S3E10: Blast Corps -or- I've heard of a crash course, but this is ridiculous!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I don't know where my Genesis could be.
I haven't seen my Super Nintendosince 2003.
That's all right. I don't mind.
I've got a Switch in the old Switch room.

(00:22):
My friend Mike and Jamo too. All right everyone, welcome back
to the old Switcheroo where we're talking gaming retro with
Mike and Jamo. I'm Mike and I'm Jamo play along
on our epic quest to research and review all 250 plus games in
the Nintendo Classics catalog. Today we are clearing a path for

(00:43):
1997's Blast Core on the Nintendo 64 in an episode we are
calling. I've heard of our crash course,
but this is ridiculous. Now, Mike, I'm I'm trying to
tease the audience a little here.
I'm trying to generate some excitement.
But today I think you brought a bona fide expert in building
hype and breaking down trailers.Would you like to introduce
them? Yeah, so I'm always enjoying

(01:06):
getting to bring on people who have actually supported us and
acknowledge that we exist in thepast.
And a great one for that from Trailer Boys is Nate, as well as
on Twitch as Nate Blackest. Nate, you want to describe sort
of what it is you do? Yay.
Yeah, I my brother. That's pretty much it is my

(01:30):
brother. My my claim to any notoriety
would be like my brother is Sam Brown of the whitest kids, you
know, and during COVID. That's a, that's a sketch comedy
show from like 20 years ago now almost.
But during COVID, they wanted todo stuff.
Everyone was locked down and bored.

(01:51):
Trevor started doing stuff on YouTube and then they're like,
we should do live stuff on Twitch.
And then that's when I got involved helping them out do
that stuff. And you know, we had a bunch of
great live Twitch shows almost every day of the week.
And then Sam and I started one called Trailer Boys, which was
a, it's still going. It's a Sunday night show.

(02:12):
And we kind of turned it into a game show where we have a theme.
People submit trailers to the website, which is Misery Loves
dot US. That'll show you all the details
of what the theme is, when the next show is.
And then we will pick the trailers, not really at random,
but Sam really picks the trailers out and then we kind of
vote on them and the audience votes on them live.

(02:35):
And then we give out points. And then there's a season where
whoever hits 100 points first, the season ends.
So it's pretty fun with some of the odd themes we've done and
some of the wild trailers of movies people have found because
it's, it's always fun to see something that's like, I've
never heard of this, you know, like, and, and then trailers are

(02:57):
great because they're non committal.
You know, it's like 3 minutes ofyour life.
You know, it's going to be toughto be like, hey, I found this
movie, it could be complete garbage.
We should watch it and you have to commit like 2 hours.
No way. So that's what we do.
And that's on the official Whitest Kids Twitch channel,
which is I think it's official WKUK or WKUK official.

(03:18):
Official WKUK. Official, like, yeah, I
shouldn't know that, but yeah, we do that every Sunday around
9:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Pacificbecause my brother is in Pacific
Time. And then I do my own Twitch
show, kind of like supplementarycontent to that show called mid

(03:38):
hunters, more or less. Well, I, I don't really call the
show mid hunters. It's just like the act of mid
hunting, which is like searchingfor these like mid tier movies
that like, you know, aren't thatjust are forgotten about and and
won't leave really an impression.
Like you'll forget your see the movie.
Sometimes we'll watch a movie and I'll remember I've seen the
movie like at the third act and be like, wait a minute, like.

(04:01):
So it's that kind of stuff. It's just it's silliness pretty
much, you know? Yeah, well, there's, there's
movie clubs right, where people watch like good move, like
films, film clubs. And then there's like jokey,
let's watch only bad stuff and tear it apart.
And that's fun too. This is more like middle range
stuff that like, you know, we'renot finding stuff from other

(04:26):
people, you know, most of the time.
It's not like, you know, a lot of stuff you'll see on bad movie
podcast and people like let's watch that.
We're kind of finding our own stuff because they're the
majority of things on like a bell curve.
We're going to be in that, that middle of the road Rd. stuff
there. So we do we do find things that
I'm like, I think we're probablythe only people that have

(04:48):
watched this since it came out, that kind of stuff.
So it's it's pretty fun. I love that.
I think the genius of focusing on the middle of the pack is
that it's like, is this was thisa bad movie that by happy
accident or had one really good idea and now it's actually kind
of interesting. Or you could be like, this movie
could have been great. And you know what kind of held
it back? So Mike, you've been on the

(05:08):
you've been on the Trailer boys leaderboard a couple of times.
Oh yeah. Yeah, I, I hold a very strong
position at the very bottom of that leaderboard.
But. Still on the leaderboard?
Yeah, yeah. Still there.
What trailers have you submitted?
There has been a lot. I mean, obviously, I think part

(05:29):
of is there's definitely been several that like I've had to
edit so that they can show them on Twitch.
You've had to censor it. Yeah.
That's awesome vampire hookers. That was one of the ones that
was a lot of censoring, but it has such a great theme song.
OK, if you're my student and you've discovered the podcast,
he said that I didn't. OK, that that's the thing.

(05:52):
Well, you know what, Nate? Before we get to Blast Corps, I
don't like you just saying, oh, like I'm just known because of
Sam because I was watching one of your older episodes, your
Fast Cars themed trailer competition.
It was like as close as I could get to Blast Corps.
And you, Sam was trying to remember all the Fast and
Furious titles and you jokingly suggested Dark of the Moon and
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen.

(06:13):
And I was like wait, did Nate just discover like a peanut
butter combination? How have we not had a fast and
furious style movie with Transformers like?
It would make so much sense. Yeah, it's too.
Good. It's too good.
It makes too much sense. That's a layup.
Universal does own both of those, right?
Yeah. Like, I mean, they've got rides
for both of them. All right, add that to my Fast

(06:35):
and Furious predictions. I think that the final Fast and
Furious movie is gonna be Fast XXX, and it's gonna have Vin
Diesel's character from XXX. And now I think they're going to
get Transformers in there as a post credits scene.
But anyway, Mike, stay on topic here.
I think it's time to get moving.Are you guys ready to talk about
some video game demo? Video game demo?

(06:56):
No, no, no demo. Yeah.
Well, let's move on to Blast Core, released for the Nintendo
64 in 1997. As described on Nintendo

(07:18):
Classics Emergency Blast Core mobilized in this action game
released for the Nintendo 64 console in 1997, you take on the
work of the Blast Core, the leaders in the field of heavy
duty demolition, known for theirskill, experience, and cutting
edge technology. A carrier hauling a pair of
defective nuclear missiles has gone off route on its way to a

(07:39):
safe detonation site. You must clear the way to avoid
catastrophe. Each of the machines available
to the Blast Core is unique and powerful, with more than 8
vehicles ranging from a bulldozer to a giant flying
Mecca. Each stage will ask something
different and may require you toswitch machines in the middle of
the level or even operate trainsor cranes.
Time to get moving. Who says more than 8 vehicles?

(08:02):
What? It's weird to say more than 8
vehicles and use like a that precise of a number.
Yeah, you're not even a double digit.
Yeah. Exactly like is it 9?
Just say more like more than 10 would sound normal.
Yeah, it's like you're talking about this game on the
schoolyard. How many vehicles are in the
game? More than eight.

(08:23):
OK, well, good. Well, box art was often people's
first impressions. So in the North American box
here, we got the street level view of the action.
You got the backlash dump truck crashing through a building
toward the customer. The ballista motorcycle is
launching a volley of missiles also towards the customer.
The J bomb flying Mecca shooting.
I come hit her. Look at you guessed it, the

(08:43):
customer. And behind all this is the
nuclear character carrier approaches from the background.
Nate, you're something of an expert on marketing here.
What's your what's your take on the box art?
I, I loved it. I mean, it's so intense.
And like, I remember, I rememberwhen this came out, we got it.
It was, you know, there were no recognizable characters, wasn't

(09:03):
coming from an established IP, you know, and it was like 3D
looking like you could see you, you could kind of tell like you
were going to get this 3D game, you know, because N64 was like
that whole that that dawn of that whole thing.
So I remember seeing this man, what is this?
Like it's just, it's very curious right off the bat.

(09:24):
And, and the, the motion impliedis really dynamic.
You got the bricks flying, the missile trails.
If you even look the building, they're breaking through, it
looks like it's kind of tilting and falling over.
Like I love this. And we've also seen this on the
Ocarina of Time box where it's like they're kind of showing off
3D now. Japanese box are quite
different. Mike, what's your take on it?

(09:45):
This is a lot closer to just that.
Like just put all the things on the poster and call it a day.
So you've got all the vehicles on there, but there's no sense
of like a scene to it. No, they're kind of all centered
around the logo Blast them all, which kind of misleading.
That to me implies you're going to be, you know, fighting

(10:07):
enemies and trying to blast all the enemies.
And then the title Blast Dozer kind of implies the bulldozer is
going to be kind of the thing. No, just me.
Yeah, for some reason, I don't know, this feels vaguely like I
expect this to be like a Starship Troopers tie in with
Blast em all like that. Right.
Yeah, yeah. And this game is decidedly non

(10:28):
violent. I don't know if I'd say this is
decidedly non violent. Well, I mean you're blowing up a
empty buildings. No one gets hurt unless you
lose. Allegedly.
OK. Everyone runs out of the
buildings when you when you blowup the buildings so you see them
running. That is kind of crazy.
Like part of the game is saving survivors.
And how do you save survivors? Blow up the building they're in?

