It’s always great to get fan translations of classic games that never made it to the Western side of the world, and this one is no exception. Nearly 20 years after its initial release in Japan, Wrecking Crew ’98 finally gets an English translation.

Wrecking Crew ’98 is a rather obscure Mario action puzzle game that was released on the Super Famicom in 1998. The game involves two player action as they try to wreck as many panels from their screen as they can, with victory achieved when the opponent’s screen has filled up. The game has three game modes which add variety to the core gameplay: Story mode, Versus mode, and Tournament mode.

Wrecking Crew ’98 in its panel bashing glory

With the Super Nintendo scene obviously winding down by 1997, the game didn’t get an official release outside of Japan, and didn’t get the English translation release it deserved, until now. Thanks to the hard work of the ROM Hacking community, the game is fully playable, translated. And there is further good news, as the original Wrecking Crew game for the NES is also included in the ROM file.

The ROM file can be downloaded for free from the ROM Hacking website.

Link: ROMHacking.net

Neil Reive

An avid retrogamer who has worked on various projects, magazines, and fanzines. He started his videogaming journey with the Amstrad CPC464 computer before moving onto a Commodore 64, then the Sega Mega Drive, followed by a multitude of PCs.