This will be a long review because there's a lot of things to discuss within this review. Please take as many breaks as possible. Trust me, this will be one of my more interesting reviews on a game from Rare Play without question.
Hello everyone I'm Jack Red, today I want to talk about a rather interesting game. I still haven't played many like this one we're talking about today. Among every game within Rare Replay, there is a game called Blast Corps. How did I not grew up with this? No I'm serious they made a game I would've loved as a kid.
Blast Corps is about making way for a truck carrying two deflective nuclear missiles. The goal in most main stages is destroy what's directly going to be in it's path or it'll blow up causing a nuclear winter. This has to be one of the most creative video games I ever played, I'm already inspired by it. You get a lot of vehicles surprisingly for a game like this.
We are talking three mechs, a couple cars, a few construction vehicles, trains, huge boats and if a crane counts. Each one plays differently affecting the game play in some interesting ways. Some stages only has one vehicle you can use while others has a couple that does differ the amount you'll have. Another surprise is most stages are actually bonus ones.
Usually in most video games there's more main stages than bonus ones. I just can't hold this in any longer. Two of these bonus stages is a parody of the arcade classic Pac-Man. Considering, a few months ago, I got a lot of Pac-Man games for Steam, I was very excited. A lot of these bonus stages are race theme. But you are racing by yourself going for the fastest time.
Another cool thing with those stages is you can choose which vehicle you want to use. The amount of vehicles for those seems to be eight vehicles. You are also suppose to locate six scientists that I'll talk more about later. What I loved so much about this game is you can replay the stages without worrying about that nuclear truck.
Yes you heard correctly, you can do what you need to do in order to get 100% completion for that stage. Thankfully the list of what you need to do is small. You also have a status screen to help you out. Among getting each one done will have in game confirmation that's different for each category. By default, you need to destroy every building, rescue people & find these dot things within the stages.
Now when it comes to "Rescuing people", all you are doing is destroying some buildings that had people inside. Realistic point of view, all those people are likely to die rather than make it out away. Also, even if they were still alive they're likely trapped under something or simply can't find a way out. I will give them credit for actually showing us civilians moving around.
Some stages are harder for different reasons. A few of them uses these huge pieces that must get pushed into the right spots. One of them puts a correct one very close by one of the slots. But you are suppose to use it in another spot to get two more similar pieces. Which means if you put that piece in the incorrect spot you already loss.
Some stages have the truck starting either a little closer than normal or in the case of a handful of stages dangerously close. We're talking you have to directly try destroying buildings as soon as you start or you'll fail the stage. I'm not going to lie the learning curve can be a cruel one at times. You also need explosives to destroy a particular style building.
The problem is most of these explosives are short fused with not many longer fused bombs. You have to look up online which stages has those ones since they look exactly the same. Also, the last couple stages forces you to use a dump truck to push em. Not many vehicles like the bulldozer can push them better.
You also start with the easy stages. Among finishing the last one in any order. You'll unlock the normal stages which are a bit tougher. Some of them can be tricky too. Among finishing the last one again in any order unlocks the hard stages. Some of these are just cruel, maybe a little too strict & among all of us forces you to adapt to some situations.
There's a stage you are suppose to use the bike with projectiles to destroys cargo containers. But one player who shared his strategy online had a rather interesting strategy. He goes straight to the stairs then moved around a couple of those containers to get the bulldozer. Now why waste a lot of ammo as well as time? Especially when you have to work with some weird angles hoping to destroy em.
Some vehicles are just meant to travel around. Technically speaking in a few rare situations you could destroy something small as your character. Mostly done by falling on it don't count on it though. Let's be honest, the mechs are easily the best among for destroying buildings. The best mech of all, I think everyone who played this game already know which one I'm about to name.
Thunderfist is one of the biggest vehicles you drive. Due to limitations, the developers removed one of it's arms. But make no mistake, this thing can easily rip through some large buildings. This thing can easily guarantee making a path for the truck. The maps for each stages are at a decent size I would say. There's a few endings that how the game ends can be seen as a bit weird.
