Nintendo NES combines ladders, pursuers and removing sections of floor. You collect gold and dig holes to trap guards rather than smashing designated walls. Both games have you plan ahead along a route you change yourself. In Lode Runner, dug holes close again; Mario's demolished walls disappear for the rest of the attempt, so choosing the wrong order can have lasting consequences.

Donkey Kong on Nintendo NES also puts Mario on a construction site with ladders and enemies. A hammer provides temporary help against rolling barrels and fire as you jump your way upwards. Wrecking Crew gives Mario his demolition hammer throughout but does not let him jump. The objective is not simply to reach a point at the top of the screen either: you must remove walls on different floors and leave enough routes to reach the last ones.

Ice Climber for Nintendo NES also has you use a hammer to remove parts of a structured environment. Popo and Nana break through ice floors to jump upwards and collect vegetables. Mario instead demolishes every marked wall without jumping. Ice Climber lets two players climb simultaneously, whereas Wrecking Crew puts them to work in turns. Both games ask you to account for holes you have made yourself before moving on to another section.

Like Wrecking Crew, Bomberman on Nintendo NES involves blowing up obstacles without being caught in the blast yourself. Bombs clear passages and reveal an exit, but you must also eliminate all the roaming enemies. Mario's main targets are walls, and he can evade or trap opponents using doors and drums. Bomberman uses an overhead view with fixed blocks, rather than the floors and ladders determining your demolition order in Wrecking Crew.

Trog! for Nintendo NES also asks you to complete a bounded field while pursuers keep closing in. Collecting eggs does not change the paths, whereas each wall Mario demolishes can affect access to the rest. Bloop and Spike can also race simultaneously with two players to reach HOME first. Wrecking Crew keeps turns separate and lets you select a building at your leisure before the real demolition work and enemy pressure begin.