One of my favorite games growing up was one that most people had never heard of, an awesome title called Crash 'N The Boys: Street Challenge for the original NES. I am
very excited to say that it has just been released on the Nintendo Wii
Virtual Console for a mere $5.00!
Crash 'N The Boys: Street Challenge - Available on Wii!
The game is a sort of mix between an RPG, RTS, and an Arcade Action, Fighting, and Sports game... yowza... yeah, it's really hard to define or describe down to a single genre. The premise is as
unrealistically over the top and ridiculous as it is awesome, and the game is filled with a plethora of cliches and stereotypes, but somehow it all comes out in a really awesome fashion.
The basic idea is that a group of various rival high schools challenge each other to a "street challenge", wherein the best people from each school make teams to compete in this illegal tournament for money and bragging rights. At the start of the game, you select between one of several School teams with several different competitors on them. Each player is rated with stats such as speed, defense, offense, and health, and they are often named appropriately. For instance, the character "Wheels" from the school "Lincoln" is the fastest character in the game... he doesn't have much else going for him though.
Since it's an unsanctioned event,
anything goes. Normal things like cross-country hurdles become
totally awesome when you are allowed to
punch your opponent in the face or shoulder-charge through a hurdle and break it into pieces, and then throw the piece at him while running the race.
In addition to the awesome Hurdles event, there are other events such as 1 on 1 "Swimming" (try to drown your opponent before he drowns you while racing down a flooded street), Hammer Throw (a crazy mix-up between the two oddly coupled sports Golf and Shot put), Roof-Top jumping (an extremely dangerous variant on pole-vaulting), and finally, Fighting (a mix between real-time and rpg-style fighting, with various special moves and attacks).
Crash 'N The Boys: Street Challenge - Available on Wii!
Crash 'N The Boys: Street Challenge - Available on Wii!
Crash 'N The Boys: Street Challenge - Available on Wii!
Each different event has very different controls, and the game often switches its flow between a slower, turn-based style and fully real-time modes of play. After each event, you are awarded with medals (gold, silver, and bronze), which are the games form of currency. You can then use these medals to purchase enhancements for your characters via a store that you visit before each event. Enhancements vary from basic speed and strength upgrades to
ultra-awesome super moves, like the ability to do a spinning, flying kick during the Hurdles race, or the ability to fill the pool with deadly Piranhas during the swimming event!
The game supports play between 1-2 players at a time, but you can setup a 4 player tournament, which is a blast. The single player mode has awesome-tacular NES cinematics; it goes into the storyline of the rivalry between all of the schools and is complete with music and dialogue and the whole bit, while the multiplayer mode is a great way to have fun with your friends.
No matter which way you look at it, this game is a fantastic combination of various genres and a total NES cult classic. If you've never heard of it, you should definitely go buy it now on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console for the low low price of 500 Wii Points (only $5.00!). If you have already heard of it, I'm sure that you already bought the game just by reading the title of this article.
Three cheers for reviving this awesome piece of NES history! Go Nintendo!
