Commenter Alexey Romanov alerted me to that the original version of Nintendo's Wrecking Crew was likely not the 1985 Famicom game that I spent the better part of five weeks covering, but rather an arcade release for Nintendo's VS. System series, which may have been released in Japan as early as August 1984, though not in North America until 1986. I generally assume that, regardless of release dates, which are often unreliable, the VS. System games are enhanced conversions of games designed for the Famicom. But this time, the arcade game probably came out first. It plays substantially differently, being less of a puzzle game and more of a Mario Bros-style competitive action game, but feels more cohesively designed and provides context for some of Wrecking Crew '85's stranger design choices.
I played a few rounds with my friend "B," as this version is designed for simultaneous two-player action. Even in solo mode, you'll have an AI partner controlling Luigi (or Mario). There was some difficulty in configuring the controls, as MAME has mappings for four players, not two, and is inconsistent about how player 2 gets mapped to them.
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| Photo by Game Machine |
The horizontal split-screen view in the video above is an emulation anachronism; an authentic cabinet features dueling consoles. This kind of setup is very difficult to emulate in MAME, and impossible to capture in a Youtube video, but has a spatial purpose - it creates the appearance that Mario and Luigi are working on opposite sides of the demolition zone.
Your rival's view of the level is mirrored left-to-right, and you'll see him working in the background, just as he'll see you in his background, unable to directly interact but capable of "accidentally" smacking you with his hammer or wrecking ladders out from underneath you, just as Spike could in the NES version. The doors, an underutilized feature in the NES version, are present in every stage here, and don't just send enemy wrenches to the other side of the arena - they send enemy wrenches to Luigi's side of the arena, where they become his problem to deal with. Even the constant nuisance of fireballs make more sense here, where the additional pressure is necessary to keep your feet moving and the coinage flowing, and the arena-style single-screen level design makes it far less likely that you'll get unfairly fireballed into a dead-end.
And, well, it's pretty familiar territory. You run around the level, avoiding wrenches, hatchets, and fireballs, using ladders to ascend stories. The action is always confined to a single screen, and floors are always contiguous, eliminating much of the puzzle aspect, but this isn't to say gameplay is bereft of strategy; you have to destroy all of the gray ladders, and each one you wreck is a possible escape opportunity denied to the future you, so think before kicking out your own ladders too soon. Dynamite appears in some stages, and unlike in the NES game, you have to set it off, which can score you big bonus points from chain reactions if done right, but also opens up all the doors at once which can screw you up, or turn the tables on Luigi.
Vs. Wrecking Crew offers unlimited continues in two-player mode and we both used several, but got bored and quit around level 13.
GAB rating: Average. Neither version of Wrecking Crew is fantastic, but this arcade version is more consistent and has the appeal of two-player co-op / competition. Still, I got bored of it much quicker than I got bored of the NES version. At least I stopped playing this one when I got bored rather than trying to press on and finish 100 levels.
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