Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge

Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge,released inJapanasBikkuri Nekketsu Shin Kiroku! Harukanaru Kin Medal(びっくり nhiệt huyết tân nhớ lục! はるかなる kim メダル,lit. "The Astonishing New Records of Nekketsu! Distant Gold Medal" )is a1992sports gamefor theNESbyTechnos Japan Corp.AGame Boyversion of the game was also released in Japan only. The game featuredOlympicstyle contests without rules or regulations, between five teams. The games included400 metres hurdles,Hammer throw,Swimming,Roof Top Jumping, and Fighting Scene. It was re-released for theWiiVirtual Consoleon September 14, 2009 and later for theNintendo 3DSon November 28, 2013 and for theWii Uon December 11, 2014. The game was included in the "Double Dragon & Kunio-kun: Retro Brawler Bundle" released for theNintendo Switchon February 20, 2020.It was re-released for Nintendo Switch,Xbox OneandPlayStation 4in April the same year.

Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge
Cover art
Developer(s)	Technōs Japan
Publisher(s)	JP:Technōs Japan NA:American Technos
Composer(s)	Kazuo Sawa
Platform(s)	Nintendo Entertainment System,Game Boy
Release	NES JP:June 26, 1992 NA:October 1992 Game Boy JP:July 16, 1993
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single-player,multiplayer

Gameplay

The game has four teams to choose from, as well as a fifth computer-controlled team. Each team has five members, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, making some better suited to certain events than others. Before each event, players have the opportunity to go shopping in the mall to buypower-upsfor their characters. These items are paid for through the various medals that each team achieves as it progresses through the challenge, but since the winner of the challenge is the team that collects the most medals overall, players must be fairly judicious in how much they spend.

There are two types of events in the game: individual events (Hammer Throw and Roof Top Jumping) and head-to-head events (400 Meter Hurdles, Swimming and Fighting). In individual events, each team takes its turn individually, and ranking is determined by who gets the most points. The head-to-head events take place under asingle elimination tournamentformat, in which one player competes against another in a series of heats. The player who successfully defeats both of his opponents will get to compete against a member of Team Thornley for first place.

The game can be played by up to four players. Since there's never more than two teams competing at the same time, the third and fourth player can play simply by alternating between the two controllers. Thus, afour player adapteris not required, unlike otherKunio-kungames.

Plot

Theodore "Todd" Thornley IV has had enough. After being humiliated once again by his rival, Jeff "Crash" Cooney and his blue-collar buddies from Southside High School at the All-City Track Meet, he has decided to issue a challenge to Crash. Inviting two of the other elite high schools to participate in the challenge, plus an additional team sponsored by his wealthy father, Todd has seemingly stacked the deck against Crash and the boys.

If the player succeeds in winning the Street Challenge with Crash's Southside High School, the ending shows Crash being invited to a meeting with Todd's father, who congratulates Crash on his victory. He attempts to make peace with Crash, explaining that Todd's rivalry with him has made their personal relationship difficult, but Crash doubts that Todd will ever accept a peace offering. Meanwhile, Todd hatches a scheme with Skip to cause dissent amongst Team Thornley against Crash; he offers them flowers and tells them that Crash has been badmouthing them, but before leaving on their flight, they dump the flowers in the trash with a note reading "Todd is a total loser!", showing that Crash has earned their respect as well. Furious, Todd and Crash vow to settle their feud on the ice during hockey season.

Localization

Street Challengeis a localization ofBikkuri Nekketsu Shin Kiroku!,originally part of theKunio-kunseries and a sequel to the1990Famicom gameDowntown Nekketsu Kōshinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundōkai.It is the eighth game in the series released for the Famicom and fifth to be localized for the North American market. Like previous localizations of the series (Renegade,Super Dodge Ball,River City RansomandNintendo World Cup), the game's graphics and plot were altered to make the game marketable outside Japan. For instance, the actual scenery for the sports events were changed, the four main teams in the Japanese version, Nekketsu, Hanazono, Reiho, and Rengo, were composed of establishedKunio-kuncharacters (such as the Double Dragon twins, Ryuichi and Ryuji) and were all returning characters fromKoshinkyoku,and the character roster was changed.

Street Challengewas planned to be the first in a series ofKunio-kungames to be localized under theCrash 'n' the Boysmoniker. The ending toStreet Challengefeatures a teaser for the next game in theCrash 'n' the Boysseries,Ice Challenge,a localization of the earlierIke Ike! Nekketsu Hockey Bu(the original final image forStreet Challengeshowed Momozono, the manager/cheerleader for Team Nekketsu on a swing set in the sunset, with the message "The End" written in hiragana characters). A promotional poster packaged with theSNESgameThe Combatribesfeatured the cover artwork of the game, butIce Challengewas never officially released outside Japan. OtherCrash 'n' the Boysgames announced by American Technos includeSoccer Challenge(Nekketsu Soccer League),Diamond Challenge(Downtown Nekketsu Baseball Monogatari) for theSNES,and theGame Boyversion ofStreet Challenge;all went unreleased.

Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challengewas released on theVirtual Consoleservice in North America on September 14, 2009 for theWii,on December 19, 2013 forNintendo 3DSand on December 11, 2014 forWii U.While it didn't initially receive a release on NES in PAL regions, it would finally see a release in Europe & Oceania via Virtual Console on Nintendo 3DS and Wii U on November 28, 2013 and December 4, 2014 respectively.

The Game Boy version has few differences compared to the original. Namely, the Swimming event is replaced with an umbrella battle, where the characters jump from a building and fight in mid-air using an umbrella.The CPU-controlled Oklahoma High School is now playable via a cheat code.

In popular culture

"Crash and the Boys" is the name of a band in the comic book seriesScott Pilgrim.The band also appears in the 2010 film adaptation of the novels,Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,as well as in the subsequentvideo game adaptation.

Review

Corbie Dillard of Nintendo Life gaveCrash n the Boys Street Challenge5 out of 10 stars, commending the developers for 'doing something different' and for what the game could have been, but also wrote that the game, while not horrible in itself was inferior to other similar games.

Lucas Thomas of IGN gave a positive review to the game.

External links

• Crash 'n' the Boys: Street ChallengeatMobyGames