(10:50):
What? Is is that not how it's normally
done? That's how it works like the
couple places in the world. Trying that right now.
Actually speaking around the world here.
This game was produced by the Stamper brothers Chris and Tim
in addition to Co founding Rare Entertainment.
We will meet them again when we cover the sci-fi adventure Jet

(11:11):
Force Gemini for the N64. So I got some knowledge as
Nintendo Power trivia for y'all As Rare's first title for the
N64 Blast Core received universal acclaim according to
metacritic.com, despite being considered a commercial
disappointment, failing to move even a million copies.
But more than 8 Mike, so that's good.
The game has a number of fun hidden vehicles that are all

(11:34):
nods to American television. You can find the Gran Torino
from What Show guys. Oh, it's the cop show Starsky
and Hutch. Starsky and Hutch, well done.
You can unlock the van from WhatMike?
The A-Team van. The A-Team van.
All right, that's why I went forthat.
Did you press the horn while youwere driving the van?
No, I did not. There's a Mr. T sound alike that

(11:55):
goes out of my way. Out of my way.
I couldn't. I'm like, what is it just it's
gonna be a baracus. Like apparently yes.
Yeah, you know, they wanted it to be.
I pity the fool, though. And they're like, we can't.
And then the last one is the AllAmerican, which is not a famous
design, but if you press the horn, it plays Dixie.

(12:19):
So Nate, what show would that be?
Yeah, it's Dukes of Hazard. Dukes of Hazard, yeah.
In my memory, when I went back, I was like, Oh yeah, the the
General Lee is in the game and I'm like, it's not.
I was wondering though, like in my memory it was too, but like,
it's kind of obvious, you know? If you know the Dukes of
Hazzard's car, it has the Confederate flag painted on the

(12:40):
top, so not hard to imagine why they'd want to change the look
of it and have it be an Americanflag instead.
But in like 97. Yeah, I was like, honestly, I'm
surprised because nothing else has gotten that memo.
Right. Rare being woke in 97.
Yeah, man. There's a place in Nashville.
It's a museum that Dukes a hazard called Cooters Nashville

(13:02):
and so many Confederate flags. Some might say too many.
Yeah, maybe 1. Where?
Where are the brothers that started Rare?
Where are they from? In the UK.
OK, so maybe it maybe the IT means something different to
them. The Confederate flag.
I don't know. I don't know.
I was surprised though, because I was yeah.
I mean, even the horn that's waslike, Oh yeah, maybe it's not

(13:24):
this, but yeah, sorry. Oh, it's all good.
So a design choice that was definitely not intentional was
the decision to give the ThunderFist mech only one arm.
According to a 2009 interview for now gamer.com, the
developers literally ran out of memory on the cartridge and
could not fit the polygonal model for Thunder Fist Second
Arm. But according to Martin Wakeley,

(13:46):
the happy accident ended up making the character a lot more
memorable, so they were ultimately happy with the
exclusion. Crazy.
Isn't that funny? That's sick.
That is really cool. Like trivia on this because I I
thought it was funny. And it's it's interesting too,
because like you look at Thunderfist, there's actually
little wires almost implying that it lost the arm.
But I just kind of love that because to me that is a much

(14:07):
more iconic design. I don't know if I would remember
it so vividly if it had both itsarms.
That's also just impressive likethat.
That can't be that much memory. Like, yeah, you have a lot of
things in this game that you could have cut.
Yeah. Like they kept the Mr. T sound
alike in exchange for an arm. I mean, didn't cost an arm and a

(14:28):
leg, just an arm. You'll choose your battles.
Yeah, yeah, pick your poison. So before we get into the joy
pros and joy cons of Blast Core,what is our history with this
game and how far did we get? So, Nate, can you kind of tell
us why you picked it and what your history of the game is?
Yeah, you know, I was. I saw Blast.
I want to write to Blast. Sounds like a Blaster Master was

(14:51):
one of my favorite games as a kid on NES.
And then Blast Core was right there and I dipped into blaster
Master and that game was hard asshit.
So I abandoned that so quickly and went right to blast Core and
I was like yes. Like it clicked and I I got back
into it. I remember, I remember skipping

(15:12):
school and I was in high school and I skipped school with a
friend of mine and we went to the mall and just so happened to
be the same day that the 64 cameout.
And we didn't even know like it was, it was just I, I don't
think we really knew it was coming out that day.
But then we went all over the place looking for them because
they only had one and we both wanted one.

(15:33):
And so we went to all these places.
And so is that a time when like,I think this is in like the
first year of like the 64 comingout, We're like, you would be
buying the game that came out ever.
It was like, you know, games weren't flying in, you know,
like they were coming in on likea trickle.
So when this game came out, it was like a no brainer kind of

(15:54):
thing. It was like, oh, this is the
game that's out now. I can't even remember if
anything else came out around the same time.
But like this game came out and I was like, oh, here's the new
64 game and we picked it up. And my brother and I really dug
this game, but it's like as little kids as like I think back
and like playing games. I'm like, I don't think I really
beat a lot of games and revisiting them.
I don't think I got too far in alot of games.

(16:16):
But this one I remember like actually having, you know, put
some significant progress in originally in back in 97.
So play it now is like I'm goingto beat this game.
Did you? And I did not.
I got close, I got. I got 2 levels from full
completion, right? And I, I was frustrated and I

(16:40):
was like, man, I can't, I can't beat these levels.
And then I, I watched a YouTube tutorial like how to beat the
levels and I was like, no way amI am I able to do this?
I tried, I put some serious effort into it, but like one of
them, the last, the last two levels are so hard and they're
long and like you really have to, to, to one of them was just

(17:01):
like, it was a vehicle I wasn't very good with.
And then the other one just, there was so much going on with
it. I don't know if you guys got
that far in it, but you had so many things to do with boats.
You had to change the vehicles alot.
You had to, you had to shoot things in rockets and you had to
get it down quick. So no, I, I, I I did not beat

(17:23):
it. This is probably the closest
thing trains, planes, and automobiles will ever get to a
game like you do. You do have to juggle a lot of
vehicles there and you never beat it as a child.
No, I don't even know how far I got a child is a loose.
I was probably like 16. That's.
A child. That's a child.
You can't be charged as an adult.

(17:43):
Usually that's a child. Mike, you didn't get very far,
I'm feeling, from how you were talking before recording.
No SO this is a game. I had never heard of this game
and on paper it had let me say all the things that make it
sound like a game I'm going to enjoy and which is mostly

(18:04):
vehicles and destroying things with vehicles.
Just in terms of other like destroying buildings and having
vehicles tend to be too strong spots in games for me.
However, I really, it felt like I was struggling with this.
So I got, after three days of playing, I finally tried to
figure out where I was game progression and I was like one

(18:27):
or two levels away from having beaten all of the medium level
things. And then I went like, OK, if
this is where I am now, I am notgoing to see the end of this
game. Well, by some creative use of
safe states, as in like I would start a level, I would do the
first part well, I would create a safe state and then when I if

(18:49):
I make a mistake, I, I could restart halfway through a level.
After 10 hours and a lot of safestates, I Nintend did beat blast
Core. How many?
Computer. And I'm glad I did because I got
to see some pretty cool levels towards the end.
So Nate, have you not seen the end game and the bonus levels
that kind of come up? Because it's pretty interesting.

(19:12):
No, I mean, I, I've played, you know, some bonus level races
kind of come up through the thing, you know, you like
navigating the map is a pain. It's unnecessarily difficult to
get through and you don't know it doesn't.
It's not like a linear progression, but there are
bottlenecks to get from like easy to medium.

(19:32):
It all kind of convenes. It's it's like a weird spider
web of, of a globe of, of things.
And so they don't really give you a key of what the different
symbols really mean necessarily.So it was hard for me to just
navigate and find things. And then, you know, as far as I
got, you know, there were only two levels I couldn't beat.

(19:55):
And then I don't know what was after that.
I think it was, I had one professor to rescue.
I mean, The funny thing to me was like the whole thing, I was
like, I restarted halfway through too, because I, I was
like, I think I missed the storyin the beginning.
I, there's something I missed. I went through and I'm like, no,
you don't really get a lot of stories.
So I guess the stories on the box cover and that's it.

(20:17):
Then there's like professors youhave to rescue or find, they're
like hermit somewhere, which I really like the exploration part
of it. Like like each map has two
functions. You're clearing stuff out of the
way for this truck that has nukes right?
To get to the end thing? Yeah, that's the main gameplay
loop. Yeah, so you go through that and

(20:37):
then it's like you hit the levelagain to unlock all these other
parts and, and, and take all thebuildings down and, and do all
the collectibles. So I like that second part of
every map better. And then I'm not really good at
racing games. But the way this was in kind of
a locked angle third person view, it kind of felt more like

(20:59):
RC racers or RC pro am remember that kind of game.
Oh yeah, I, I really like that. So doing the races in that kind
of level was really cool. I, I, I really found it a lot
easier to do the races and, and,and that, yeah.
And it was interesting that you get to choose the cars for the

(21:20):
races too, because obviously it's like half of them aren't
viable to like, you know, get a gold medal in it.
You want to race in the bulldozer?
Yeah, exactly. I tried it once.
I was like, can I do this? But no, I can't.
But yeah, no, I the the last twoI got, it was, oh man, I forget
the name of the level, but it was like you had to take the

(21:41):
motorcycle missile, a bunch of things in a shipyard.
Then you had to like run down, get the bulldozer.
Then you had to start pushing all these puzzle piece blocks to
drop into the ground, right? And then the pulse piece box
also, that was kind of a trap too, because there would be
multiples that would fit in certain places.

(22:02):
So if you'd put one down and didn't go to get the secret one
behind somewhere else, you'd be in trouble.
And then after that, it was likeyou had to move some boats and
then you had to move boats back and forth.
It was crazy. I was like, this isn't it?
Like when I finally saw it beingdone on a YouTube video, I was
like, no, that's, that's what I like threw in the towel.

