The Closeout Warrior

I only played Blast Corps twice, both times were when a friend rented the game and forced me to come over and check it out. My memory of the game might be a bit fuzzy, then. But from what I remember of the game you take control of a demolition crew who has to wreck everything in the path of a truck hauling a particularly powerful bomb. See, the truck’s somehow gone out of control and if it collides with anything it blows up, destroying civilization (and, more importantly, ending the game).

You get to go around the various regions in the truck’s path, using whatever vehicles have been left at your disposal, and destroy enough buildings that the truck can go through unscathed. Then you have the option of trying over for a faster time, destroying everything in the region, or moving on to the next.

I would have probably purchased this game if I’d had the opportunity. Unfortunately, since I didn’t actually play it until after it had gone out of print, I didn’t really seize the opportunity to do so. So, now all I have is the occasional video to remember the game by.

I can distinctly remember being bored a lot when I was in school, so I did things that any normal person would do: I created a lot of bad video game ideas, complete with backstories, maps, and diagrams. Fortunately, all of that effort is now lost to the Mists of Time, but I also kicked around the idea of combining together some of my favorite games to make some kind of Dr. Frankenstein-esque super game. This generated quite a bit of discussion around the lunch room tables, each of us throwing in our picks and such. Years later it became apparent that someone at Nintendo was doing the same thing and actually had the means to do something about it. They took some of their most memorable characters from some of their most popular games (also Earthbound) and threw them into an all-out fighting game.

Smash is essentially a Nintendo fanboy’s dream. The best characters pummeling each other to decide who’s the best? Sign me up!

Actually, this game is just about the perfect party game. Four people can play at once, and the controls are very easy to learn. You can just mash buttons and play somewhat effectively, though I don’t really know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing (Although the name “Super Smash Button Mash” seemed to stick pretty well). But it moves fast, and is almost always entertaining to watch, even when the action is so fast and muddled that you can’t tell what’s going on.

Sometimes, perhaps even more so.