Blast Corps

Blast Corps
This game is a BLAST!
Genre(s): Action Puzzle Platform(s): Nintendo 64 Release Date: March 24, 1997 Developer(s): Rare Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: United Kingdom

Blast Corps is a 1997 action video game for the Nintendo 64 in which the player uses vehicles to destroy buildings in the path of a runaway nuclear missile carrier. In the game's 57 levels, the player solves puzzles by transferring between vehicles to move objects and bridge gaps. It was developed by Rare, published by Nintendo, and released in March 1997 in Japan and North America. A wider release followed at the end of that year.

Why It's A Blast

1. Great graphics for 1997.
2. Unique gameplay that involves you clearing the path for a missile carrier.
3. Different vehicles to control, giving the game lots variety. Each of them controls differently, such as the J-Bomb rocketing in the air an landing on buildings to destroy them. Another example is the Sidesweep, which uses battering rams on the sides of the vehicle to destroy the buildings.
4. Nice music that both fits the action and is very catchy.
5. Clever puzzles that force you to use your mind when clearing the path.
6. There are secret bonus levels to play.
7. After completing a level, you can return to explore the level without a time limit.
8. Many different collectables and achievements to give the game completion value, such as destroying all of the buildings, finding the secret scientist in certain levels, and saving all of the survivors.
9. Great difficulty progression and level design.

Bad Qualities

1. You cannot really replay missions, just explore the area. This issue can be avoided nowadays by wisely using the save state slots from an emulator.
2. The game gets repetitive after a while.
3. The controls are hard to get used to.
4. "Backlash" is the worst vehicle in the game, due to the fact that you must spin around and hit buildings from the rear while building high speed. If you just ram into things with the front you won't do much damage at all. Because of this, "Diamond Sands" is infamously considered the worst level in the game and unnecessarily frustrating due to you being forced to use Backlash for the entire level, which is not suited for the task as you need to build up speed to take down buildings. The main problem is that it is impossible to just drive over the train tracks as they block you from crossing over and destroying both sides of the buildings that cover the tracks at once, so you need to move into a tunnel to cross over, forcing you to waste time. Also, the destination is extremely far from the starting point of the train.

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