(22:23):
And then the other one was just the vehicle I was really, really
bad at. And the whole level was just
that vehicle over and over again.
And I just couldn't get the mechanic.
I just, I was really rough at that one.
So those are the two that kind of ended it for me.
Yeah, For those who haven't tried the game, the basic
premise, like he said, is that this big rig with nukes on it is

(22:44):
slowly going in a straight line,and your goal is to clear a path
for it. You have to destroy the
buildings or move fairies to create little bridges.
Your job is to make sure that that thing doesn't crash.
And I guess when they were originally developing it, they
just at first toyed with just a timer and like destroy the
buildings within a time, kind oflike the game Rampage.

(23:04):
But I think it's genius to make it like an actual physical thing
because first of all, this game authentically creates these
really nail biting moments whereyou are threading the needle
between the approaching carrier and a building up ahead, and you
need to get in between them so you can destroy the building and
then get out of the way before the carrier hits you because.

(23:25):
That ends at two, yeah. Yeah, that ends at 2:00.
You if you hit the truck, you'reit's over and I've done that.
Or or smack it with a missile. I was going to say it it it
creates a different ending in mygames where I'm like, OK, fine,
if I'm losing, I'm losing in my terms and just plowing into that
sucker. Just a quick restart.
Yeah, you're just seeing like, no, no, no, you're not hitting

(23:46):
that building, I'm hitting you. I just that feels way too real
in the nuclear apocalypse. Mike's like, you know what?
Let's just end this already. Like.
I kept thinking it's going slow enough, why can't somebody just
jump in the truck? Like I remember switching guys
cuz you can actually get out of your vehicles and you're like
the little guy, which I thought was like really cool too.
And I was like trying to run like can I just get in the truck

(24:10):
and stop the truck? No, it it doesn't work like that
did. That count as a collision to
blow it up. No, yes.
No, no, the the guy doesn't blowit up if you touch the carrier
as the man. From the front if if you hit the
front, yeah, yeah, I. Thought you might have tried to
enter the side. Yeah, if you enter the side,
it's it's it don't do anything. What would have been hilarious
if you could just drive the carrier and just hit the brakes.

(24:33):
We go. That was easy.
Nobody tried it. Now there were some hard ones
with like cranes and stuff too. We had to like drop blocks on
the cranes. And I mean, there, there was one
where it was a train, I think, and you had to go on either side
of the train tracks blowing up the buildings.
That was like the heart. Those it was those two.
It was like blowing up because you had to go on either side of

(24:56):
the tracks. You can't drive over the the
train tracks. So it's like you have to destroy
a bunch on one side of the traintracks, then hurry, get
underneath the tongue to go backand destroy the other side.
And then you do it three times in a row.
And I was like, this is crazy. Yeah.
So those two levels, I don't even know, like the lady in the
corner that tells you what to do.
Does she have a character name? Yeah.

(25:17):
Like I I didn't understand a lotof the story.
Mike, you read the booklet. Actually the book, the booklet
was very light on this. It was actually kind of weird to
realize that like so I think at the start of the game, like if
you just don't hit start, it auto plays through basically
giving you all the text in the manual as well as giving you

(25:37):
vehicle info. And then a lot of it is actually
just communicated in like the start of each level.
We'll just do like scrolling text.
And I think this, this may be one of the only games that we've
covered on here that really heavily was like in game
information. Yeah, especially to the
exclusion of the manual. But so the other thing I really

(25:59):
like about the carrier, the concept of the carrier is that
routinely a level will start andyou get this really dynamic
camera angle of where you're starting and off in the distance
you can see way down there at the bottom of the Canyon,
there's the carrier. And so it's like, OK, in this
level, I have to get to Ground Zero.
That's the first challenge is navigate your way to the path of

(26:22):
the carrier. And then of course, you know, if
you guys like look at the screenshot, there's little
collectibles on the ground. So even that far away shot is an
accessible area. The game felt really expansive.
And that's why I completely agree with Nate that like the
the real fun of the game is revisiting levels once you've
already cleared a path. Now there's no timer.

(26:43):
Explore and find all the little nooks and crannies and hidden
vehicles and collectibles and I I to me, that's where the game
really opened up, so I'm glad you brought that up.
So when you go back, there's no carrier, there's just Explorer.
It's. Just like, yeah, there's no
timer. I didn't, I didn't know that.
I thought I do that. You, you, you, you mentioned

(27:05):
that. I thought it would just be if I
went back after the carrier was done, it wouldn't end of the
level, but I'd still have to deal with the carrier.
No, no, you get to go back to the town or what's left of it
with no timer whatsoever. Yeah.
And that's where like the crazy,like innovative stuff that I'd

(27:26):
be like. I can't believe I just remember
marveling at it being like this level of just puzzles in like a
3D game like this for this era was really surprising to me.
You know, like some of the things are like, Dang, it took
me a while to figure out some ofthe odd puzzles.
You know, they're like underwater tunnels and things

(27:47):
and very, very cool stuff that like was just really interesting
to me. Yeah, the underwater tunnel is
where you find the Starsky and Hutch vehicle.
I I do love though, that like atat certain point, you know, like
one of the collectibles is just like like a light on the ground
that you, you drive over and it lights up.
And it's just funny that like, it seems like they're like, oh,

(28:09):
we just got to throw a bunch in and they would just put a grid
on a field, you know, like they just put them all together like
in one block. So you're like, all right.
They were just like, yeah, we have 20 more to do, let's just
put them all together. And it's funny because like
you're looking, you're trying 100% the game to unlock some of
the bonus levels and you're like, I'm missing 20.
Oh, they stuck them all over here.
We're just in the corner all together.

(28:31):
Like that's that was the funniest part is like seeing
like going back in in in trying to unlock all the cars and stuff
is, you know, that's why I foundthe most fun of the game, you
know, and all like the secret levels with like the races and
you know, unlocking cars was really neat too.
But yeah, I, I man, Mike, I didn't go back.

(28:54):
I got to go back. I thought I was going to have to
go through that stuff again, deal with that thing again.
I was like, that's, that was a pain.
I did not realize that was gone.See, I went through 100% at
every level before moving to like the next level, you know?
So I was kind of like burning itout one at a time.
Like someone I would just stare at me like I've been all over
this because you can't really change the camera angle to you

(29:15):
can kind of do it. I kept hitting the wrong button
sometimes and you get like a weird view.
But just the exploration part was I thought it'd be so easy.
I'm like, you know, this was so early days.
It's going to be so rudimentary compared to like all the stuff
that we have to do now. But it was still, like, pretty
smart. So as a kid, did you discover
some of the fun, like kind of Easter eggy levels?

(29:35):
I was having, Mike, before we recorded.
There's a Pac-Man level where you know these ghost tractors
are trying to hunt you down while you collect all the little
things. No, you never tried this.
It's really neat. I never saw so was this on the
map or is this? So if you have time after
recording, we'll do a quick multiplayer session because I
can load my game and pass you the controller digitally to

(29:57):
Massachusetts. So you can just take over from
wherever I left off. It's pretty neat.
And then there's also this flooris lava level where you're
literally in a volcano and you have to break these targets
without touching the lava. You mentioned the little race
levels. Nate, did you ever notice in the
bottom right hand corner you said it feels like you're racing
an RC car? They literally have an RC
controller flashing on the screen.

(30:18):
Yeah. Hilarious.
That was exactly what they wanted it to feel like.
They wanted you to feel like youwere standing over like a little
diorama or a little RC, you know, racetrack.
And then you also have the one where you play pool with the TNT
crates, which is kind of wacky. And it starts with what, seven
note progression, Mike? The Minsky pick up.

(30:41):
The Minsky pick up out Season 1 episode 7 True Believers.
Go listen to our Kirby episode for the CD back story about
those 7 notes. You've heard that before?
We've all heard that before. Yeah, it has a pretty CD back
story we covered back in season 1.
So when it when it popped up in here, I really popped off.

(31:02):
Speaking of music though, Nate, can you talk on the Blast Core
music because it's cool. Oh yeah, I, I love the music.
And it's like one of those things where there's not a lot
of variation in the music. You're hearing the same song
every level pretty much. And I so you have to have a good
tune because you're going to be listening to it.
It's going to drive you insane. So if it's bad, you're going to,

(31:22):
you're going to be like, this isrough.
But it was just like a little fun poppy thing.
And I had like vocals in it. Like I think it was like time to
get moving. Time to get moving.
Yeah, I loved it. I was like, yeah, playing it,
jamming out. No, it was really good.
I I remember it was something that I noticed, you know, like a

(31:43):
lot of times, like you'll play the games, you not really notice
the music or whatever. They don't stand out.
This specifically I was like, ohman, I I like this tune.
Maybe I do like hear it, you know, I play.
Time to get moving. Yeah.
But yeah, that was like, I thinkthe in my head, I was like, oh,
that's the character in the corner of the screen on the TV
saying that. But I I guess someone I'm

(32:04):
putting here, I'm like, I guess it doesn't have to be her.
It's just part of the song. But I.
Think it is a remix of her voicethough.
Yeah. Oh, is it?
Yeah, I think it's just her voice because she will say time
to get moving at the start of levels.
And I think they just pitched itup to make the dance remix.
It is so catchy, though. I love it.
It's kind of jug band style. You know, you got banjos and
accordions and Jews harps and hey, don't evoke my tax exempt

(32:27):
status, OK Jews harp is an actual instrument in this game.
Look it up, everybody. But like, it's very like kind of
Southern twangy and it's so. It's so good.
I love. You know you call that a mouth
harp and avoid problems, right? I mean, I guess you could cut
this part out if we have to, butit weird Mike Oh, I can't think

(32:49):
I made it weird Mike music like it.
You also like it. Honestly, I.
For me then I didn't notice the music so much, but that also I'm
now wondering if like if I was just like exploring stuff at
leisure and had music going withit.
That's very different from me being increasingly frustrated.

