It's quite difficult to pigeonhole Blast Corps. You could call it an action game, or maybe a puzzle game, but the simplest way to describe it to someone would be to say that you drive various vehicles around an area from a 3/4 perspective and lay waste to buildings. Destruction is the name of the game, although it's not from a murder and mayhem perspective simply because the destruction you're causing is justified. You heard that right. The premise of Blast Corps is that a computer driven vehicle housing nuclear weapons has malfunctioned and is driving in a straight line. Your task is to save all the towns in its path so the nuclear devices can be safely detonated away from civilization. Naturally, this path is broken up into levels that require you to drive different vehicles and solve some light puzzles, all in order to make sure that nuclear carrier doesn't smack into anything. Generally the path is creating by ramming your vehicle into buildings with arrows pointing at them - not all buildings in a level have to be knocked over your first time in a level, just those in the way. If the nuclear carrier gets too close to a building, you get red arrows and a warning signal. If it runs into the building...well, you get a big explosion and will be attempting the level again. The vehicles are quite an assortment. Arguably the most effective is a plain bulldozer that is able to knock down almost any building just by driving straight into it. There is a bizarre vehicle that launches huge pistons out the side (these are powered by charges that can be picked up as floating powerups), and when you get that vehicle the buildings you are tasked with destroying are almost always arranged parallel. Complementing that is a dune buggy type car with nitrous; it's a little trickier to cause destruction, as it is only effective while airborne. So you need to either launch it off a higher bit of land or hit any sort of jump before demolishing your target. The last of the standard vehicles is a dump truck whose point of destruction lies on the rear. The only effective way of taking out buildings with it is to powerslide into the side of them. This is easier said than done, of course, and some of the most challenging segments of the game revolve around knocking down buildings with the often stubborn dump truck while the nuclear carrier continues to encroach on your position. There are other vehicles present that either serve to ferry you around or cause destruction in other ways. Three Gundam-style robots are available in various levels. One is significantly smaller than the others and causes damage by doing a weird little rolling kick. The other ground-bound robot is much larger and his metallic form has a rolling attack that launches into an uppercut. Weird, yes, but very effective. The last has jets bolted to its back, and can fly limited distances. The only way to attack is to launch yourself up above a building and then stomp down on top of it. The other vehicles are smaller cars (muscle car, police car, van, etc) that are almost entirely useless against buildings and only really come into play in order to get you to and from different vehicles in a level, as they move much faster than your tools of destruction. There are also trains and barges present, but they are useful more as puzzle-solving tools than anything else, as lining them up is often key to making sure the carrier has a clear path. Once you've beaten a level you're free to re-enter it and finish demolishing the buildings. Little markers called SDUs are dotted all over levels as well, and making sure all those are lit up also counts towards your percentage of completion for each level. Occasionally there will also be a radio transmitter hidden somewhere - those open up little bonus levels. There are an awful lot of those bonus levels. The most common ones involve a race around a little course, or task you with destroying a certain number of buildings (or types of buildings) within a given time frame. Others are a bit more bizarre, ranging from ticking all the SDUs on a Pac-man style level while avoiding ghost bulldozers to blowing up pool cues rammed in the pockets of a giant pool table. The regular levels are varied enough, but the bonus levels serve to break things up even more and are often a welcome diversion from some of the more difficult later levels. Make no mistake, the game can be fairly unforgiving and if you're unsure on how to proceed past a certain point in a level, don't be surprised to repeat it a few times after the carrier interrupts you. Many of the levels also offer you very little room for mistakes, so you're going to want to make sure every whack at a building is going to count, especially when you're sporting the dump truck. Still, at no point is the game unfairly difficult and the sense of reward is always satisfying. Some of the later levels are quite amusing, as the game has a handful of challenges once you've finished off with the nuclear carrier. There are also a number of hidden bonus challenges that are extremely difficult. If you can finish all of those in their alloted gold medal time, then consider yourself a true Blast Corps master. Overall, Blast Corps' unique blend of action and puzzling make for a hell of a lot of fun. What's most disappointing is how few people seem to remember it from the N64 days, and how the game never saw a sequel. The opportunity for more elaborate levels and more vehicles of destruction is still there. Until then we can continue to tool around in Backlash and Sideswipe and destroy little polygonal buildings to our hearts' content.
All the time from all my friends I hear whining and complaining about destructible environments. “Oh, I wish such and such game had destructible environments.” “Man, wouldn’t it be cool if you could just blast your way... Read Full Review
Blast Corps came out way back at the beginning of the N64's lifespan, and while I played it back then, I was also lucky enough to get my hands on a copy in excellent condition this year for $5. I have to say, even after... Read Full Review
