[RETRO GAMING] Do You Remember Blast Corps?

Everyone would probably agree that during its height, Blast Corps is a pretty popular game.

Not only is the game famous but it also earned a good review. According to review aggregator Metacritic, the game received "universal acclaim", while Retro Gamer gave it a "unanimous critical success."

The novelty and variety of Blast Corps's gameplay was highly praised by reviewers. In fact, IGN praised the the game's originality.

A lot has been said about the game but do you know that back during the height of the game, only seven developers are working on it? There were even times that it was just a team of four, as per Polygon. Yet, despite of the tiny team, the game attained big success.

'Blast Corps' - Background and Gameplay

Blast Corps is an action game developed by Rare. It was published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64.

The game was released in March 1997 in Japan and North America, then, at the end of that year, a wider release followed.

Blast Corps was the first game of Rare for the Nintendo 64. Unknown to many, it has a very tiny development team ranging between four and seven members, many of whom were recent graduates.

In developing the gameplay, the team working on Blast Corps tried to find a gameplay that met Rare co-founder Chris Stamper's concept for a building destruction game. The game mechanics were inspired by those of Donkey Kong.

Blast Corps sold one million copies. While the sales are lower than the team's expectations, the game received several editor's choice awards.

The game was praised for its originality, variety, and graphics. In the 2015 Rare Replay retrospective compilation, Blast Corps is a standout title.

Blast Corps is a single-player action video game where the "player uses vehicles to destroy buildings in the path of a runaway nuclear missile carrier," as per Vice.

In the game, the player will fail if the carrier collides with an object. There are eight demolition vehicles that vary in the way they clear structures.

The game has 57 levels where the player has to solves puzzles by transferring between vehicles to move objects and bridge gaps.

Read Also: [RETRO GAMING] Remember 'Super Mario 64?'

'Blast Corps' Trademark is Renewed by Microsoft

There have been a lot of cases involving video game trademark renewals. These scenarios do not always mean a remake or a remastered version, but when it's a classic game, it tends to stir more excitement.

According to Nintendo Life, the latest one is the renewal of trademark by iconic British developer Rare - owned by Microsoft.

It's a retro throwback for Microsoft as the company renewed Blast Corps, a game that was originally released on the Nintendo 64 in 1997.

With the release of Banjo-Kazooie for the Switch Online Expansion Pack service in January, a lot of Switch fans are looking forward to have other classic Rare games, including Blast Corps, get a launch on the service.

It can be recalled that early this year Blast Corps has finally gotten its official merchandise. Revealed over at Fangamer's official Twitter page, the 1997 game finally received its merch, something that even Rare seemed to find amusing since it has taken a long time.

With the launch of the official merch, perhaps a Nintendo Switch Online is next?

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