(33:10):
Oh yeah, like those those clear the way parts are so frustrating
and like anxiety inducing. So like going back at like a
leisurely pace is like that's why I fell in love with the
game. But yeah, like, you know, there
would be some levels that I knowI played for like an hour just
looking for stuff, you know, andreally hear the music.

(33:32):
And, and, and look at the game like I love this era of Nintendo
64 graphics where everything is kind of shiny and they're
showing off that they can do reflections for the first time.
And everything felt like this, like micro machine toy I really
wanted to play with the draw distance, really impressive.
You can see across the whole level, there's no fog.
The verticality, when you get into some of the flying

(33:55):
vehicles, you go really high up there to the point that like
you're seeing clouds pass you and the wind is hissing by.
And it's like, this is this is really immersive.
I don't know. But I also kind of think that
some people would say the game hasn't aged well because like
the little Sprite of the man, when you get out of the vehicle,
he's got no expressions. He's just like 8 polygons.
Yeah, I don't know. It's it's a bit rough, but like

(34:18):
I like at the time too, I think this was a big flex, you know,
like a lot of like they're like we're doing 3D now, baby.
Looking back at it, you know, you're like, oh, everything is
so low Poly, you know, that it'skind of hilarious.
But yeah, I mean, I think it's still like for the time it was

(34:39):
like blowing minds. But I mean, The funny thing to
me is a lot of the games I go back and play and it's like the
mechanics don't feel good. This the the IT.
It looked kind of dated, but themechanics were still great.
Yeah, especially when they work.Yeah.
When they don't, that's quite frustrating.
The mechanics on most of the vehicles.

(35:00):
Yeah, well, I before I get away from it, I have one little bit
of Easter egg about the music. You might recognize the tunes.
It's either pronounced. How would you guys pronounce
this SKERIES? Is that scaries or scurries?
Skrillex. Skrillex so there's a TuneIn

(35:21):
blast core that is a note for note remix from Donkey Kong
land. That's because Graham Norgate
worked on both games, so we'll put a link to the audio
comparison in the show notes Binwants to check it out.
I think this game's best levels are actually in its end game and
kind of post game content because spoilers for blast core.
But once you once you've clear apath for the carrier and all the

(35:44):
main game levels are done, now, like Nate said, you need to find
these six scientists who are hiding in the levels you've
already visited. And I never found a single one
before it was time to look for them.
Like, they're really well hidden.
And then they control the detonation.
And you go, OK, the detonation has happened safely, game over.
But then the game throws you this crazy curveball.

(36:04):
We're now out of nowhere. A space shuttle needs to land.
And so you need to destroy a city to create a runway for the
space shuttle. But if you don't, the space
shuttle just crashes into the ocean and you get this funny
message, ditching in the sea. And then I'm like, isn't that
better than destroying a whole city?
If it could crash in the water, why would you destroy a whole

(36:26):
city? Is it just me?
No. No, it makes a lot of sense.
I love it. But if you do clear a runway for
the emergency landing at the space shuttle, you're treated to
a cutscene of a different space shuttle, I guess going off into
space. And then you get to access the
moon. And the moon is an anti gravity
level where for the first time you can freely control the

(36:47):
camera in full 360° movement. It's not anti gravity.
It is low gravity. Good point.
Yeah, but Mike, you got to play this one.
Did you like the moon level? It's 4 shadows points.
I think it may be the only time that I found dump truck to be
mostly playable. It is fascinating in that I want

(37:08):
to know how this is coded, but like because you can get
serious, it's not quite airtime on the moon, I guess on the
moon, serious time off the ground, and if you start turning
after you've become space born, you can turn.
I made AU turn off of the ground, which is so far from how

(37:31):
any physics should ever work right that I actually don't know
how this is coded to allow that.Yeah, it's pretty wild, but kind
of fun. I don't know, maybe Nate can try
it after. It's cool.
Yeah, it's it's, it's super, super dope.
And Mike mentioned that he wantsto dump all over the dump truck.
So we're going to do a segment of our Rankin Retro where we are

(37:53):
going to create a tier list for the Blast core vehicles.
Because a big part of the enjoyment of this game is which
vehicle you're controlling it atany given level.
So we're gonna have three main tiers here, top of the line,
middle of the pack or lemons forthe worst vehicles.
And then when we are done, we will declare which one is the

(38:14):
best core and which one is the blast corpse.
So you guys can see my tier list.
Yes, yes, yes. OK, so let's start off with Ram
Dozer, the Bulldozer if I can start first.
To me, this is clearly a middle of the pack selection because it
was easy to control, very straightforward.
You just ram through buildings. I think what keeps it from being

(38:34):
top of the line for me is all those puzzles where you have to
push the TNT crates and you haveto get them to where you're
going before the TNT crate blowsup.
Those are annoying. So didn't love it.
Didn't hate it. Ramdozer, middle of the pack in
my book. What do you guys think?
I mean really, I feel like your problem there is crates.
OK, fair. I'm not sure I would hold that.

(38:54):
I'm not sure what it was. Against Ramdozer.
Yeah. So are you fighting for top of
the line? I'm almost tempted.
Like it it. It was one that I enjoyed until
I saw those boxes. Yeah.
OK. So Nate, you'll be the decider.
Where are you putting Ram Dozer?You know what?
I, I we're talking about the entire fleet, right?

(39:17):
Yeah, we're gonna compare them all to each other.
You know, I feel ram dozers likea a little higher up than some
of the other vehicles, you know,like I like I thought it it
wasn't too slow. The crates physics were a bit
rough, but I did like the Ram dozer.
There was not a whole lot to it,but it was a serviceable.

(39:42):
It was a serviceable vehicle. Okay so in my mind though you
would never call a serviceable vehicle a top of the line
vehicle. It would be a middle of the pack
vehicle. Yeah, I guess there's something
in that, but I I'm trying to think of things that I would put
above it and I still feel, you know what?
All right. Middle of the pack.
Yeah, Yeah, middle of the pack. It's, it's very, it's very, but

(40:03):
it's, it's like the vehicle you get first, right?
Yeah, I think so. So it it definitely is like the
one you get accustomed the the controls are the most intuitive.
There's no real secret mechanic to it, you know, It's smooth.
If it was slower, I'd, I would hate it, but it was a good
speed, you know? Yeah, it was a fun one.

(40:25):
I think it's like a good meat and potatoes starting point.
Yeah, so ballista, the Mistle toting motorcycle.
I'm also going to make a case from middle of the pack, the
missiles feels really good to just pepper a building with
missiles and it's blowing up in all different directions.
But I just feel like the Ballista motorcycle kind of
handles really finicky. It kind of bounces off things

(40:46):
really easily. And it had some of my most
frustrating moments trying to 100% the game because they love
to put like, like they mentioned, there's like this
shipyard. And so if you want to blow up
all the buildings, technically the big ship counts, but no
vehicle can touch it. It's out in the water.
So you have to drive up to the shore and shoot your missiles at
it, but you can't free aim. So you know, it's that was kind

(41:08):
of frustrating. Mike, what do you think about
Ballista? I was going to go lemon at
highest. I hated that thing.
You hated that thing. I agree.
OK, OK, no love for the ballista.
Cuz all it has is those missilesand those missiles are just
frustrating. The fact that they alternate
which side you fire from is incredibly annoying.

(41:30):
Bounces around a lot. Yeah, no, I'm not going to.
I'm not going to make a I'm not going to die on the hill for
that thing. It's it's not the.
Greatest and I agree it was, it was not good.
Like you would hit something tiny and it would stop you in
your tracks. You really had to spend a lot of
time, the positioning of the ballista to get the Rockets to

(41:50):
hit the right places. And it would be like minuscule,
you know, like you'd be a small pitch up or down and it would
change where it's going. So like even restarting levels
over and over again with the ballista to try and get it to
hit the target that I wanted to,I'm like, I'm in the same place
I was before, you know, So it was just frustrating to use
Every time I had to use it, I'd be like.

(42:12):
It'd almost be better if the missiles locked onto things and
you could just focus on driving the vehicle and not having to
aim at manual for. Sure.
Or if you knew if it had a target, anything of this is
where it's gonna hit. Yeah, Crosshair.
It's frustrating too, like you're shooting over a
destroyable target, right? Going over it for no reason.

(42:33):
If it if it locked in a little bit, yeah, it would be fine.
You know, if it was getting close to a target that could be
destroyed, well, that'd be great.
Because again, the more frustrating part of it is using
it in the time trial stuff in the open world.
Like the ballista. You're really only using it to
like unlock secret areas or blowing up something to get to
something else. Like you're rarely choosing the

(42:54):
ballista to like blow up buildings.
You know, there's other vehiclesthat do it better.
So in the, in the levels where you have to use it and, and
you're stuck for time, right? Because that's a big thing.
It's it's just an inefficient, hard to use vehicle for that.
Yeah, you just reminded me that one of the secret levels you

(43:14):
unlock, because there's these tiny little wooden doors and
they're they don't appear anywhere else in the game.
And you can see one kind of downin this ditch.
And so you have to position the ballista up above the ditch and
shoot your missile so it hits the door.
It's wild and really annoying, but felt like a cool, like I
felt proud of myself for figuring that out.
So the backlash dump truck apparently caused over 5 months

(43:35):
of arguments because the lead developer was adamant that once
you get the hang of the dump truck, it's worth it.
And all the other devs were like, this is not fun.
And he stuck to his guns. Nate, where you put in the
backlash dump truck last corpse.Oh, you hate it?
I. Hated the dump truck and I and
I, I want to know what that leaddeveloper ended up, you know,

(43:58):
where what games did he go on tomake?
Because I'm sure I just, I'm sure like it.
It seemed cool, but the, the, the difficult and I tried, I
put, I put work into it to, to get this to, to, you know,
because you really need to use it in like some of the end game
stuff. And I just couldn't get the tail
whip. I mean, that's the whole thing
is like the whole mechanic is you, you hit the brakes and you

