Crash 'n The Boys: Street Challenge - Localization

Localization

Street Challenge is a localization of Bikkuri Nekketsu Shin Kiroku!, originally part of the Kunio-kun series and a sequel to the 1990 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 Renegade, Super Dodge Ball and River City Ransom), 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 Olympic tournament, the backgrounds were changed in Street Challenge to go along with the urban 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 Oklahoma 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 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.