Retro Round-up for September 18
Written by Cyril Lachel on 9/18/2009 for
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Retro Round-up
Every week Cyril Lachel comes down from his giant castle in the hills to provide the final word on all of the classic downloadable games and retro compilations. This is the Retro Round-Up, your official guide to the best (and worst) in classic gaming for the Nintendo Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. Join us as we shed some light on what games are worth your five or ten dollars, and what games you should avoid at all costs. For more information about these games (and retro gaming in general) we invite you to check out Defunct Games.
This is going to be a short week (due in large part to a catastrophic hard drive failure early in the week). The good news is that we're looking at an obscure 8-bit game called Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge. It's from the people that brought you River City Ransom, so you know it's going to be good. Or is it? Find out now when you read this week's exciting episode of the Retro Round-Up!
Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge (Technos)
What Is It?
With a name like Crash 'n' The Boys, I don't blame you for being a little confused. This charming little 8-bit "sports" game comes to us from Technos, the famed company behind such classics as River City Ransom and Super Dodge Ball. This obscure NES game takes the sprites from those two games and tosses them into a weird urban-themed Track & Field rip-off. Crash 'n' the Boys adds a story, a different control set-up and a team dynamic. Unfortunately it's nowhere near as fun as River City Ransom. Like so many other sports collections on classic consoles, Street Challenge fails to get any of the fundamentals right. I like the idea of long jumping over buildings and all of the other wacky events, but none of them are fully realized. Even with the winning sense of humor, Crash 'n' the Boys gets old quickly.
Does It Still Hold Up?
Like Caveman Games, Track & Field, and California Games, it's hard to go back to control schemes from twenty years ago. This game is notoriously difficult to control, which isn't what you should be looking for in a sports game. The graphics look exactly like what you saw in River City Ransom. In fact, many visuals look like they were stolen from other Technos games. Regardless of whether that's true or not, I do like their art style and wish I had more fun with Crash 'n' the Boys.
Is It Worth the Money?
Playing through Crash 'n' the Boys proved one thing: just because I like Technos's art style, that doesn't mean I like all of their games. This is a weak effort, full of boring events that are over far too quickly. There's fun to be had here with friends, but it's not worth the amount you will pay downloading it to your Wii. Stick with River City Ransom and Super Dodge Ball, because Crash 'n' the Boys is definitely not worth your money.
This is going to be a short week (due in large part to a catastrophic hard drive failure early in the week). The good news is that we're looking at an obscure 8-bit game called Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge. It's from the people that brought you River City Ransom, so you know it's going to be good. Or is it? Find out now when you read this week's exciting episode of the Retro Round-Up!
Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge (Technos)
What Is It?
With a name like Crash 'n' The Boys, I don't blame you for being a little confused. This charming little 8-bit "sports" game comes to us from Technos, the famed company behind such classics as River City Ransom and Super Dodge Ball. This obscure NES game takes the sprites from those two games and tosses them into a weird urban-themed Track & Field rip-off. Crash 'n' the Boys adds a story, a different control set-up and a team dynamic. Unfortunately it's nowhere near as fun as River City Ransom. Like so many other sports collections on classic consoles, Street Challenge fails to get any of the fundamentals right. I like the idea of long jumping over buildings and all of the other wacky events, but none of them are fully realized. Even with the winning sense of humor, Crash 'n' the Boys gets old quickly.
Does It Still Hold Up?
Like Caveman Games, Track & Field, and California Games, it's hard to go back to control schemes from twenty years ago. This game is notoriously difficult to control, which isn't what you should be looking for in a sports game. The graphics look exactly like what you saw in River City Ransom. In fact, many visuals look like they were stolen from other Technos games. Regardless of whether that's true or not, I do like their art style and wish I had more fun with Crash 'n' the Boys.
Is It Worth the Money?
Playing through Crash 'n' the Boys proved one thing: just because I like Technos's art style, that doesn't mean I like all of their games. This is a weak effort, full of boring events that are over far too quickly. There's fun to be had here with friends, but it's not worth the amount you will pay downloading it to your Wii. Stick with River City Ransom and Super Dodge Ball, because Crash 'n' the Boys is definitely not worth your money.
* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company.
About Author
It's questionable how accurate this is, but this is all that's known about Cyril Lachel: A struggling writer by trade, Cyril has been living off a diet of bad games, and a highly suspect amount of propaganda. Highly cynical, Cyril has taken to question what companies say and do, falling ever further into a form of delusional madness. With the help of quality games, and some greener pastures on the horizon, this back-to-basics newsman has returned to provide news so early in the morning that only insomniacs are awake.
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