Blast Corps.

I know I've belabored this point over the last few years, but I've always maintained the 5th generation was one of the most innovative eras in gaming.

In general, that's a good thing. But even I, an obvious and outspoken apologist for the 5th gen, recognize that not all of the innovations that came about were successful. I think that's a trap a lot of people fall into in their personal and professional lives. Just because something is new or different doesn't mean it's better. How many alleged life hacks actually make your life harder? Look at sports, how many NFL franchises have set themselves back years by refusing to admit some newfangled scheme their new coach came up with isn't working? That being said, trying new things will often lead to positive steps forward. That's true in gaming as well, you never know what's going to work until you try it. And that brings us to Blast Corps., a difficult-to-classify title that hit the N64 in late 1997. I most often see it described as "action," but at its core I would honestly call it a puzzle game before anything. While it wasn't the perfect game by any means, Blast Corps. was an example of 5th generation innovation that was highly successful. Which is why I still don't understand why it was a one-off game with an IP that hasn't been touched in 25 years. There was never a Blast Corps. 2, it never got a spinoff, it never got a remake, nothing.

But before we look into why, let's talk a bit about the actual game. Blast Corps. was the first game Rare released for the N64, so it was a pretty big deal when it came out. It sees you take control of the eponymous organization, who have been tasked with solving a potentially world-ending problem. You see, a carrier hauling nuclear missiles has gone out of control and is slowly rolling through the country. If it touches anything, it will explode and wipe out everything in its path. So how do we stop it from crashing into something? BY DEMOLISHING EVERYTHING IN ITS PATH! It's up to the Blast Corps. to blow up every building or obstruction in the carrier's path, with a variety of vehicles available to do so. That's kind of ridiculous, but you aren't playing this for the plot. You are playing it to use construction vehicles and giant robots to smash everything in sight. That seems simple, but I'm not sure I ever played a game like Blast Corps. before and I don't really know if I've played one since. I think if a few flaws were ironed out, Blast Corps. could have become a pretty solid series.

I think the presentation and graphics are more positive than negative. It's a bit blocky and a bit blurry, as N64 games are, but the vehicles look good and the levels are nice as well. There are a good variety of locations, from beachfront towns to backwoods farms to big cities, and smashing each of them has its own unique charm. The three robots look especially cool and getting to play as them always feels like a big deal. The character models look ridiculous, but it almost feels like they are supposed to. I also, and this is going to sound weird, think Blast Corps. has good lighting, which wasn't always the case in 5th generation games. My only real problem with the visuals is the camera, it's way too zoomed in and way to hard to reposition. It's really frustrating that you can't see far in front of you, because you really need to be able to determine the right way to attack each building. You are on a tight timer, so you can't really stop and observe your surroundings if you want to actually beat any of the levels. It might take a few tries getting the lay of the land before you can beat some of them, which is extremely frustrating. That's all caused by the camera. Have to give them credit for the sound though, it's of good quality and has some nice tracks. It's surprisingly peppy for a game about demolishing buildings to prevent a nuclear apocalypse, but it's nice and actually helps ease a little bit of the tension inherent to games like this.

In theory, the gameplay is pretty simple; get in vehicles, smash buildings. But in practice, it's anything but. For one, you have eight different vehicles, each of which operate and control differently. The bulldozer is the easiest to use, you drive at buildings to destroy them, but it can't destroy certain kinds of structures. The Ballista shoots missiles, the Sideswipe shoots sideways at buildings, but both require ammo. The Skyfall launches off objects and destroys whatever it lands on, but it's limited in what it can do without large ramps. The Backlash dump truck uses its bed to power slide into buildings, but...well, we'll get back to this in a minute. Then, you have the robots, the Super Arm and Cyclone Suit that roll through buildings and the J-Bomb that hovers into the air before crashing down on them. All of these have different applications, and you will often be forced to switch between them to destroy specific structures. Sometimes, levels will require you to move your vehicles or create makeshift platforms with trains or boats, use bombs to destroy reinforced buildings or hop into regular cars, which have zero destructive power but can move incredibly fast. You have to process all of this while the carrier is slowly, but surely rolling towards you, balancing speed, puzzle solving a precision. It makes for a fun, yet very tense, atmosphere. Once you complete a level, you can return without the carrier to destroy buildings, rescue survivors and turn on RUDs in an effort to get gold and platinum medals.

I think my favorite thing about Blast Corps. is the variety of gameplay. Some of the levels are just straight up action, asking you to demolish as many buildings as you can as fast as possible. Sometimes you will only have to destroy one or two buildings, but you will have to beat the carrier there to do so. Many of the levels are more about solving puzzles, moving vehicles around with lifts while creating platforms for the carrier to roll over. There are also plenty of hidden and secondary levels, including vehicle challenges, races and even a Pac Man maze. Get all gold medals and you get to continue your destruction in space. Some of these are better than others, but at least the variety is appreciated. Being able to go back through and explore levels is also cool, there are plenty of secrets to find and objects to destroy. It helps to keep the game fresh and adds additional content for when you beat the game. In general, there's a lot to do for a game of this style from this era.

While there is definitely more good than bad, Blast Corps. does suffer from a few flaws that prevent it from being a truly top tier game. For one, the controls are very slippery and the turning was extremely sensitive. I would be going straight and slightly tap the analog stick, which would throw me completely off my path. It was difficult to get used to the physics and especially the momentum of the vehicles. It was difficult to aim with the vehicles where that was required, the game really felt like it wasn't designed for shooting. But the biggest problem comes from artificial difficulty, brought about almost entirely by the Backlash. Basically, destroying buildings with the Backlash requires you to spin out and hit them with its truck bed. But it's damn near impossible to control and I have never figured out how exactly it was supposed to work, sometimes I would hit buildings flush and nothing would happen, other times I would hit with the front of the truck and the buildings would blow up. More often than not, I found myself spinning in circles, smashing a building I didn't need to before coming to a stop. It was either that our I just couldn't get enough momentum or space. And what's really frustrating is that I think the developers knew the vehicle was terrible and used it to handicap the player by forcing them to use it in tough spots. That seems a little farfetched, but the proof comes from the fact that four of the final five "hard" levels have it as the only vehicle available, and these would have been tough even with the better trucks. That's really, really annoying and rates as a pretty horrible design choice.

All that said, Blast Corps. is still a fun game that's worth playing today, simply because it's hard to find anything else like it. This is yet another case of a title that I'm shocked never got a sequel, remake, spinoff or anything like that. This is not the kind of game that was solely a product of its time, I'm sure plenty of gamers would love to hop in construction vehicles and smash buildings in 4K, two trillion P, whatever g resolution on their PS5 or Series S (I guess it would have to be an XBox exclusive, since it's a Rare title, but you know what I mean). Maybe this is a case where Nintendo owns the IP but Rare owns the rights to the game engine or something? I don't know, but Blast Corps. seems like a game primed for a modern update with updated physics, tighter control and better graphics. Hell, it seemed primed for that in 1997 too, when it was universally praised and commercially successful. But for whatever reason, it never happened. Still, the original is a solid game and more than worth checking out, either on original hardware or as part of the Rare Replay collection.

8/10