I used to see my cousins play this game a lot as a kid, but it looked fairly generic to me. All I remember is it had some funny sound effects for some reason.
Years later I find that this was made by Rare, so I wanted to give it a shot considering their reputation on the N64.

Blast Corps is a 'turn your brain off and wreck shit' kinda game. You're given levels each with a time limit to complete the objective, the objective mostly being wreck all the required shit before time runs out. The variety comes in the type of vehicles you are given each mission. Sometimes you are given a bulldozer and other times you are given a giant mech amongst other things. Something it will switch up and you will need to use multiple vehicles in a sigle level.

The gameplay is satisfying and easy to pick up. But once you've completed the first couple of levels, you've basically seen everything the game has to offer and the rest of the game provides similar challenges, just much harder. If you wanna complete this game you will be retrying a lot of the later levels over and over again.

Blast Corps is a fine time waster if you wanna just crumble the fuck outta some 1990 lookin-ass buildings with some big machinery, but once your fun runs out the game does not have much else to offer.

The first of Rare's illustrious N64 career is... not the sort of game I would've expected. Not bad by any means, though. A very high-concept vehicular puzzler where the name of the game is usually to destroy everything. Sometimes, to race, too. But mostly destruction.

Let's get the main criticism out of the way - I hate the Backlash. I never felt confident using it. Like I know it's drifting, the trick to using it effectively is drifting, but the hitbox is so far back on the body that you have to overextend even beyond the amount you normally would for drifting. Even by the end, when I was fairly consistently nailing the timing of moves needed to clear "Diamond Sands", I felt like I knew how to perform, but not the principle behind why my buttons were working this time. Super frustrating.

In any other vehicle, though, the game's a good time. Especially in those mechs, there's something inherently satisfying to leveling buildings, figuring out the way the game wants you to think through its puzzles. I especially like the sheer amount of secrets meant for the player to uncover, especially in the midgame. There are a surprising amount of interlocked systems for the player to navigate, with secrets revealing secrets. So much of the game feels like you're a kid messing around with toys, it's great.

This even extends to the story. You have to love how overwrought the narrative is, trying to figure the safest way to dismantle a nuke truck and somehow that involving plowing through buildings to prevent it from detonating. Like, that's such a little kid sort of narrative, it's great.

It does kinda feel like the game doesn't know when to stop taking curtain calls, though. Sort of a minor complain, especially if you're someone who got super into this game. But, like, you roll credits, then find out you succeeded, THEN have another scenario, then another, then you have to get all the gold, then a few more scenarios, and then you get to the Platinums, then... personally, I called it after the second post-credits mission, since I'm not completely invested in getting all the Golds. Nice that the option exists, though.

Blast Corps is one of those evergreen game premises. It's sort of weird to me that it doesn't have some sort of follow-up. At the same time I don't really know how you would follow it up, since they pretty much exhausted every idea they could with this premise. Sort of a Punch-Out issue, where a franchise would largely consist of updates rather than sequels. This incarnation feels like a fairly natural expression of early 5th generation gaming, finding things to do within early 3D space akin to something like Pilotwings 64. A modern version would probably look a lot better, but it'd have to be a huge resource hog to convey similar ideas on modern tech. Is this a game that could come back? I dunno, but I think there'd be something satisfying for folks if it did.

Known as BLASTDOZER over here in Japan, this is a game I'd gotten for three whole dollars CIB back in the States but had never gotten around to playing. I'd actually sold that copy before I moved here, but I found ANOTHER CIB copy over here for the same price XD. I've owned that copy for quite some time, and it's only this TR theme that's gotten me to play it. I was playing the Japanese version of the game, and I didn't bother with most of the mini-game missions, but I did complete all of the main ones and got the credits at the end in around 7 or 8 hours.

Blast Corps doesn't have a ton of story to speak of, and is really more of a conceit for gameplay rather than a fully fledged story. You're a new employee in the titular company, and your job is to use your series of destruction vehicles to destroy buildings in the path of an out of control carrier for nuclear missiles so it doesn't touch them and explode! You've also got hidden beacons to find for extra levels, and hidden scientists to find for the true final mission (and the credits), but that's really it. It's very much a sandbox-style game, and it doesn't really have any pretentions of giving you any more exposition than you absolutely need to accomplish the task at hand.

