This critic wants the old Mario back. That blue-collar worker one. The handyman that, while trying to do all kinds of jobs, would find himself fighting animals and monsters. Aside from his rivalry with a giant ape, and his mission to clear New York sewers of small critters, one of the best but strangely underrated games about this time in his life was Wrecking Crew, which first saw an arcade release in 1984, with the NES port becoming one of the system’s launch titles one year later. Designed by Yoshio Sakamoto, it had Mario and his brother trying to…well, wreck a construction site. Playing more like a puzzler than an action or platform game, it certainly was a unique beast back then, but, oh, so much fun!
Darn it! Mario has lost his Jumpman abilities. Must be his enormous hammer that’s holding him down. Oh well, it’s not like he’ll need to jump around to do his work, which is to wreck a construction site ladder by ladder, wall by wall. Right? Err, never mind, some dino-wrenches, eggplant men, and a slightly more aggressive foreman have started chasing him, ruining his day once again. What can he do, though? Hit them with the hammer? Spit fireballs?! Fly like a raccoon?!? No, the only thing he can do is to run. Boy, Mario was so macho back then…
Contrary to what some might think of this from looking at a screenshot or two, Wrecking Crew isn’t an action title. This is a puzzler through and through. Simply walking around and destroying stuff won’t get anyone very far here. Apart from the foes that Mario must avoid, the biggest enemy is the level structure itself, as it’s easy to make a wrong decision, like destroying a ladder before destroying the items that the ladder leads to, and then being unable to complete the stage, forcing a nice little reset. Of the stage, that is. The game isn’t that hardcore!
A hundred levels of brain melting are waiting the courageous souls that will try to beat this. Yes, Wrecking Crew doesn’t pull its punches. Many times the trial-and-error required will drive you nuts, but the whole process of finding the optimal path, while also outsmarting the enemies by making them follow the wrong one, getting them trapped in the “background,” or simply putting them between two barriers is quite enjoyable – addictive, even, despite the simplicity of it all. Oh, and by the way, one can play from start to finish, but it’s also possible to just pick the level from the main menu, and in this way do away with needlessly revisiting the same stages.
Sure, it can get a bit repetitive. There aren’t many mechanics to talk about here, and with only three enemy types this isn’t exactly big on variety. What saves the day is a neat level editor (on which yours truly had spent way too much time back in the day), and this allows one to create up to four custom levels. They can’t be saved, sadly, but how often did an 8-bit game, or even 16-bit one, let players create custom content?
Audio-visually it’s a step up from the more archaic Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. even if said step isn’t that impressive. It looks as it’s supposed to (a construction site) and carries with it that unique charm of those uber-simple proto-Nintendo games. The music is a bit dull, though. No, scrap dull. It’s repetitive, and simply can’t hold a candle to what came next with the Super Mario Bros. series. In the end, though, Wrecking Crew belongs in the library of every NES fan or retro gaming afficionado. The good news is that it’s easy to find a cheap copy online, as these were produced by the millions.
