Blast Corps

Blast Corps
Traditional Nintendo 64 box art with red-colored duotone overlay along the right side of the box. The console logo in the upper right, with an indication that the game is exclusive to the console, and the ESRB content rating in the lower right. The Blast Corps logo is in the upper left: a diagonal "BLAST" in red, capital letters, atop a yellow and black "toxic" symbol. The Rareware yellow and blue logo resembling the curve of the letter "R" is in the bottom left. The horizon of the background is slanted to the right: a trump truck is slamming into a building, a fiery explosion extends from the collision site, a polygonal humanoid figure hovers above the dump truck, and a red fire engine-like vehicle with two cylinders mounted atop approaches from the right.
North American box art
Developer(s)Rare
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)
  • Paul Mountain
  • George Andreas
Producer(s)
Designer(s)Martin Wakeley
Artist(s)Ricky Berwick
Composer(s)Graeme Norgate[1]
Platform(s)Nintendo 64
Release
  • JP: March 21, 1997 (1997-03-21)
  • NA: March 24, 1997 (1997-03-24)
  • PAL: December 22, 1997 (1997-12-22)
Genre(s)Action, puzzle
Mode(s)Single-player

Blast Corps is an action game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. In the game, the player uses vehicles to destroy buildings in the path of a runaway nuclear missile carrier. In the game's 57 levels, the player solves puzzles by transferring between vehicles to move objects and bridge gaps. It was released in March 1997 in Japan and North America. A wider release followed at the end of that year.

The game was Rare's first game for the Nintendo 64. Its development team ranged between four and seven members, many of whom were recent graduates. The team sought to find gameplay to fit Rare co-founder Chris Stamper's idea for a building destruction game. The puzzle game mechanics were inspired by those of Donkey Kong (1994).

Blast Corps was released to critical acclaim and received Metacritic's second highest Nintendo 64 game ratings of 1997. The game sold one million copies—lower than the team's expectations—and received several editor's choice awards. Reviewers praised its originality, variety, and graphics, but some criticized its controls and repetition. Reviewers of Rare's 2015 Rare Replay retrospective compilation noted Blast Corps as a standout title.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Polygon: Graeme was invoked but never defined (see the help page).