Remember finding the six scientists from earlier? If you complete the game without having all of them. You'll get the bad ending where the world's doomed in a nuclear winter. Yet if you were able to find all six of them prior to that point. You'll watch what happens to that truck. Yes it blows up but in an area with virtually nothing surrounding it.
Now before I get to how this gets weirder. I do need to say finding these scientists can be tricky. You really need to pay attention to six particular stages. Let's just say most of these are a couple steps at best. One of them requires getting a long fuse bomb to a particular spot through a few huge boats. Keep in mind, you likely doing this after completing it with the carrier truck.
Some of them are in spots you wouldn't expect at all or even knew existed I'm not kidding. Also among completing the stages again after finding em will add a scientist icon on that stage on the stage selection screen. Oh yeah, we need to quickly talk about that. It's mostly of the world with the bonus stages being notably smaller.
I do need to mention one more thing before what follows the ending. In every main stages, you can get up to two gold medals. The first gold medal for completing the stage with the carrier truck. The second gold medal is for getting an 100% completion on that stage. Each medal gives you 1 to 3 points that will add up for more ranks you'll get.
Now following that truck denotation, a space shuffle loses control. This is the only stage you have to deal with this. This space craft is falling down, the game tells you from 3000 ft to 1000 ft. When it says 1000 ft you need to be almost done or finished. From this point on, all you have to do is wait. The problem is you start out with the dump truck not the best vehicle for the job.
Thankfully, a building with a few bombs close by has Thunderfirst inside. Suddenly this stages becomes too easy. This is one of the smaller scale maps in the entire game too. The simple fact they even attempted this concept I will give many respect to. Following that, you go straight into get this a moon bonus stage.
Yes, the destruction on the planet Earth wasn't enough, Rare brought the wrath out to space, if you go really out of your way to get every platinum medals. Which does also include the bonus stages. You'll also unlock more space theme levels that so happens to be on other planets. Yes, this goes to the point roughly half our solar system gets destruction from the same team too damn that's insane.
What's funnier for me personally is I actually did own both Rampage games on Nintendo 64 lol. If you don't get why that's funny I'll explain it quickly. Both Rampage games you virtually destroy every city in the world. Very late into Rampage 2: Universal Tour, you'll get some space theme stages as well. Blast Corps came out two years before Rampage 2: Universal Tour meaning they ripped off Rare.
I also got to say I absolutely love the cover of this game. I also loved the background picture for it within Rare Replay. Blast Corps doesn't take the time to fully introduce the characters well the little of characters this game has. It is impressive mostly one guy does the work it took three giant monsters to do.
Well oh okay, there's a few more monsters in Rampage 2. You still got to give that guy respect. There's some depth to these stages. The audio department is easily one of the most solid for any N64 game I ever heard. I am not kidding it really is that damn good folks. Blast Corps is one of those games you can get rage out in a more healthy matter.
They really out done themselves with a game this ambitious. I came across a statement online stating one of the founders of Rare whose no longer with the company was a huge fan of this game. Even some reviewers who reviewed Rare Replay picked this game as their favorite. Honestly, I do think it's worthy enough for the title.
I would even say along with Cobra Triangle as one of Rare's finest vehicle theme games ever. This game really does not disappoint either. It actually felt great completing a stage you took hours to complete for the first time. Yes, this game can be frustrating at times. At the same time, the pay off for your hard work is a great one.
Blast Corps is a truly impressive early N64 game. Technically the company's second release on that console following Killer Instinct Gold a few months later. This is vastly different from the company's other works, no not the same way as Conker's Bad Fur Day either. There's not much story but at least the game makes it clear what's going on.
Also confirmed in another video, this begun them using the instrument banjos in their music. Clearly they liked it enough to named a particular character Banjo who I loved so much. This game has so much going for it that even the flaws doesn't hold it back. We got a game entirely about destruction with so much creativity to last a long time or two at best.
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