Blast Corps

"BC is a great game, but unfortunately also a short game."

Blast Corps

Blast Corps came out a couple of years ago but I'm reviewing it now which gives me a little problem. Should I judge it by today's standards, or the standards when it came out? I've decided to go for today's, because you're interested if it's now a good game and not if it was a good game a couple of years ago.
Blast Corps is one of the most original games on the N64. Your goal is to smash every building that stands in the way of a carrier transporting nuclear rockets. But is it any good?

Graphics
The surroundings are pretty big and they look quite good. The only problem is that I find the surroundings a bit bare. I mean there're trees, fences and lampposts, but that's it. It would have been nice if the surroundings had more detail so blast corps would have more atmosphere. The vehicles in the game look good and while you're cleaning the path a radar on the left bottom shows you were the carrier is. Also when you destroy a building a beautiful explosion takes place.

Sound
Although Blast Corps hasn't much background music, the background music that it has is pretty good. They get you're adrenalin pumping. The game also has some in-game speech. When you've completed a course a women comes in the upper left screen saying something like: ''You're just trying to impress me!'' Or when you're trying to demolish a building but it takes too long she says a bit frustrated: ''Try something else!'' But they're also good background sounds. When you demolish a building you hear a loud thump. Or when the carrier is coming too close you can hear a alarm going off.

Game play
In the intro I've given a brief explanation of the story but now I'll give a full description. A carrier is transporting nuclear rockets but the rockets are leaking. Thus the computer chooses the fastest way to where it has to go. The only problem is that they're houses in the way. Here does Blast Corps come in, they have to destroy all the buildings that are in the way. You've got several vehicles to destroy those buildings. A bulldozer, some robots, a couple of race cars and some more vehicles, but probably the coolest of all is the J-BOMB. This is a robot with a jet pack on his back so he can fly into the air and when he's above a building he does a somersault and falls down. Really cool! You've got lots of missions and when you complete them all and get on every mission a gold medal you'll get a few bonus missions: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Neptune. The cool thing about these missions is that there's no gravity. The missions are a mix of action and strategy. You have to demolish buildings but as you proceed the harder missions have more obstacles in you're way so you'll have to use your brain too. It is this combination that makes Blast Corps so unique.

Value
Blast Corps is one of the most original games ever so that increases it's value. Unfortunately a trained gamer will complete the game in a couple of days so you won't be playing it for weeks. But since Blast Corps is an old game you could possibly lend it from a friend or rent it at your local video store.

Overall
I like Blast Corps. It is a original game with good graphics, sounds and a great game play. But the fact that you can complete it in a couple of days is a big draw back. So if I were you I wouldn't buy it unless it's cheap.

Recommendation: Rent it!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/30/00, Updated 01/11/01