(44:22):
kind of drift out and tail whip and, and then once you hit it
right, you're destroying stuff like left and right.
And there's a tutorial level, but like, man, I could not get
it down. I, I just couldn't.
And then I, you know, watched a video of a guy being like, look,
if you can't get it down, just drive into something at an angle
and then you kind of bounce off the wall and it will start to
destroy stuff. And so I started doing that and

(44:43):
I was like, Oh, this is easier, but I'm not doing it as
intended, you know? So no, I, I hated this.
This was the bane of the game for me.
And it's the most common vehicle.
It's like it gets like 20 levels.
It's crazy. It's crazy.
And, and I also discovered through a YouTube watch because
I got stuck on that damn train level you're talking about.
And, and the train level is especially infuriating because

(45:05):
like he said, you have to destroy a building.
You have to destroy a train yardessentially.
So imagine a train yard, right? The train goes into a building,
but you have to destroy the leftside of the building and the
right side of the building independent of each other.
And your your dump truck can destroy an entire building,
cannot cross the train tracks. Don't ask me why.
Don't ask me why those train tracks have some kind of

(45:26):
invisible wall. But it's just everything I hated
about the dump truck. And so then I also discovered,
yeah, you just you just nudge the corner of a building with
the front of your car. The dump truck disintegrates it.
But now that's bad for theming. I'm not even having fun.
It feels stupid. Yeah, that feels like a glitch.
You know that you're exploiting something that like they didn't
intend for. Right.

(45:48):
Yeah. I was doing the similar sort of
thing on stuff where I had to use that was having been told
that basically if you hit a, if you hit something with where all
wheels are not on the ground, itwill just treat that as destroy
this 100% on contact. Yeah.
And so I was relying on that because I could not get that to

(46:11):
control in any way. And one of the most frustrating
things about this is because, I mean, this is meant to be like
this giant heavy dump truck. Yeah.
And I would hit like a corrugated fence in front of a
building and stop. And I'm just like, that vehicle

(46:32):
may most typify. There's one other thing that
will come up on this, but that just as a vehicle on its own
that may most typify like this vehicle doesn't feel like it has
any sense of weight to it. It stops on things that it
should destroy. And it's this weird thing where
it's like, oh, if it hits with the back, it will destroy a
whole building. But if it hits with the front,

(46:53):
it does no damage and cut comes to a stop.
If even if it's a fence, I'm like this should feel more
consistent. Like it would be one thing if
it's like it will damage, destroy all the small stuff and
it's just the big stuff that is harder and you need to be more
efficient at it. But I'm like this does not
really makes sense and it handles atrociously.

(47:14):
Yeah. And it's slow, so it's hard to
get the speed up to do the tail whip in most places because you
have to do it a lot. And if you go on to like, grass,
it just drops a speed that can'tdo any damage.
And it's like I feel like it should be able to handle that.
Yeah, you just plowed through a football stadium, but like,
grass. But the grass part, for some
reason, that's the resistance. And yeah, I I'm, I'm with you

(47:37):
guys. I was gonna say like, you know,
let's decide Blast Corps last. So let's leave that at the
bottom tier and see if anything else, you know, competes with
it. Moving on to Skyfall, the steel
bottom buggy. I'm gonna I'm gonna sit make a
suggestion from middle of the pack.
This is the little buggy where you have to jump off of ramps
and land on top of targets because the bottom of the

(47:57):
vehicle has a big steel shield on it.
I never really was infuriated byit.
I think it's a boost that you used to get big air that runs
out way too fast. Like you have like a half a
second of boost and I wish you could get I wish, I wish for
this vehicle. The sense of speed felt a little
better. So don't love it, don't hate it.
Middle of the pack mate. What do you think, Skyfall?

(48:18):
Yeah, this is where it was pretty easy to figure out the
mechanics of it. And it was funny because the,
you know, it needs some kind of jump, like some kind of ravine
to like, actually be useful. So it's very funny to see how
like shoehorned in some of the setups were for it.
You know, like you, you could tell what they wanted you to use

(48:39):
it because the thing was the thethere was like a ravine there or
something that you could use fora jump.
So it was like, all right, I know they want me to use this
vehicle to do this thing. So it was pretty easy to use,
but like, you know, as far as middle of the pack, it's like, I
think I like the bulldozer a little better between the two.
That's why you you, that's why Ikept going back and forth is

(49:01):
because, but I mean, they could be on the same path.
But as far as it's very middle of the pack, for me, it was
fine, you know, but I never really chose it over anything
else. You know, like I, I felt it, it
didn't really have a lot of usability outside of those
specific scenarios where it really wanted you to, the game

(49:22):
wanted you to use that vehicle. Yeah, I, I, you know what?
I think retroactively, you're right.
Because like when I would play the bulldozer, I'd be like, OK,
sweet bulldozer, I know what to do with this.
I know it's reliable. It's gonna get me to the end.
And so I did enjoy it more than Skyfall.
So, Mike, you OK with that? Retroactively moving Ram Dozer
up to the top of the line and putting Skyfall in the middle.

(49:42):
I mean, I was proactively OK with putting it at the top of
the line. So yeah, I'm good.
OK. But yeah, Skyfall, at least the
boost was good for like, I'm stuck on something.
I'm just gonna keep hammering this boost until this building's
gone. Yeah, it's you talking to Nate
about how like, the game would very obviously set you up to do
the jump. Did you guys ever watch Chips
the show? Chips the motorcycle cops show

(50:03):
for? Sure.
There would always be that pointwhere like for some reason,
they'd be towing a ramp so they could jump off of it.
And it's like that's this very chips coded the ramps for
Skyfall. OK, so if I want to start with
this one, I freaking hate Sidewinder.
No, sorry, Sideswipe, Sideswipe.Sideswipe is the articulated arm

(50:25):
vehicle where it's whole thing is that at the touch of a
button, these two little kind ofRams or fists will go off the
left and right side. But that's only useful in a very
specific situation where you're going down like an alleyway and
there's buildings on each side of you.
But for some reason the ability to punch out is locked to a
collectible ammunition you need to collect your punches.

(50:47):
Almost like they were. Why did they do that and am I
alone here? That was annoying.
I. Figured that they're like
pneumatic or something. OK, so why does that have to be
a collectible? Because you'd need more air to
do it. Well, don't you need more gas to
drive your car? I don't know.
Not give them ideas. OK, so you like your sideswipe?

(51:10):
I mean I'm still good with lemoncuz I think the thing that
bothered me was when I realized that if I had stuff on both
sides but I was slightly too farto one side versus the other, it
would only hit the close side. But it was most effective at
like the maximum range for reasons that don't fully make
sense to me. If it just punched through both
sides every time I'd be a lot more forgiving.

(51:33):
Nate, what are you thinking? What sides away?
Yeah, I mean, I thought Skyfall was one of the most like
shoehorned in like ability vehicles until like sideswipe.
I was like, this is silly and and you know, everything I said
about it, you know, I agree withit was so specific use case.
And then yeah, like even the mechanic of it was kind of silly

(51:56):
where I'd be right up on a building hammering it and it
wouldn't be blowing the buildingout.
So it's like you had to have a perfect, if you were too close,
it wasn't as effective. You kind of had to be very much
in between two buildings to really get it done.
And, and rarely, you know, did that work?
But yeah, and it's just, it justseems so silly to me.
I don't think I, I don't think Iever even use this on a level

(52:19):
where I didn't have to, you know, cuz like certain levels,
like you can grab different carsand do different things.
You know, if it didn't make me use it, I wasn't using it cuz it
just it, it was silly. And and it it was less
frustrating than back slash backlash backlash.
Backlash. It was less frustrating than

(52:39):
backlash. Back brace.
Easier, I mean, it was as frustrating as the motorcycle.
So yeah, Lemon is is good for me.
All right, so now we're getting to what I think are the good
ones here. Thunderfist.
I I like Thunderfist. It's the first mech we're
talking about. It has this attack where it
rolls forward and then if it hit, hit something.

(53:02):
It does like a show where you can like dragon punch up to the
sky and just clears out a whole skyscraper at once.
I'm gonna actually argue the middle of the pack because one
thing that frustrates me about it is that you can't roll
indefinitely until you hit a target.
Like, I wish I could hold down the button and Thunderfist would
just keep rolling until it findsa building.

(53:23):
Imagine if you played Sonic the Hedgehog and he stood up every
five feet every time he was rolling and you had to get down
and roll again. That would drive you insane.
It it's the one thing that kind of ruined Thunderfist for me.
Mike, what do you think about Thunderfist placement?
I I'm kind of. This or possibly top of the

(53:44):
line, I think I feel good. The Mex I feel like I didn't
have quite as much play time with and frankly, I don't
remember them as 3. And so we'll resolve that
hopefully in a moment. And so like I, I think I don't
have, I definitely don't have problems with it.
I think I was mostly good with this one.
Well, so you're good with it being middle of the pack or do

(54:05):
you want to move it to the top of the?
Line I'm I'm think I'm kind of just fine with either of those.
OK, so let 2. We'll let Nate decide.
Well, I, you know, I really liked Under Fist for for me,
like and I don't know if ThunderFist is on the box cover because
I think it was the other, but for me, this was one of the more
fun vehicles to play. I think my favorite Mac maybe,

(54:28):
but I would put this at best core because I just had a great
time with it. The rolling yeah, it took me a
while to figure out like the timing of like he's not going to
be able to roll forever. So you have to get the roll down
to get the uppercut done, you know, to hit the building
perfect. So it it didn't take me too long
to figure it out and it was justa very satisfying when you were

(54:50):
able to like hit it, it was pretty satisfying.
So yeah, I mean, I I like this better than the gymnastics one
because I similar, you know, I think the I could be wrong, but
I feel like the mechanics were kind of similar, but like the
animations were different, you know?
Yeah, the. So this might be the one, you

(55:12):
might not have gotten to this one.
It might be exclusively in the hard levels.
Little cyclone or Cyclone, excuse me, is another Mac.
And like Nate said, it rolls forward.
But this one, he's like somersaulting.
And what's interesting about this one is that when he hits a
building, he will go into the next move of his gymnastics

(55:33):
routine. So first one's a cartwheel, then
it's a flip, then it's like a tuck like, you know, and so you
can kind of combo and keep moving, which is to me, what I
was missing with Thunderfist. So I think Cyclone might be top
of the line. But Mike, you don't remember
playing this one, right? No, and after that description I

(55:53):
definitely don't. OK, so let's let's kind of leave
them both at top of the line fornow and move on to the last
mech, which is J Bond. I put Cyclone on top of the
line. It was fun, but I, it was very
hard for me to like hit all those combos to like get a full
complete like, you know. Get the gold.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Stick the landing.

