Blast Corps was one of the first Nintendo 64 games that I owned. For some reason, I really hated it. I can’t even remember why. I tried so hard to return it or trade it off. My sister really loved the game, so it never ended up leaving my collection. Last year, I went out of my way to finally beat it and was surprised just how easy it was to pick up and play again.
The basic idea of ramming cars into buildings isn’t particularly deep, but Blast Corps goes beyond that simple concept by offering a number of vehicles that cause carnage in their own unique ways. The Backlash requires players to drift into buildings, Skyfall has to ramp off hills to fall onto objects, Sideswipe has extendable sides that pummel structures, Thunderfist is a giant mech that crushes things with its lone fist, and the Ballista lobs rockets but has limited ammunition.
For such an old game, it seems surprisingly fitting for mobile platforms. Well… if you could get it to work without any buttons. Almost every mission is complete-able in less than five minutes and you literally have a ticking time bomb keeping you from taking much longer. Time trials and side objectives encourages replaying levels to master them.
It seems like the perfect game to play between doing something else. But for now, you’ll just have to lug your Nintendo 64 or Xbox One around with you.