The gameplay of Blast Corps takes place between the main missions and the unlockable side missions. The main missions are you clearing the way for the previously mentioned nuclear danger truck. If that touches ANYTHING, it's game over and you gotta restart the stage (which is thankfully quick and easy). Your vehicle types range from the easy to use big tumbling robot that tumbles into things to break them, to the somewhat more complicated jet-booster car or bulldozer that just plow into stuff to break them, to the highly technical dump truck that destroys stuff by drift-sliding into them. You start a level in a particular vehicle, but you can get out of your vehicle to swap to a new one nearby if you need to, and you often need to, especially in harder levels.

Aside from the main levels, there are also mini-game levels where you often choose your vehicle at the start instead of getting it given to you like in the normal levels. These levels involve things like destroying a bunch of buildings in a strict time limit or even completing a race, and you get a bronze, silver, or gold (or even platinum, if you're hella hella good at it) for doing it well enough. The game's main levels have this as well, where you get a gold medal for finishing them at all, and then there's another gold medal to be gotten if you destroy every building, free all the survivors (which is just destroying every building but easier), and light up all the lights on the ground by going near them (rewarding you for exploring, I guess). Those side missions in the main levels aren't super interesting, but getting gold on every level does unlock more levels in the post-game, so there is a sort of incentive to do it (although I did not).

Blast Corps is fundamentally a puzzle game at its core, as you need to not just find out how to destroy the buildings in time, but also actually DO it. This makes it very much like another British-created puzzle game: Lemmings. Blast Corps, as a result, also shares a lot of the problems Lemmings has. It even has what I call the Lemmings Problem: You know what to do for how to solve it, but now you gotta DO it. Blast Corps suffers more from this than anything else, and how much that impacts your enjoyment of it will really determine how much of a winner this game is for you (AJ loves this game a lot, and I'm a lot more mixed on it). The large degree of technicality that something like the dump truck uses compared to the bulldozer or robots make for a really uneven difficulty curve as well, and combined with somewhat awkward camera controls (you've gotta take your hand off the accelerator to turn the camera, and in the later levels which have SUPER strict time limits, that can be a death sentence) that can sometimes make walls look invisible, you've got a game that is pretty easy fun on the lower end of its difficulty, but a game I find very hard to recommend anyone stick with to see the credits in.

The presentation is fine, but nothing about it stands out a ton. It was a game made by a very new, quite small team in just about a year, and so it's a game that largely just "works" as well as it does and that's all it really needed to do. It's not an ugly game, and stuff like the big one-armed tumble robot are very iconic (one-armed because the designer ran out of memory to make the other arm, and then just liked how it looked so he kept it X3). It's also nearly identical to its English counterparts, with the only changes being some slightly more lenient platinum medal times and the graphics updated to reflect the different title.

Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. It's kinda a shame they never expanded upon this concept, as with a bit more spit and polish, a Blast Corps 2 could've been something really special. As it is, this is a game that is really hard to recommend unless you can get it for cheap. It could be something you really love, but it could be something you're pushing through to beat out of spite like I did. It's generally pretty cheap, so if you like N64 games and the concept of a time/score attack building destroying game sounds cool, then this is probably worth picking up, but if any of this has sounded not up your alley, I don't think you're missing out on a ton by passing this one by.

Blast Corps gets a huge thumbs-up because of its uniqueness in concept and variety in gameplay. All you do in this game is clear a path so a nuclear missile doesn't blow up. You clear the path by using unique vehicles and other blast equipment like robots.

Graphics were very good for the time and there was a good level of detail featuring buildings, cars, and different terrain surfaces. Explosion effects were very good for the time. The soundtrack and sound effects were silly but very appropriate with the nature of the game.

Gameplay was different and provided a ton of variety due to the different types of vehicles you could use on different levels. Not everything was perfect though, as there were a couple of vehicles that turned the game into a pain with the obvious example being the dump truck that required perfect slides to destroy obstacles. Those looking for a challenge also had the option to improve scoring and get different types of medals for each level.

Due to its difficulty, I was never able to finish the game (dump truck I'm looking at you) but nevertheless Blast Corps was a very fun game to experience due to how different it was at the time, and in fact, it still remains as a very unique game worth trying via modern resources such as the Rare Replay collection.

This game takes a silly concept and just has a ton of fun with it. The story is simple: there is a nuclear missile being transported on an automated truck. The truck malfunctions and heads to a location in a straight line. If it collides with anything, it will explode. Your mission is to destroy everything in its path.