(56:14):
Tell me you love J Bomb the Flying.
One J Bomb was sick. Yeah.
What's funny is I don't know, I don't remember in the game if
they ever call it J Bomb. I remember like looking it up,
somebody like J Bomb and I'm like, why is it called J Bomb?
But I would put it at best core as well, because I really liked
the verticality. Like it's the first thing that
you do that you all sudden like you're seeing a bunch of

(56:37):
different parts of the level just flying over everything and
dropping down that it was just very satisfying.
As far as like destroying stuff,I was like, yes.
Yeah, and also really helpful inthe second-half of the game
where you're looking for secretsbecause you you take to the sky
and the camera will show you a, hey, look off in the distance.

(56:57):
There's like the Easter Island statues and you're like, OK, and
then you fly off and now you're in this whole other area that
you never would have found as the stupid dump truck.
So yeah, I just, I love everything about J Bomb.
Mike, you with us on this one? The flying mech is cool.
Yeah, my, I think since the way you destroyed that is by just
dropping down on stuff. It's also because shadows exist.

(57:20):
It also felt like the only one that I really had an idea of
what it was actually going to doin a way that possibly nothing
else other than the bulldozer was the case of.
Like where is this actually going to hit stuff?
Yeah, I, I, I did. There was only one, one time I
had trouble with J Bomb and it was like destroying a ship
because you can't the ship is inthe water and J Bomb will hover

(57:42):
over the water. And so I had to like line it up
or I had to drop J bomb right onthe edge of the canal or the
ship was to trigger the ship blowing up.
So that was a bit frustrating doing that over and over again.
But everything else I I really liked about J Bomb.
Same. So do we want to rank the non
destructive vehicles or you wantto go on to who gets the best

(58:03):
core? I'm good doing the other ones
because I feel like I would liketo complain about parts of other
vehicles. But do it.
So let's talk about just. I lumped all the cars together,
the race cars, the van, A-Team, A-Team van, they.
Have different speeds. They do have different speeds
and the A-Team van is the only one that can go off road without
losing much speed. So it's like the clear favorite.

(58:25):
I have notes on it, I was just saying the cars middle.
They're fun, they're responsive,but only the really the van
handles uniquely so I'd say middle of the pack for the cars.
Also, they don't destroy things,right?
They don't destroy. Things.
That's kind of like the thing here.
I mean you can hit stuff with the car, it will do a minimal
amount of damage but it's not very effective so net you cool

(58:47):
with the cars being middle of the pack.
You know what I think honestly, for me, the cars are what like
brought into loving the game. Like I just love the the feel of
driving the car. You know, you can drift it out
on the side. The race parts were great with
the cars. I I love the cars.
That's what really sold me on the game is like, and, and all

(59:09):
the cars felt different in driving them too, you know, like
I'm trying to remember which carI like the best.
It might be the Starsky and Hutch car, because I don't know,
I don't think it was the fastestcar, but it just felt fun.
It was just a fun thing to drivearound in, you know?
So yeah, I liked him a lot. And that the horns are a neat

(59:29):
little added touch, you know, turning on your turn, on your
siren as the police car. Like come on, that's fun.
Yeah, I, I wanted to play a whole game of like, just more
cars, you know, like different, like kind of weird tracks to
drive around in. And like, I was looking for like
jumps for the cars and, and things like that, 'cause there
are, you know, like certain things you hit and you get like
some air. And some of the races were

(59:50):
pretty silly. You know, you're kind of driving
all over the place. Yeah.
I was like, man, they should make a game like this.
And I'm like, wait, I'm playing that game.
Well, I think Mike and I overrule you.
Overrule you, though, with our two votes from middle of the
pack. Sure.
Crane Lemon. I freaking the Cranes lemon
guys. I would say blast Corpse, the

(01:00:12):
crane was a pain in the A. The controls on that were
remarkably difficult for being afreaking crane.
Yeah, and I'm going to hold thisentirely on the crane, that
getting a vehicle onto the craneplatform was obnoxious.
Yes, it could have been more obnoxious, but that was just
that should be an easy process if I'm going to have to move

(01:00:35):
vehicles with other vehicles, like make that work.
And like, it's difficult to tellwhere the crane is going to
place something. There's no like, shadow helping
you and then, you know, a puzzlein the game, you have to put a
TNT crate on the crane and then you have to lower the TNT crate
onto something to blow it up. But you've never done that
before in the game. You never do it again.

(01:00:56):
So yeah, not a fan of the. You have to drop it on that
bridge in a very specific perfect spot to blow up like a
bunch of them because if you didwrong, then you have to do it
again. And so like I, if I, I probably
would have done like the, the switch saves spot on that
because I did that so many times, pulling my hair out,

(01:01:17):
being like, I, I just did it in the same spot.
How come it didn't blow up the whole bridge this time?
You know, like it was all, it was all these segmented blocks,
right. And if you hit it kind of in
between 2:00, it kind of cascaded and took all of them
out. But man, that was so
frustrating, that crane thing. That was not great moments.
I like the trains and the fairies.

(01:01:38):
I said single button gameplay. You just press to go forward or
backward. I don't think it's top of the
line because a lot of the you know, we're going to get to the
joy cons in a minute. But a lot of bad collision
detection like you would, you would park the train and see
that there is clearly enough room for your car to get off the
ramp and off the vehicle. But Nope, because you didn't
stop when the little guy's face appears.

(01:02:00):
That was hilarious. That's so fact that.
They had to add that in which. Which I guess is you.
That's you, right? You're the you're the driver.
Yeah, I guess. But it's like, yeah, I'd smile
and be like, hey. Does the rest of the train count
as the evaluation of the traineror we just evaluating the
engine? I think you got to take the
whole kit and caboodle. I don't think you can segment.

(01:02:21):
Mike doesn't like the trains because of the the end of the
train. You have to put stuff on it.
I. There's one of the levels that
you start off, and as a level design, this annoys the heck out
of me because this is done purely to be obnoxious.
You have to get the bulldozer onto the train and then go
someplace and then get the bulldozer off and then do the

(01:02:41):
level. It's not like a connection of do
stuff here, go over there, do other stuff.
Like you could just start me where I needed to go, but we
don't do that. And the number of times that
just like I would line up the bulldozer perfectly and I
couldn't get out of it because it wasn't lined up right.
And then I have to be like slightly crooked and sticking
off the, the car and then it's, oh, now it's a line.

(01:03:04):
I'm like, I don't know how that counts as a line.
I don't know how like, however you're valuing this, like I can
visually see this is entirely onthe the train right now.
When it works, it's not. That is not how that should
work. Yeah, it's, it's, it's janky.
I I one of my core memories. I don't know if you guys have

(01:03:24):
those weird memories from your childhood that you just hold
onto forever and you're like, why is this in my brain?
My dad is a trained enthusiast. And so I remember playing this
game as a little kid and Oh my God, I'm in the charge of the,
I'm playing the train. I can blow the horn.
So I called my dad in from doingthe taxes and like, look, dad
and I remember him stood there and he went, is that it?

(01:03:45):
Totally, totally deflated me because like, in my mind, it was
the coolest things I'm going to say.
Middle, we're connecting on yourinterests.
I tried, I failed. Very deflating.
So I say middle of the pack, Mike, say lemon, Nate final
deciding vote. What do you think for the trains
and the ferries? I'm going to go with Mike.
I mean, I feel like, you know, and I'm going to agree with your

(01:04:05):
dad because, you know, don't do that in the train.
You're like, oh, that's it. That's so fun.
It's like. It puts it in the in the level
and you're like, you know, you put the truck on it, you drive
it and then you take it off. You're like, wait, that's it.
The only time I liked the train is like there was a hidden train
under underground tunnel and youcouldn't even see it.

(01:04:28):
You couldn't even see the train was there.
So it's like you got in it and then you started heading forward
and then you can see the the screen moving and then there was
a gap. You're like, oh, I'm in a train
now. Like, so that was kind of
interesting as far as like a gameplay element.
But generally the trains, and I'll say the boats by extension,
were lemon. I liked the boats more because

(01:04:53):
they didn't. They had a larger platform, so
he wasn't getting stuck in this thing of like, or watching the
bulldozer bounce around. And I'm like, I'm not touching
any buttons anymore and it's bouncing off the parts of the
train. I'm like this makes no sense to
me. Yeah, like I said, janky for
sure. Which I'm not putting on the
bulldozer, I'm putting on the train because that was a train

(01:05:14):
thing. But I'm just like, this is such
a key bit of like if this goes badly, you don't have the time
to do stuff later. Right.
Like the you can't start off with this really rough thing.
Yeah, it doesn't make a good first impression.
What about our little guy on foot?
I think he's 11. I think he moved.

