is an

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

developed and published by

Nintendo is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards ...

. Designed by

Yoshio Sakamoto (born July 23, 1959) is a Japanese video game designer, director, and producer. He has worked at Nintendo since 1982. He has directed several games in the '' Metroid'' series. He is one of the most prominent members of Nintendo's former Resea ...

, it was first released as an

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade vi ...

for the

Nintendo VS. System The is an arcade system developed and produced by Nintendo from 1984 to 1990. It is based on most of the same hardware as the Family Computer (Famicom), later released as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Most of its games are conversio ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

, titled ''Vs. Wrecking Crew'' and featuring a simultaneous two-player mode. It was released as a single-player game for the

Family Computer The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redes ...

(Famicom) console in 1985, and as a

launch game This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players. 0–9 A ...

for the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...

(NES) later that year.

Gameplay

The player controls

Mario is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...

(or

Luigi is a fictional character featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario, Nintendo's masc ...

in two-player mode) and attempts to destroy all of a certain set of objects with a large hammer on each of 100 levels. Mario cannot jump because of the hammer's weight. The player can select any level to start on from the title screen. Each level's playfield is divided into an invisible grid, each space of which can contain one object. Objects include these: destructible walls, pillars, and ladders; indestructible barrels and ladders; bombs that destroy all connected destructible objects; and various enemies that Mario must avoid.

Door A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security b ...

s may be opened to cause enemies to move harmlessly into the background. The game introduced a new character, a construction foreman named Spike, who chases Mario and attempts to disrupt him by knocking down objects and causing him to fall to the bottom of the playfield. The player starts the game with five lives and loses a life whenever Mario comes in contact with an enemy or fireball. The game is over when all lives are lost. The game can also be aborted at any time, and must be aborted if Mario becomes trapped in a barrel. Because Mario lacks the ability to jump, the player must figure out the optimal order in which to destroy objects—for example, if a player destroys a ladder too soon, a wall may become unreachable and thus the player cannot finish the level. Destroying multiple objects in a row (usually with a chain of bombs) scores extra bonus points, and occasionally bonus items may appear that Mario can collect. ''Wrecking Crew'' features a level editor, which allows the player to design up to four custom levels. They can be saved and loaded using the

Famicom Data Recorder Famicom Data Recorder (HVC-008) is a compact cassette tape data interface introduced in 1984, for the Famicom which had been introduced in 1983. It is compatible with four Famicom games, for saving user-generated content to tapes. As Nintendo's fi ...

, a

cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ott ...

drive. Because this peripheral was only released for

Famicom The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redes ...

in Japan, other localizations cannot save or load the custom levels. The U.S. manual includes a note stating that the load and save functions "have been programmed in for potential product developments". The feature was reenabled for the game's

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...

Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, U ...

release using Wii system storage.

Development

''Wrecking Crew'' was designed by

Hirokazu Tanaka , also known as Chip Tanaka, is a Japanese musician, composer, sound designer, and executive who pioneered chiptune music. He is best known as one of Nintendo's in-house composers during the 8- and 16-bit era of video games. Tanaka also had a role ...

composed the music.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Vs. Wrecking Crew'' in its October 1, 1984 issue as the thirteenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.

Re-releases

''Wrecking Crew'' was re-released in 1989 on the

Family Computer Disk System The commonly shortened to the Famicom Disk System or just Disk System, is a peripheral for Nintendo's Family Computer home video game console, released only in Japan on February 21, 1986. It uses proprietary floppy disks called "Disk Cards" f ...

, and was later included as the 14th game of the

Famicom Mini This is a list of games that are part of the ''Classic NES Series'' in North America, in Japan, and ''NES Classics'' in Europe and Australia. The series consists of emulated Nintendo Entertainment System, Family Computer, and Family Computer Di ...

series on

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

in 2004. The game has been re-released on

three times: on

in 2007, on

Nintendo 3DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generati ...

in September 2011 as part of the "Ambassador Program", on the 3DS eShop in Japan, North America, and Europe and Australia in September 2012, March 2013, and May 2013 respectively. ''Wrecking Crew'' was also released on the Virtual Console for the

Wii U The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. ...

system on June 19, 2013 in Japan and on June 20, 2013 in North America and Europe. All Virtual Console versions (except for the 3DS VC version) support saving levels designs, which is not possible in the original NES version of the game.

Sequel

is an action puzzle game released exclusively in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

in 1998 for the

Super Famicom The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South ...

Nintendo Power ''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninten ...

download service, and later on cartridge. This sequel includes the original as a bonus. Unlike the original, in which the player's objective is to find ways to clear each level of all panels, ''Wrecking Crew '98'' takes a more competitive approach, where two opponents are given their own sides to clean up. Each player must try to demolish as many panels as they can on their side, until the opponent's side is completely piled up, to win. Story mode features

returning to the

Mushroom Kingdom The is a fictional principality in Nintendo's ''Mario'' series. It is the setting of most main-series ''Mario'' games with an inconsistent presentation. There is no established canon regarding the topography of the ''Mario'' universe, and many ...

from a trip, then discovering that

Bowser , or King Koopa, is a fictional character, the primary antagonist in Nintendo's ''Mario'' franchise, and the arch-nemesis of Mario. In Japan, the character bears the title of . Bowser is the leader of the turtle-like Koopa race. Despite the ...

has started a construction campaign of building new hideouts. The construction is depriving the

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring ( indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. ...

of sunlight and thus, Mario demolishes the new construction sites with his hammer. Along the way, he meets his old enemies from the original ''Wrecking Crew'', including former rival Foreman Spike. *Story mode: The main single player mode, where one controls Mario and travels through an overworld, entering each of Koopa's construction sites. *Versus mode: A competitive mode where one can compete with a friend or the CPU. The player can choose between Mario or characters that are unlocked from Story Mode. *Tournament mode: Available after the player has cleared the main game once. Eight characters compete in a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final mat ...

until only one remains and is declared the champion.

Legacy

A piece of music was remixed for the

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the ...

game '' Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix''. The "Golden Hammer" music from ''Wrecking Crew'' was later used in the

video game ''

Super Smash Bros. Brawl ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' is a 2008 crossover fighting video game developed by Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The third installment in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series, it was announced at a pre-E3 2005 press conferenc ...

'' and plays every time a fighter grabs a Golden Hammer, or on the ''Mario Bros.'' stage. Two pieces of music are in '' Super Smash Bros. for Wii U''; a soundtrack medley, and a remix medley, both of which appear on the ''Wrecking Crew'' stage. Similar to '' Smash Bros. Brawl'', the Switch game ''

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' is a 2018 crossover fighting video game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the fifth installment in the '' Super Smash Bros.'' series, succeed ...

'' also plays the Golden Hammer music when a fighter grabs a hammer. Spike is set to reappear in '' The Super Mario Bros. Movie'', voiced by Sebastian Maniscalco. This version will be portrayed as the boss of Mario and Luigi.

Notes

References

External links

''Wrecking Crew''
a
NinDB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrecking Crew (video game) 1984 video games 1985 video games Arcade video games Famicom Disk System games Game Boy Advance games Intelligent Systems games Mario puzzle games Mario video games Nintendo Entertainment System games Nintendo Switch Online NES games Pax Softnica games Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games for Wii Virtual Console games for Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console games for Wii U Video games scored by Hirokazu Tanaka Video games designed by Yoshio Sakamoto Multiplayer and single-player video games