It’s hard to imagine that one could go wrong with a game like Crash ‘n the Boys: Street Challenge. You have the incredibly charming art style and writing of River City Ransom combined with various, presumably-creative twists on Olympic sports. Unfortunately, Crash ‘n the Boys proves that you can go wrong, and what we get is an extremely short, confusing, unplayable mess.

You play as one of four rival schools in a competition to earn the most medals in a series of five events: 400-Meter Hurdles, Hammer Throw, Swimming, Rooftop Jumping, and Fighting Scene. Each one of these games involves mashing a certain button (like hitting right on the D-Pad for running, or like tapping the A-button for swimming and swinging the hammer) and various button combinations to perform moves like spin-kicks and throwing items. It sounds fun in theory, but it’s a jumbled mess in execution. Trying to perform any of these moves is nearly impossible, mostly due to the lack of visible feedback you should be receiving when performing the action correctly. Especially in events like the Hurdles and Swimming, the CPU opponent is constantly overpowering you with special moves, giving you no opportunity to perform one of your own.

Even in events you play by yourself, it’s hard to know what hazards are coming up next. In Rooftop Jumping, you need to keep mashing right on the D-Pad to run, while simultaneously looking out for javelins and unicycles to grab onto so you can cross each gap. However, by the time you see one, it’s already too late to grab it, and you end up getting penalized for falling off the course.

The only good things I can say about this game is that the animation is superb, and that it was over within 15 minutes. Usually being short is a negative, but I’d rather not spend any more time with this travesty.