(01:05:35):
He moves real slow. He's totally undetailed.
And there were so many moments Iwould get out of my vehicle and
try to run around the vehicle, end up back in the vehicle like
two or three times. Like, dude, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So lemon for the little guy. You know what, I I want to give
him a little. I like the concept of being able
to get out as a little guy. I just thought that was really

(01:05:57):
cool. And unique for games at this
time. Yeah, yeah, you're not just like
driving up to like another vehicle and then you switch to
the other vehicle. You actually have to get out
and, and and move. But yeah, I mean, the mechanic
was really tough where like you get out and you're like, all
right, I need to go left. So then you hit left and then
some reason because the way the the cameras angled, you kind of

(01:06:18):
go right back into the vehicle he just got out of and you're
like, why are you doing this? It's like.
He gets out on weird parts of the vehicle as.
Well, yeah, it's not the same. Yeah, it's not the door.
Yeah, yeah. Like if it just was always the
door, I'd be like, I know what'shappening was like, that's not
how I expected this to go, but. Yeah, I do remember being as a
little kid being like, Oh my God, that's the guy.
That's that's the guy driving the car.
You look, you know, like that was kind of neat.

(01:06:39):
Oh he's cool, let's leave him inthe middle because I don't think
there's any chance he's going toget the lowest rating.
Are we OK then for our final rankings here?
Dump truck is the blast corpse that is the worst vehicle in the
game. Yeah, that's where Backdraft
deserves to. Be yeah, for me, there's no
doubt in my in my list. I remember like being like, all
right, this is the one I hate the most.
And so then how about J Bomb forbest core?

(01:07:01):
I think it has all the good stuff with Max, but also you get
the added verticality, you get the exploration you get.
You get everything with J Bomb. I think J Bomb is like the, you
know, Iron Man of the mechs. You know, he's on the cover the
the whole game play and the mechanics really open up with
with playing that one. You know, a lot of the other

(01:07:22):
ones. Again, the other two Macs are
very similar, but just have different mechanics.
I mean different animations, butthe mechanics are kind of
similar. So I think J Bomb is the most
unique and and the most fun. Mike, you cool with this?
I'm I'm good with that, even though I think you're biased.
Yeah, Can you call me J Bomb, Mike from now on?

(01:07:43):
Well, that concludes our rankingretro segment for the Blast Core
vehicles, and we'll put a link to this.
If you're listening and you wantto make your own ranking list,
I'll share the tier maker so youcan make your own and post a
screenshot to our Discord. That'll be fun.
So the old switcheroo official best core vehicle from Blast
Core is J Bomb and the blast corpse.
The worst one is backlash. Well, guys, we kind of touched

(01:08:06):
on it already with, you know, what we liked and didn't like
about the vehicles. So but you know, there's other
problems with the game. Nate already mentioned the
frustration with the level select, you know, and just
trying to navigate this globe. OK.
First of all, first of all, is it just me?
If the carrier's going in a straight line, shouldn't the

(01:08:27):
level select be a straight line right about?
That, but that makes a lot of sense, yeah.
Like it's what? Yeah.
Unless it's circling and going through water and just kind of
apple coring this thing. Yeah, it just has to go all over
the place. It's good.
It's on tour. This may be the hardest level
select I've ever played, right? Yeah, you can't.

(01:08:49):
You have to move diagonally. But we're playing and the the
level select should not be challenging.
It's I really wish there was a button to turn it into just a
top to bottom list. Give me a list.
Yeah. Also, you know, it was really
hard too, because when you were,I mean, Jamo, you had said that
you only went for the professorsafterwards.

(01:09:09):
Are the scientists, Are they scientists?
Professors? They call them scientists.
I was finding them as I was playing and they tell you where
to find the next one. They're like, we need to get the
rest of the guys. You should look for him at this
level. So then you're like OK, now I
have to find Argent towers, right?
So you're going through all of these in the map looking for the

(01:09:31):
level that it is, which you know, it would be hard because
they're not listed anyway, but because just navigating it is
hard. It's It was so frustrating.
Discouraging a level select A level select.
We are. I don't I like I think this is
one of the no, no, I feel like with shadow warrior or whatever

(01:09:52):
that was doomsday warrior. Anyway, yeah, level select
should not be a pain, but Mike did.
Have you heard about the mind blowing Easter egg behind this
level Select? No.
You're gonna love this, the gameexplained.
The YouTube channel game explained discovered in 2013
that if you look in the background of the level select
because those who aren't watching on YouTube or never
played the game, you're looking at the Earth and space is behind

(01:10:14):
it. But if you watch the orbit of
various planets on the menu screen are exactly to scale, for
lack of a better term, if you watch and time the menu closely.
So I'm going to read this directly from Not Game FAQ.
If you watch the menu, it takes the Earth one minute to orbit
the Sun, which represents a year, and within that time the
Moon revolves exactly 13 times around the Earth.

(01:10:37):
With Mercury, it takes 14 seconds from all around the Sun,
which is equal to 88 days. Venus takes 37 seconds, which is
equal to 225 days, so on and so forth.
And like, apparently even they had retrograde motion because
you can go to these planets and see the perspective of our solar
system from the moon and from the other planets.

(01:11:00):
What's retrograde motion, Mike? So retrograde motion, like if
you plot out the position of sayJupiter as a function of time,
it always kind of moves through the sky in a direction.
OK. Because you're seeing stuff
projected against the stars, you're seeing how it appears to
be moving with respect to background stars, but you can
get into situations where planets are passing one another,

(01:11:24):
and so things seem to move backwards, and it's sort of a
perspective trick. OK, so on that I know what
you're talking about now I've actually seen this.
You'll be watching it and like the planet will sort of kind of
curve in a way that you doesn't look natural, but you're saying
it actually. So for those who don't know,
Mike is in the business of observing celestial bodies also

(01:11:45):
into astronomy. I That's stupid.
Actually, you mentioned that a thing that I can't I can't
believe I said, and I can't believe I was not asked to leave
after I went to a Halloween party dressed as my costume was
the Hubble Space Telescope. Yes.
And there was someone there and she was wearing like a planet's

(01:12:09):
necklace and stuff. And like, I had already gotten
there. And it was, you know, this thing
where it's like for me to get inwith like, solar panels
involved, like sideways through doors and junk.
So I kind of like, found a quarter to be like, I'm going to
stand in this corner because, I mean, I'm going to stand in the
corner at a party anyway. But this way, like, this way,
it's also like, not inconvenientto everybody because it's like,

(01:12:32):
it's a postdoc apartment. It's not huge.
And so when she got there, she had come over to me, and it's
like, yeah, So I'm the solar system.
And since I heard the Hubble Space Telescope was here, I
figured I should come over. And I said, well, I'd apologize
for staring, but it's kind of myjob.

(01:12:54):
And it's. Like I very out of character for
me and it was also like that went over well, which was also a
surprise. Nice nice deepest mic lore.
Mike Rizz think that we got thatfor the first time here.
That's a good, yeah. But I thought that was cool,
Mike, that they, they went through the trouble of

(01:13:16):
programming the scientific accuracy of just the planets and
the moon in the background. Yeah, it's actually a fun side
or actually just maybe how how they program it, because
realistically that's happening because everything's moving on
the elliptical orbits at different speeds.
Yeah. But if you go back to the, like,
Earth is the center of everything.
If you're observing planets through the sky and then they do
that, that's the problem for it just is orbiting.

(01:13:39):
Yeah. And so they just went, what if
everything's on a small circle that's orbiting on a big circle?
Like it's like the teacups or something.
Right. And actually a lot of modern
stuff still uses that because it's a, it's a much easier thing
to just be like, what if you just make it be two circles than
if you're trying to do stuff like the way it actually moves.
Which no one would understand but you.

(01:14:01):
I I do like though, that like somebody, that's what they their
contribution to this as a programmer was to put this in,
but it's so not appreciated until like what 2013 and like a
deep lorries to Reg, you know, but like hopefully somebody out
there playing this back then waslike, oh, interesting, That's
how it really is. But then you have this other

(01:14:22):
programmer that's like no backlash is going to be a good
vehicle. And it's like, no, we, we should
have had the, the, the fucking astrological programmer, you
know, maybe be doing something else because he was his, he was
his talents were wasted on on the menu screen.
Right, but what a good idea. And you're right, really bad

(01:14:43):
ideas really took the took the wheel as it were when it came to
this game. Well, so you guys already
mentioned it through discussing like the fairies and the trains.
I think for as ambitious as thisgame is, the collision detection
is just bad at points and you'llbe like trying to push a TNT
crate and it's bouncing up objects in a way that in no way

(01:15:03):
represents actual physics. And for a physics based puzzle
game, that's a bummer. And then also I just found a lot
of the little secret paths just really hard to find.
Like, I'm showing, I'm showing the boys here a picture of like
a street from up above. And there's this tiny little
opening that almost looks more like a glitch than an actual

(01:15:24):
pathway. But Nope, that's where you run
your little guy down to get the bulldozer.
And it's just like, I don't likewhen I'm squinting at games, you
know? I'm OK with things being hard to
find, but like, I feel like visually hard to see, that feels
worse. Yeah, I think the collision
stuff with the bulldozer is alsonow where I'm like, I feel like
every actual bulldozer that I'veseen has stuff on the edges so

(01:15:47):
that things being pushed don't just fly off to the side.
That's a good point. I remember thinking, can I get a
forklift? A forklift would be helpful for
this puzzle. Yeah, big old forklift.
Funny though on the screenshot too seeing how like you know,
low Poly. This was because, you know, here
you have very sharp 90° flat surfaces.

(01:16:09):
So depending on the angle, some stuff disappears entirely.
You know, like these fences, like if you're perpendicular to
a fence, perpendicular, parallel, perpendicular to the
fence, it disappears. You know, like it's because it's
a thin line on, on the screen. There's no depth to it.
And then you have to turn the camera around a bit and then

(01:16:31):
you're like, oh, there's a fencethere.
You know, so things like the ramps going down that your guy
could walk down at certain angles, you don't see it at all.
Some, some of the, the hidden rooms I only saw spinning the
camera around and all of a sudden this like 1 dimensional
plane is all of a sudden 2 dimensional.

