NES Challenge - Wrecking Crew Part 2 in 12:05:30 [175/714]
0Part 2 - Just copied my game summary from Part 1. Well the total video was 12 hours 6 minutes and YouTube has me capped as 12 hours even... sigh. So I broke this into 2 parts. The first will be up to the stream dropping frames and the second will be the final stages.
Onto the game. Of course my first write up was grayed out due to the upload error so this won't be as fresh as it was. The gameplay, graphics, and sound effects are great especially when you consider this was 1985. The stage completion music is a good jingle but clearly missing that final note. :) The music itself is really good but we only heard the 1 track. Out of all 100 stages, I never once got the golden hammer. This allows you to break any door/stair in one blow and it changes the background music. That all said, it seems it would get repetitive if you did a ton of stages or the whole game in one go, but since there is an amazing stage select option, it gives Atari vibes where you play a couple stages and then toss the game to the side for something else. That way you don't get tired of the music and can pick up where you left off. I feel the stage select is just a perfect option. I can't imagine getting to some of those stages... 48 I believe and definitely 95 where I really struggled and then having to play through the whole game to get back to those stages.
The overall game does a really good job mixing the puzzles and action. There are some stages you can breeze through and others you will get stuck on - the stages really mix the type of brain you have. Stage 95 clearly showed I don't have the strongest speedrunning talents. Nintendo offered straight puzzles (when to break ladders and when not to), challenges where you need to manipulate the enemies, sometimes trap the enemies, manage their speed and AI, speedrun certain stages, and a combination of everything.
In summary, I think this was a near must have game when you got they system; particularly over all the sports titles at the time. How does it stand with the rest of the library? With many of the classic games having strong sequels, that really makes it hard to be in the Top 100. I feel this should be somewhere in the Top 150 though. You have your Mega Man's, SMB's, Castlevania's, Double Dragon's - those really eat up plenty of places in those first 100 best titles. Add in many of the other Capcom, Konami/Ultra, Sunsoft games which just couldn't seem to miss and many of Nintendo's other titles I think keep it out of the Top 100, but clearly not out of the Top 150. While it isn't a must have, simple collection of 25 games cannot go wrong having this in the mix.