I played this game as a kid but never got far due to the difficulty, but gave it a proper play a few years ago via Rare Replay and loved it. It was great giving it another blast.

At its core, Blast Corps is an action-puzzle game. You have a limited time to destroy everything in the missile’s path (the game will highlight vital buildings), but while it starts off as simply ramming into everything, the game will introduce new elements in the way of different vehicles, using TNT for large buildings and also filling up gaps. Some levels are straightforward, while others will require you to explore the level to find the vehicles you need to proceed.

The vehicles have a massive variety, with cars, weaponised bikes, dump trucks, various mechs and some with specific uses – such as the Sideswipe which shunts panels sideways or the Skyfall, which has a sturdy undercarriage that requires you to use jumps to land on buildings from above. Some of them – like cars and trains – aren’t used for damage, but more to solve puzzles and to get between different vehicles.

Then there’s the Backlash. A dump truck that is the most difficult vehicle to use. When ramming, it does very little damage, instead, it causes damage by hitting stuff with the rear end – but reversing is too slow. You need to use its “slide” ability to drift the back of the truck into buildings, which is extremely difficult to get to grips with. I did get competent enough to get through the game, but I still didn’t enjoy it as much as other vehicles.

Once you’ve cleared a path and beaten a level for the first time, you can return to complete the remaining objectives. With no timer, this part of the game is a welcome relaxation to contrast the frantic main mission. You need to demolish other buildings (the game claims you are rescuing survivors), activate little light bacons and search for beacons to unlock bonus missions. You also need to scour some of the levels for hidden scientists.

One this is over, the game isn’t over. You can now try to unlock medals. The levels are restored and now you have to try and beat them as quick as possible (although the time from the first playthrough counts, so you don’t need to do it again if you were already fast enough), which unlocks a few bonus challenges across different planets.

Blast Corps is immensely fun to play and there really hasn’t been anything like it since. It took a fun, simple concept and did a lot with it, focusing on the gameplay and enjoyment. There hasn’t been anything quite like it since it game out, and that’s a massive shame. While you can get the game on Rare Replay, Blast Corps definitely deserves a spruced up remaster.

When it's at its best, it's great. You're just destroying buildings all willy nilly and all you gotta do is make sure this little car carrying a nuke doesn't get touched or run into a building. A simple run of destruction while you have an objective to check in on. Sure the camera is a bit too close for my liking but when it's mindless fun it's not really an issue.

But then you have to use the Backlash and its unbearable controls, to the point where I utilized bugs in the last couple missions with it (the game LOVES giving you this hunk of junk in the second half even though from a practical standpoint it'd be better to use the bulldozer in every situation).
Then there's Oyster Harbor, a real bastard of a level that demands perfection, understanding of mechanics that aren't told to you (what do you mean I have to drop the TNT block in the middle to destroy the set, otherwise start over?) or kept out of sight (I really hope you didn't put that first diamond block into the first diamond hole that's actually visible, should have looked for the one a bit out of sight that hides the two diamonds needed to complete the puzzle), all finished off by demanding perfection with a TNT block carried across a boat puzzle. It's hell.
Then you have to find the scientists in these cryptic puzzles, which while it's nice that you don't have to worry about the nuke car and are free to explore, this is where the camera being too close gets to be a real problem, as it's hard to gauge your environment when you can't see too far off. It's relaxing compared to those hellish previous things I mentioned, but it was a bit off.

So when Blast Corps wants to be good, it's real good. But when it wants to be hard and demand perfection from its awkward collisions and controls, it can be a real pain in the neck. It has good music the whole way through and I definitely wouldn't mind the concept ever being revisited since it issues here are absolutely fixable, and the core idea of just destroying stuff with cars and robots is always a cool one.

I'm a bad driver. It's been a running theme in all my reviews for driving-centric video games, and frankly Blast Corps should be perfectly suited for my specific brand of terrible handling. Careening into buildings and silos, turning into a mighty fireball that immolates any wouldbe survivors -- including myself! All so high yield explosives can travel to their destination, where presumably they'll create even more harm. Destruction of both the intentional and negligent variety, I've never been more qualified for a job.

