Retro Review: Wrecking Crew (NES/Wii Virtual Console)

Written by Jim Squires

Tuesday, 01 January 2008 10:00

I've wanted to get my hands on Wrecking Crew for a long time. People have often touted it as the long forgotten Mario title that was easily one of his best. When word came down that it was going to be hitting the Virtual Console I couldn't have been more excited.

So did my experience with this alleged hidden gem live up to the hype?

Sadly, the answer was no. It's not that the game was bad, but it's nothing to write home about either. As Mario, you're given a hammer and tasked to smash stuff. That's pretty much it. Occasionally some evil looking wrenches will hop in your general direction -- evil looking wrenches that for some reason you're completely powerless against ... despite having a hammer. Oh - and you can't jump over them either. So yeah, smashing baddies and jumping, the two core elements of Mario-gaming that were established in his first appearance, have been completely removed from his arsenal. Take that, evil wrenches.

But this game isn't about fighting evil wrenches, it's about smashing all of the objects in a stage and and not getting tackled by a baddie. Think of it as stealth demolition. The thing about Wrecking Crew is that, even though by description it sounds like a pretty standard early-2D platformer, it had actually laid the ground work for the entire action puzzle genre. Games like Exit and Professor Fizzwizzle probably wouldn't exist if it hadn't been for Wrecking Crew. You see, in order to smash objects and avoid mobs of unruly tools you need to make sure you're not eliminating objects that will help you get to the other objects on the map. It's simple, but it's there. If you hammer out a bomb that takes out your ladder and you need to get up top, you're screwed. See how one little seed can grow a whole genre?

The other thing that sets this apart from most other titles of the day (with the notable exception of ExciteBike) is the ability to create your own custom levels. Definitely a cool feature, but on the VC, it's just another example of why Nintendo needs to be making some positive revisions to their classic titles. After all, if I could share my custom Wrecking Crew levels like I can my Picross DS ones, I think I'd be a lot more apt to use the feature.

Even though it's remembered fondly by some and has clearly earned it's place in the history of gaming for the trailblazing reasons mentioned above, Wrecking Crew still plays like the disabled half-cousin of Donkey Kong and Mario Bros.

Comments (4) Add Comment

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written by rdaneel72, January 02, 2008

Is a mediocre game like Wrecking Crew realy worth the investment to allow internet sharing of levels?

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written by Wrecking Crew (Virtual Console, January 02, 2008

[...] Jim Squires at The Bits Bytes Pixels and Sprites has reviewed Wrecking Crew, one of Mario and Luigi’s earliest outings. He makes a nice analysis of why Wrecking Crew was a significant game for its time, even if it doesn’t really match the quality of many of the ‘action puzzlers’ that came after it. My feelings playing it were similar to Jim’s … it doesn’t really play or that well, but it is clear that it sowed the seed for better games like Lode Runner to spring forth. [...]

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written by Daniel Primed, January 02, 2008

Funnily enough I bought this game recently (cart) and I have been enjoying it considerably. Its a great game to sit down and forget about your troubles. Which is why I am enjoying it so much. ^_^