Phosphor Dot Fossils: Wrecking Crew (1985)

For Earl Green’s latest Phosphor Dot Fossils video he is tackling the 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System game known as Wrecking Crew. As Earl points out himself in the video – Mario can certainly lay claim to a staggering amount of career paths in his life – from a carpenter in Donkey Kong to obtaining a medical degree with 1990’s Dr. Mario. In between those jobs he has also managed to squeeze in being an Olympic athlete, toy maker, referee for boxing matches, and even a ‘fighter pilot’ and submarine commander. But considering Mario is kind of the spokesman for Nintendo it is understandable he would be used in many types of games.

Now for my personal experience, Wrecking Crew is an oddity – it isn’t that I disliked the game but it was one of the few NES titles that I somehow never managed to play before. I most assuredly recall seeing it on the shelves at my local video store – in fact I remember it also being rented out a lot in the early days of the Nintendo Entertainment System. As to why I’ve not had the pleasure of playing it before – I truly do not have any answers, I’ve somehow managed to miss it when it was rereleased on the Wii by way of the Virtual Console as well as on the Nintendo Switch.

Which judging from the gameplay video on Earl Green’s new Phosphor Dot Fossils is a mistake I will have to remedy – as it looks like an absolute blast. In a nutshell with Wrecking Crew the Player is tasked with guiding Mario – or Luigi in a two-player session – with almost wrecking everything on the screen. Various walls, ladders, and pillars are the targets that Mario must demolish with swings from his mighty hammer – all the while avoiding coming in contact with two variety of sentient wrenches known as Gotchawrench and Gotchawrench Jr. and even a legion of Eggplant men. In addition Mario has to contend with the foreman on the job – a cranky character named Spike who for some reason shows up to thwart the work he hired the Mario brothers for. Last but not least there is a fireball can be blast across the the screen – it shows up if the game thinks a Player has spent too much time on a single area of the stage.

So without further ado, please enjoy this Phosphor Dot Fossils video covering 1985’s Wrecking Crew!

For even more pop culture related goodness by Earl – make sure to check out his own website, the Logbook.Com – absolutely one of the best and longest running sites for all your retro needs.