But Blast Corps has filtered me. Despite my best efforts, I can't do the requisite amount of harm to deliver the payload, at least not without an exhausting number of retries. I'd like to pin the blame on Blast Corps' controls, which suffer from being mapped to a single analog stick. Well, that and the abundance of Backlash missions. Fuck the Backlash, it's the hardest to the control and the least interesting vehicle in the game.

If you replaced all the Backlash missions with the giant robot that does ridiculous gymnastics tumbles into buildings, I'd have rolled credits and given this game a 4/5 and two kisses on the cheek. I almost mistakenly referred to the Backlash as the Sideswipe, which is insulting because the Sideswipe is great. J Bomb? Skyfall? Fantastic. But every time I sent the cursor to a new mission and saw that ffffFUCKING dump truck the vein in my head started growing bigger and making weird sounds and man I can't do that, the doctor said it can't do that!

"Time to get moving! ^-^" ~ Level Select Music

There was a very specific time in my life where I did nothing but draw cars, trucks and other such automobiles with weapons slapped onto them in some form. Think dumb stuff like vans with buzz saws coming out of the sides and probably a big dumb laser cannon on the roof. It was all due to Twisted Metal, and that odd fixation made me gaze at video games with cars in them in a slightly more captivated way. If the car game had explosions on the cover? Oh baby, count me in! Blast Corps was a popular Hollywood Video rental back then, for a pretty good reason and it was because of the cool jet pack robot on the front, and a dump truck that I would come to despise in due time, but more on that later.

Your job in this game is to annihilate everything in the path of the world's most fragile to-the-touch runaway truck carrying active nukes. Some really serious shit for a game approved for kids, but regardless. These are the main carrier missions though, and once the job is complete you can re-enter the stage for a little bit of a break and explore for 100% completion and chill out to Graeme Norgate's OST. (Fun Fact, this piece of music is a remix of the boss theme from Donkey Kong Land. That really knocked me on my ass when I found that out, wish I could stumble upon old Game Boy renditions more often.) It was quite the vibe as they would say for tiny me, when you've got nothing to do you tend to really enjoy just walking around and jet packing with your cool mech friend trying to find that last little blinky light to activate. You think it's a waste of time, but that's just games in general. Checkmate non-believers. You also got challenges in the smaller stages, where you aim to either destroy things or race around a track in an allotted time and other such nonsense. They're a nice little change of pace.

As you would imagine, the Blast Corps have quite the array of battle deconstruction vehicles and mobile suits. Everyone's favorite of course is J-Bomb the jet pack robot, who was popular enough to get a Fangamer shirt that I have in my closet at the moment. Everyone's least favorite is of course, someone who may not need an introduction to fellow demolition experts who have played this. Many a philosopher around the globe in ancient times have pondered questions such as: "why are we here?", "why is the sky blue?", "why did Rare make the dump truck so goddamn awful?"

The dump truck's name is "Backlash", and I assume Vince McMahon named the WWE PPV after it because he's the only asshole I'd imagine who would love using it. To use Backlash, you must take it's dump truck ass and spin it into buildings to destroy them with it's dump truck ass. It's very unwieldy, and Makes one question why a trained demolition crew would bring a dump truck and spin it like an oversized Beyblade at shit instead of just using the bulldozer that's right in front of them. Believe me, I'm making it sound cool, but this thing blows ass, and unfortunately the dickbags at Rare knew it was awful, so they made the player use it A LOT in the final stages. It's dumb, I don't like it, and it's the only reason I can't five star this game despite my mastery at attaching rose-tinted glasses to my face and doing world class mental gymnastics to justify myself in front of a live courthouse full of people who don't give a shit.

It's a shame really, but regardless I stand by the fact that Blast Corps is easily the coolest and most creative game Rare has developed. It's presentation isn't as memorable as Donkey Kong Country 2's pirate adventure theme, nor is it that refined with it's wonky crate pushing physics and trees with hitboxes the size of Wisconsin. It's the way it drops players straight into stages and asks them to solve puzzles like getting a gold medal via a shortcut on a racing course, or how to explode some statue you found hidden behind the train you started in, which had J-Bomb hiding in it for some reason. What was your plan there J-Bomb? Who put you there? Fuck you Rare, why did you make the dump truck so bad?

Another one of those "I just think it's cool" type of games, totally give it a rec if it sounds interesting to you, and really it should, because it was Rare's last gasp before they got tied up in the Mascot platformer coal mines.