Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Blast Corps

I often see people complaining that Rare never comes up with their own ideas and instead opt to create games that refine ideas already presented by Nintendo in their games; such as Banjo Kazooie "improving upon" Mario 64. But Blast Corps proves that Rare more than has enough potential to come up with and establish their own great game concepts.



Basically you have a half assed plot that is just there as an excuse for you to destroy buildings to clear a path for an automated nuclear missile carrier. Initially you'll be clearing paths with a Bulldozer like vehicle, which just requires you to ram into buildings. But soon you'll be forced to use a variety of weird vehicles and robots in order to clear a safe path with style.

These crazy vehicles are how and why Blast Corps shines with so much creativity. The vehicle Skyfall has an armored underside and a power booster, so its ideal method of destruction is to charge into a ditch or gully and launch into the air, landing on and smashing buildings below. Ballista is a biped that requires the player to collect missile boxes for ammo and launch them with dual cannons to cause destruction. J-bomb is a flying humanoid robot that can fly and hover in mid-air, and charge downwards at any time to stomp on objects below.

In addition to the creative aspects of the vehicles, the game itself is creative in its presentation and menu layouts, and exudes a sort of childish theme that doesn't take itself seriously despite the danger of the missions. The level selection itself is literally presented on a spinning globe as the levels take place all over the world, and even the moon and other planets later in the game. A sense of progression is easy to achieve when you can see the location of every main and bonus level.

The other key element to this game is in how much it pushes the player to achieve perfection in their playstyle. In addition to the main missile carrier levels, their are several timed bonus challenges that require becoming acquainted closely with the intricacies of the various vehicles. And anyone who has played this game to (or near) completion knows of the notorious platinum medals, which require insanely fast completion times and mastery of the vehicles. Unfortunately, while many players will enjoy this very difficult challenge of their abilities, others will find it absurd they should have to practice so much and have to achieve near perfection to get a single medal in a bonus round. Sometimes you can't please everyone....

45 comments:

landsquid said...

I so remember playing this not having a clue as to what was going on but I had fun playing it.

TMH said...

Man, I really need another nintendo bad.

Xenototh said...

That is just the dichotomy of gamers, though. Some enjoy working their butts off to get ridiculously good, and others just want to play mario party. :P

Grant said...

Diddy kong racing was the best from rare in my opinion :P

Common said...

I remember this game! God I was awful at it.

Piets said...

Soooo gooood!

Beer Blog Barry said...

Strange game this one

m_usicreview said...

I rented this game for my 8th birthday.

Acrylic Ingenuity said...

looks like a cool game

Fortune said...

I honestly remember this game and did not like it, opting more for Rare's FPS GE and PD or free-roaming with conker and the like.

Dejch said...

havent played it :<

Sam DeCross said...

I have now decided to go dig out my nintendo. I do this about once a year, I think its about that time.

Fermium Death said...

Will check out that game.

Jokk said...

hahahahha Blast Corps <3

logo mess said...

whoa great game i loved it! only thing that freaked me out was the time limit on every level :/

knowbuddy said...

I love these old games =)

rakoth said...

Never seen that although I had a N64, gotta check it out, looks cool.

The Guy said...

Thanks, that game looks really cool.

Doro said...

I never liked this game, dunno why...

Silk said...

i never got to play many games, when i was about 4 or so, i remember i was playing duke nukem, snowboard party and yoshi's adventure i think it was, not sure if i missed out on all the action or not.

Anonymous said...

Oh man, I wish they'd release this on the Wii Virtual Console. I want to play it so bad right now.

//Love said...

Game looks really cool

tony said...

God I loved this game. Goldeneye is still the best Rare game IMHO.

killing.bullet said...

Must check it out, played alot of games but did not this one.

Malkavian said...

Never did played this, i remember everyone being really hyped for it though.

kite1099 said...

awww shit I remember this game.
It was so fun.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha I remember this, brings back some memories.

1HipHopBlog said...

OMG I so remember this from wayyyyy back!

Unknown said...

never played this game, but after reading that I might have to check it out

zepdragon said...

I've spent many hours playing as Banjo the Bear

Skankin_Pete said...

If I remember right Rare may Rocket the Robot too =)

phosports said...

never played this before, but looks pretty fun

Anonymous said...

The video game community will never get over that most games are the same recycled stuff all over again. Rare did a pretty good job showing that.

Marieke said...

I LOVED Banjo Kazooie! This looks cool, too! Following

Fishy Corporation said...

Haha nostalgia Blast Corps, I played this game alot when it was new and it is still awesome!

NorthernLad said...

Wow, I remember playing this game quite a few years ago. I was one of the few of my group who liked it (dunno why they didn't, bloody great game)

GR2 said...

Great article. Couldn't agree more. For such a plain, no-filler game, it still seemed to fulfill a craving for a fun, addictive and worthwhile game.

LemonySword said...

shit, the only n64 games i ever played were the mario ones, goldeneye, and zelda.. i feel like i really missed out..

Magnum said...

I've never played this before, I guess I'll try now. Looks like old school we all love.

Jay Reid said...

OH MY GOD YES

Bob said...

Looks like a good game, haven't tried it out yet though.

D4rky said...

should check it out, nice blog, i think i'll follow it

lefortdarien said...

nostalgia, *gets N64* o-o

Kyle said...

I always saw this game at the rental place, but never bothered to give it a try. Now I wish I did :(

Internet Catch Of The Day said...

I have this game! Picked it up for 2 dollars when a video rental place went out of business, good fun!

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