Year released: ? (Arcade), 1985 (NES)

Number of Players: 1-2 taking turns

Mario and Luigi, construction workers, have to demolish buldings. However, Blackie, some Eggplant monsters, and some weird accordian-torsoed creatures decide that this would be a good time to make mischief for the Mario Brothers!

Graphics: Nice-sized sprites (as opposed to Donkey Kong's smaller sprites) with nice colors. The enemies' colors just make them weirder. However, you still have that bleak black background. The stuff that you take down is generally either white or brown--very plain.

Play control: Oh no! What some would call the worst of the Mario games. You're restricted to walking and hitting stuff with your hammer (you can only hit stuff you are standing directly in front of). When you drop, you don't die (lucky for Mario and Luigi, for they will do that a lot in Wrecking Crew), but you only gain one space of movement. Wrecking Crew is really just a puzzle game of sorts, so a strict limit on moves is to be expected. And besides, what it needs to do is pulled off just fine.

Sound: Simple music and simple bloops. Turn the volume down and blast that Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack, for goodness' sake.

Challenge: Destroy anything that can be destroyed while avoiding enemies. As there is no jumping, you can't gain any height unless you have a ladder to climb--and some ladders need to be destroyed in order to exit a level! You're pretty much defenseless, unless you can blow up a bomb (drop enemies back to the ground) or open a door (enemies walk into the background where they are harmless). These are limited means that need to be timed extremely well. You'll need every last wit you have to get defenseless Mario to every last object. Not to mention that there are 100 "phases" to beat in the entire game. There is, thankfully, a level select on the title screen.

Gameplay: As said above, you can only move left and right and destroy stuff. However, since you have to escape your enemies, the way you destroy stuff is pivotal to you finishing the stage. One false move, and...! This kind of gameplay is not too Mario-like. That's not to say it's not fun, though.

Bottom line: If you want a game to make you think (while giving you the creeps from the enemy phalanx), this is it. And don't worry about it being shallow... there are, as mentioned above, 100 stages. If you want something that's just plain fun (like Pinball for NES), stay away.

Submissions and rebuttals should be e-mailed to nintendofanssite@yahoo.com. Proper credit will be given, and please tell me if you don't want your e-mail revealed on the site.