Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge
Encyclopedia
Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge, released in Japan
as is a sports game
for the NES
by Technos Japan Corp. A Game Boy
version of the game was also released in Japan only. The game featured Olympic
style contests without rules or regulations, between five teams. The games included 400 metres hurdles
, Hammer throw
, Swimming
, Roof Top Jumping, and Fighting Scene. It was re-released for the Nintendo Wii
's Virtual Console
on September 14, 2009.
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 turn individually and ranking is determined by who gets the most points. The head-to-head events take place under a single elimination tournament format, in which one player 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, a four player adapter
is not required, unlike other Kunio-kun games.
and River City Ransom
), the game's graphics and plot were altered to make the game marketable outside Japan.
Street Challenge was planned to be the first in a series of Kunio-kun games to be localized under the Crash 'n the Boys moniker. The ending to Street Challenge features a teaser for the next game in the Crash 'n the Boys series, Ice Challenge, a localization of the earlier Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey Bu (the original final image for Street Challenge showed Momozono on a swing in the sunset, with the message "That's All" written in hiragana characters). A promotional poster packaged with the SNES
game The Combatribes featured the cover artwork of the game. However, Ice Challenge was never officially released. Other Crash 'n the Boys games that were announced by American Technos included Soccer Challenge (Nekketsu Soccer League), Diamond Challenge (Downtown Nekketsu Baseball Monogatari) for the SNES
and the Game Boy
version of Street Challenge, all of which were unreleased.
On September 14, 2009, Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge was released on the Wii
's Virtual Console
service in North America.
. The band appears in the film adaption as well as the game based on it.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
as is a sports game
Sports game
A sports game is a computer or video game that simulates the practice of traditional sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, athletics and extreme sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport , whilst others emphasize strategy and organization...
for the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
by Technos Japan Corp. A Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
version of the game was also released in Japan only. The game featured Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
style contests without rules or regulations, between five teams. The games included 400 metres hurdles
400 metres hurdles
The 400 metres hurdles is an Olympic athletics event in track and field. On a standard outdoor track 400 metres is the length of the inside lane once around the stadium. Runners stay in their lane the entire way after starting out of the blocks and must clear ten hurdles that are evenly...
, Hammer throw
Hammer throw
The modern or Olympic hammer throw is an athletic throwing event where the object is to throw a heavy metal ball attached to a wire and handle. The name "hammer throw" is derived from older competitions where an actual sledge hammer was thrown...
, Swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
, Roof Top Jumping, and Fighting Scene. It was re-released for the Nintendo Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
's Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
on September 14, 2009.
Story
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 his boys.Gameplay
The game has four different teams to choose from, as well as a fifth computer-controlled team. Each team have 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 buy power-ups for their characters. These items are paid for through the various medals that each team achieve as they progress 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 turn individually and ranking is determined by who gets the most points. The head-to-head events take place under a single elimination tournament format, in which one player 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, a four player adapter
Multitap
A multitap is a video game console peripheral that increases the number of controller ports available to the player, allowing additional controllers to be used in play...
is not required, unlike other Kunio-kun games.
Teams
- Southside High/
- Crash (Jeff Cooney) /
- Cheese (Rico Romano) / Sugata
- Sting Ray (Ramon Garcia) / Morimoto
- Dragon (Tommy Woo) / Nanase
- Noise (Troy Jackson) / Ichijō
- Washington High School/
- Todd (Theodore Thornley IV) / Riki
- Nate (Nathan Vanderpoole) / Saotome
- Dove (Randall Duvall) / Yoshino
- Zack (Zachary Swanson) / Shimizu
- Spoon (Wendell Witherspoon) / Washio
- Lincoln High School/
- Artie (Arthur Van Smythe) / Ryūichi
- Skip (Winston Hildegard Jr.) / Ryūji
- Wheels (Charles Edward Darlington) / Mochizuki
- Monty (Worthington Montgomery)/ Kobayashi
- Knots (Alexander Knottingham III) / Hayasaka
- Jefferson High School/
- Sprecks (Richard Spreckles) / Gōda
- Clint (Clinton Swanson) / Godai
- Barns (Clifford Barnsworth) / Kumada
- Baldy (Lawrence Baldwin IV) / Nishimura
- Milo (Miles Smithfield) / Hayami
- Team Thornley /
- Rocky Rockowitz /
- Crush /
- Bubba /
- Tank /
- Foil /
Events
- The 400 Meter Hurdles event is a one-on-one race that features different sized hurdles that need to be avoided in different ways, or be turned into weapons. The event ends either when one player loses all their stamina, or they both cross the finish line.
