Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge

Did You Know?

• The band "Crash and the Boys" appears in the Scott Pilgrim comic series, its 2010 film adaptation, and the subsequent video game adaptation.
• A promotional poster for the game was packaged with the SNES game The Combatribes.
• The original Japanese ending showed Momozono on a swing set in the sunset with the message "The End" in hiragana.

Gameplay

Players choose from four teams, with a fifth computer-controlled team. Each team has five members, each with distinct strengths and weaknesses suited to different events. Before events, players can shop at a mall for power-ups, paying with medals earned during the challenge; spending must be balanced since the team with the most medals wins. Events are either individual (Hammer Throw, Roof Top Jumping) or head-to-head (400 Meter Hurdles, Swimming, Fighting). Individual events rank teams by points, while head-to-head events use a single-elimination tournament format; the winner of each heat faces a member of Team Thornley for first place. Up to four players can play, with third and fourth players alternating on the two controllers, so no four-player adapter is needed.

Plot

After the Super-Awesome Field Day, Mamoru Todo sets up another sports competition to beat Kunio. Theodore "Todd" Thornley IV, embarrassed by his loss to Jeff "Crash" Cooney at the All-City Track Meet, throws down a challenge. He brings in two elite schools and a team bankrolled by his rich father, stacking the odds against Crash. If the player wins with Southside High, Crash meets Todd’s dad, who offers congratulations and tries to make peace, but Crash doubts Todd will ever accept. Todd then plots with Skip to turn Team Thornley against Crash by giving them flowers and claiming Crash insulted them. Instead, the team dumps the flowers with a note calling Todd a loser, earning Crash’s respect. Enraged, Todd and Crash swear to settle things on the ice in hockey season.

Localization

Street Challenge is a localization of Bikkuri Nekketsu Shin Kiroku!, part of the Kunio-kun series and a sequel to Downtown Nekketsu Kōshinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundōkai. It is the eighth Famicom game in the series and the fifth localized for North America. As with earlier localizations (Renegade, Super Dodge Ball, River City Ransom, Nintendo World Cup), graphics and plot were altered for the North American market: scenery was changed, and the four Japanese teams (Nekketsu, Hanazono, Reiho, Rengo) composed of established Kunio-kun characters were replaced. Street Challenge was planned as the first of a localized Crash 'n' the Boys series; its ending teases Ice Challenge (a localization of Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey Bu), but Ice Challenge was never officially released outside Japan. Other announced Crash 'n' the Boys games—Soccer Challenge, Diamond Challenge for SNES, and a Game Boy version of Street Challenge—also went unreleased. The game reached Virtual Console in North America on September 14, 2009 (Wii), December 19, 2013 (3DS), and December 11, 2014 (Wii U). It saw a PAL region release via Virtual Console on 3DS and Wii U on November 28, 2013 and December 4, 2014 respectively. The Game Boy version replaces Swimming with an umbrella battle and makes the CPU-controlled Oklahoma High School playable via cheat code.