A Review: Blast Corps, N64 1997

Blast Corps is a driving/action game developed by the British company Rare and published by Nintendo exclusively for the N64. In the game, you play as a young recruit for the company Blast Corps and must protect a transport vehicle carrying two defective nuclear missiles. Just one single jolt is enough for these missiles to explode, so the player must destroy everything in their path to save the world from a nuclear fallout. The gameplay is from a 3rd-person perspective and allows you to commandeer a series of different vehicles, from trains and bulldozers all the way up to huge walking battle mechs.   

This game was one of the first titles that Rare ever produced for Nintendo, and it saw a relationship begin that would spawn many more games in the years to come. During development, Blast Corps only had a team of seven people working on it and at times would only have four, many of whom were recent university graduates. The overall concept for this game was inspired by ideas from Rare's co-founder, Chris Stamper, and used puzzle mechanics that were similar to those in Donkey Kong.

I have completed this game at least three times since I first got hold of a copy and have enjoyed it every time. The wholly destructible buildings and environments were really ahead of the curve for the time released in 1997. I loved smashing my way through obstacles and structures and found the gameplay to be both fun and engaging. Skidding around in a huge dump truck and drifting into the sides of high-rise apartments never got old for me. The depth of play is all too easily dismissed when you look at the simple premise that this game has. There is just so much more to it than smashing and wrecking everything in your path. Collecting the various in-game Radiation Disposal Units, or R.D.U's, finding all of the civilians and rescuing them, and destroying all objects on a level for that elusive gold medal. There was just so much to do, even after completing a stage and moving on. I liked that it wasn't all just the same thing over and over; there were races and collection missions, mini-games, and extras to find while exploring the various stages. I can go on and on about how much fun I had going through this game, but I must also recognise that there were some things that I didn't like. The biggest bugbear for me was, firstly, the camera. I found that its field or view was too narrow sometimes and didn't allow you to get a full grasp of the stages. It made planning impossible sometimes and reduced play to a case of hectic running and praying that you could get to the blocking object before the transport. I also didn't like that sometimes the controls were far from obvious and made getting good enough to call yourself a master much harder than I thought it needed to be. This was something that I found very much a problem when I was on stages that restricted me to using Back Lash. That truck had me boiling with frustrated rage far too often, and I was forced to restart some levels more times than I care to remember. It wasn't just a skill issue either, as I can remember many forum posts asking for tips and guides on how to get good with that damned truck. It was very frustrating, as some stages with different vehicles were a breeze in comparison, and sometimes others were rather boring. I also found it annoying when you missed something or weren't quite quick enough and had the crew tell you off. At first, it was helpful, but after a while, I just got annoyed with them yelling at me. Sometimes I didn't like that levels restricted you to certain vehicles when others were available on the map after you cleared them. I was annoyed more than once with only being allowed to use one vehicle, and I found that some stages were just far harder than they needed to be because of this. I did like that there were some secret vehicles that were all about having a bit of fun, and I also found the Easter eggs to be worth the effort of finding. I enjoyed the plot, and while I would have liked some more depth and meat to it, I found that it good enough. It was, at very least, a good way to link the various stages and areas together. Something else that I struggled with was the medal requirements; some of them were just so harsh that I ended up having to give up. There are still some stages that I can never get any better than a silver medal on, and I think that is a scaling issue that needed some more work. Otherwise, though, I really did enjoy playing through this game.

Visually, I thought that Blast Corps looked very good. Having fully 3D structures and buildings modelled and destructible is worthy of being noted. I loved how destroying things looked in this game; it was very satisfying. I really liked the way that damage was indicated too, with a slight dulling of the colours. This made it really easy to figure out what to hit and where. The vehicles and their animations were really good, and I liked how Back Lash had a blurred afterimage when drifting; that was a very good visual indicator of being at the right speed without there being any type of dials or gauges for the player to read. The explosions, fires, and particle effects were also very good, and I loved the satisfaction of coming through the other side of a massive fire like some sort of TV hero. I liked the little people and the character model for the player, and I thought that they looked good too. I will say that the levels were sometimes a little repetitive though, and at times there were some odd-looking areas where two different textures would meet. I also found the rivers, streams, and such to be a little basic, and I didn't like some of the hills and mountains. They just looked like the textures applied to them were a little too stretched at times. Otherwise, a good-looking game for the most part.

Overall, this is a fun and challenging game that is worth playing, but it is also far from perfect. I honestly feel that it was the camera and Back Lash that held this game back for me. I would have scored it much better if it weren't for them and some other, smaller issues that I found during my playthrough.

6/10 – Good Fun! 

Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