- The Hammer Throw Golf event is mixed with golfGolfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
rules, in that the player has to get the steel ball into the hole in the least amount of throws. This event is held with each contestant alternating. - The Swimming event, also known as Water Slaughter, is a game of endurance, as the player and his opponent attempt to drain the stamina and oxygen of the other by drowning each other.
- Roof Top Jumping, or Skyline Scramble, features each participant alternating in an attempt to see who can finish with the best time. The spaces in between the roof tops vary, and require different techniques to cross.
- The Fighting Scene or Judo event is a one-on-one fight, in which each player uses a variety of judoJudois a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
moves to attempt to subdue the opponent.
Localization
Street Challenge is a localization of Bikkuri Nekketsu Shin Kiroku!, originally part of the Kunio-kun series and a sequel to the Famicom game Downtown Nekketsu Kōshinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundōkai. It 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 (see Super Dodge BallSuper Dodge Ball
Super Dodge Ball, released in Japan as is a dodgeball-based sports game produced by Technos Japan Corp. originally released as an arcade game in...
and River City Ransom
River City Ransom
River City Ransom, released as in Japan and as Street Gangs in PAL regions, is a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System . It was developed by Technōs Japan and originally released in Japan on April 25, 1989. It is the third game in Technos' Kunio-kun series released for the console,...
), the game's graphics and plot were altered to make the game marketable outside Japan.
- The actual scenery for the sports events were changed. While the original Japanese version represented the events as part a legit OlympicOlympic GamesThe Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
tournament, the backgrounds were changed in Street Challenge to go along with the urbanUrban areaAn urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
setting.
- The four main teams in the Japanese version, Nekketsu, Hanazono, Reiho, and Rengo, were composed of established Kunio-kun characters (such as the Double Dragon twins, Ryuichi and Ryuji) and were all returning characters from Koshinkyoku. Of the four main teams, only Rengō (the Union) did not represent a specific school, being composed of students from several schools. The CPU-controlled Team Thornley was originally the OklahomaOklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
High School team, the sole American school in Shin Kiroku.
- The character roster was changed, to make the Southside High team (Nekketsu High School) more ethnically diverse. Tōdō and Yamada (Todd and Skip respectively in Street Challenge) were not playable characters in the Japanese version, Tōdō was simply the sponsor of the tournament. In Street Challenge, Todd was made into the captain of the Hanazono High School team (which became the Washington High team in Street Challenge), replacing established hero Riki. Riki's sprite is used in Street Challenge as a member of Team Thornley named "Crush", who replaces a black character named Raphael. Artie and Skip replace the Double Dragon twins, Ryuichi and Ryuji, as the captains of Reiho (Lincoln High in Street Challenge). The Rengo team (known as Jefferson High in Street Challenge) was the only team that had its roster unchanged during the transition from Shin Kiroku to Street Challenge.
Street Challenge was planned to be the first in a series of Kunio-kun games to be localized under the Crash 'n the Boys moniker. The ending to Street Challenge features a teaser for the next game in the Crash 'n the Boys series, Ice Challenge, a localization of the earlier Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey Bu (the original final image for Street Challenge showed Momozono on a swing in the sunset, with the message "That's All" written in hiragana characters). A promotional poster packaged with the SNES
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
game The Combatribes featured the cover artwork of the game. However, Ice Challenge was never officially released. Other Crash 'n the Boys games that were announced by American Technos included Soccer Challenge (Nekketsu Soccer League), Diamond Challenge (Downtown Nekketsu Baseball Monogatari) for the SNES
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
and the Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
version of Street Challenge, all of which were unreleased.
On September 14, 2009, Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge was released on the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
's Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
service in North America.
Game Boy version
The Game Boy version has few differences compared to the Famicom/NES versions. 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.Pop Culture References
Crash 'n the Boys is the name of a band in the comic book Scott PilgrimScott Pilgrim
Scott Pilgrim is a graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley. It consists of six digest size black-and-white volumes, released between August 2004 and July 2010, by Portland-based independent comic book publisher Oni Press. It was later republished by Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins...
. The band appears in the film adaption as well as the game based on it.