(01:16:51):
I can see behind it. Oh, there's something down
there, you know, because like, some of like the textures were
just too similar, you know? Right, but it's but it's all
just fun bonus areas, you know, so you kind of forgive it a
little bit more. You're like, well, I already
beat the main game. So I am a little OK with this
being a little finicky because it doesn't feel like they had to
put it in the game, but it's neat.

(01:17:12):
That's when I play games, though.
It's always tough for areas thatare too big with too much to
explore because I'm I'm the typethat goes in and looks at all
the stuff that no one's going tolook at trying to explore
everywhere, open every drawer. So things like this, I was like,
I really liked being able to like, find things like this and
explore them too, yeah. I will say in that same sort of

(01:17:35):
a vein though, the camera angle stuff, especially during timed
things was incredibly frustrating for me 100%.
And it's one of these deals where it's like if you could
control this camera better, likeif you would do what it's
supposed to do, that would be wonderful.
And I think some of those are areas where I would zoom it out

(01:17:58):
and I was like, OK, this is the view I want.
And then as I'm moving, it wouldbe like I'm driving along and
the camera just doing a pan and zoom back in.
And I'm like, I put you where I wanted, you stay there.
So it moves around, but not in away to be helpful.
Did you ever accidentally hit the button where it like went
into that? Like it went back to the truck

(01:18:19):
and it was like a weird perspective where like all of a
sudden I'm like, I don't know how to get back.
And I'm seeing it from Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It does the overhead view of where you are in relation to the
bomb truck. And I'm like, this isn't what I
wanted. I don't, I don't know how to go
to back. Where am I?
You know, I I did that all the time.
I think I would have wanted that.
I think I ended up. I remember I haven't had it on a

(01:18:42):
missile view. Actually, this is the other
camera thing that apparently because it could do it like this
should this could have been super cool if it was better,
which is because I had levels where I'm like, I don't know
what the heck. I actually where did I go wrong
in clearing this path? And after you fail, like the
background of the game of like the mission failed thing is the

(01:19:05):
level you just play played like playing through.
And so you can watch it and see what you did.
However, that camera is not controllable to my knowledge.
And it just follows where you are.
And I'm like, let me control thecamera and this would be great.
And I'm like, you've got to be able to do that because it's not

(01:19:26):
like you recorded video, like you recorded movement.
Let me point the camera where I want because if I could have
just done that on some of them just to be like, OK, I need to
just see what's happening while this is happening.
Like let me look around to see from the perspective of this
missile thing. Like what did I miss?
And don't follow me fly off to the side and then crash into a

(01:19:48):
wall. Like I need to know the in front
of the like let me look around this way.
Right, but it's super cool though, because like I'm showing
them right now one of those replays and like you are on the
carrier seeing your vehicles in the distance destroying stuff.
And like I agree, Mike, that's agreat idea.
It's almost like if they had committed to that and kept the

(01:20:08):
camera there the whole time and found a way to let you control
it, you know, like that, that I thought that was really stunning
and it made parts where you can't control the camera that
much more frustrating. I said that like if you ever
been like a theme park dark ride.
And you wanna take a look at thecool animatronics in the room,
but the shoulder restraints are like holding you and keeping you

(01:20:29):
from looking where you wanna look.
That's what the camera feels like in black.
Dark right are you going on has shoulder restraints?
Like Harry Potter, right? That has dark right elements.
Gas. Space Mountain esque.
Yeah, that's, I mean, actually it is.
Actually exactly kind of like what the standard Omni mover of
like the Haunted Mansion is. We are just as like, no, we want

(01:20:52):
you looking here, we're going toturn.
So that's where you're looking? Exactly.
And sometimes, like, don't, don't do that.
Any other joy cons to complain about before we render our
verdict on Blastcore? I think we kind of covered it.
I, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm a little bit disappointed that,
you know, not completing those two levels.

(01:21:12):
I don't get to see all this other stuff, you know, but I
guess that's like how it is, youknow, like from the easy to
medium levels, you know, all the, the lines on the map did
convene on like 1 level and you had to beat that one level and
then it opened up another stuff.So when I was at the end and I
was like, man, I just can't get this done.

(01:21:33):
I was like, it's only 2 levels, you know, Now seeing like, oh,
it's a lot more. After that I'm like, oh, so I'll
have to go back and put the timein.
That level design should show where the levels are that you
can't reach or something, just to give you an idea of how
you're doing progression and where you're missing stuff.
Well, you if you look at the circles on the level select.
A red circle indicates that you found all the secret level

(01:21:56):
beacons, and a green circle indicates that you have more to
find. Yeah.
You know, it'd be great if they communicated that in a clear
way. A.
Key a map key would be great Like I, I didn't know what that
was. There was a lot of times that
like I didn't even know I I had a level that I just couldn't get
to it. You know, like just do the map.
Just it was like I'd searching for a level that they told me to

(01:22:19):
find a scientist at. I was like, here's a level I
haven't done yet, like a side race level.
And I just didn't realize that. But yeah, as far as cons, I feel
like, you know, we went over it.I mean, generally it's a net
positive form. I really liked it.
It's a fun game. You know, the General Lee is
taken out of the game, remember?OK, there we go.

(01:22:41):
There we go making a comedian laugh.
OK. Mike, anything else to complain
about or should we wrap this oneup?
I think I was just saying that same like it's one thing to be
like there's more stuff to do onthis level, but also just
knowing where you are in game progression would like I it took
me a lot just to figure out how close I was through this game to
realize that like, OK, I'm not getting I'm not beating this

(01:23:01):
game and this is getting harder and there's a lot to go.
But like that was very difficultto tell because this this way of
expanding the world map has no real scent.
Like I thought I might have almost been done because they'd
almost formed a nice shape that looked kind of like the badge
thing that you get every so often.
And I'm like, is that this like,do I get does this like form
like a pentagram? And then I've won and it turns

(01:23:24):
out no. And I also find that funny
because there's so many rankings, like rank up now
you're Master Destroyer, rank upnow you're an impeccable
exploder. And I was like, is it better
than Master Destroyer? What is that related to?
Just the level progression or how much money?
The money thing was also really funny to me.
It's like, oh, all of these buildings have dollar amounts to

(01:23:46):
them like. The manual also mentions those
levels and it's just it lists like 10 and it's like go find
all the other ones and it's likethat.
That's a lot of levels to be like, and there's a ton more.
More than 8. More than 8.
Well, guys, that brings us to the moment of truth.
We've covered the joy pros, the joy cons, and every bit in

(01:24:07):
between. So it's time to declare the game
from today's episode as a Nintendo or a Nintend.
Don't. Nate, can we start with you, our
esteemed guest? Would you recommend people play
this game? Yeah, yeah, I think it's, if you
know, if you've played it before, it's great to
rediscover. If you've never played it, I I
think it holds up. The mechanics are still fun.

(01:24:28):
You know, I'm, I'm one of those people, you know, I know your
whole show is going back and, and, and, and playing these
these games is the Switch, what is it called?
The store. EShop, well, it's.
Nintendo Classics is. What?
Yeah, Nintendo classics. I'm not really a classics player
and you know, cuz I feel these games are really hard.

(01:24:50):
This one I genuinely had fun with and I was like, this is a
game that's definitely worth revisiting and playing.
So I I would say Nintendo awesome.
Would you say a Super Nintendo? I would say a Super Nintendo 64.
Oh, Nintendo 64. Yeah, I, I really liked it.
I, I thought this was worth playing.

(01:25:12):
Definitely. Awesome.
Nintendo 64, Nintendo Ultra 64. All right, Mike, what's your
verdict? So I think there's been several
where you've changed your stanceby the end of the episode, and I
have fairly steadfastly not donethat.
Correct. You usually know how you're

(01:25:32):
feeling going in. This may be the first one where
information was brought to lightover the course of this that I
had not realized. That is enough to get me to re
evaluate things because I was probably at a Nintendo on this
because it was very frustrating.But.
This game is probably also a very good candidate for them to

(01:25:55):
eventually bring the SP modes tothe N64 again to get to the let
me see the junk that I wouldn't have otherwise seen.
Nate, do you even know what thatis?
The SP modes? No, Nintendo Classics has, If
you go back to the Nintendo or the Super Nintendo, they have
these versions of the game whereit's essentially you're

(01:26:15):
inheriting the save file of somekid who unlocked everything for
you. So remember the feeling of
renting something and being likethey have all the cool bonus
levels suite, Yes, they do that for you.
But for some reason, now that they've entered the area where
that's really the era, excuse me, where that's really, really
key, they have completely abandoned, never revisited.

(01:26:35):
It can't cost them anything to make.
And no one said it. You know what?
OK, that's it. That's it.
Mike, I'm sick of this shit. Excuse me.
Sorry for the language. I've been considering saying
this for a while, but something about Nate vaping on there makes
me want to say this. I will, Nintendo, if you go back
and add the SP mode to these games, I will get an SP tattoo.

(01:26:56):
OK, I will get the SP logo tattooed to my body and then
this will finally go viral. Mike, let's do it.
I mean, I feel like you undercutthat when you say and then this
will go viral in the bit you think will go viral.
We'll cut that part out. Mike.
You're the audio editor guy. Yeah.
I hope the one guy in charge of like, adding this stuff is just

(01:27:19):
like, yeah, I'm going to make this guy get this tattoo, this
very niche thing that only I'm responsible for.
I haven't discussed it with my wife.
I'm feeling nervous already. Anyway, so in this case, the
thing that I do not feel was conveyed to me by this game was
the if I go back to a level, thestuff that I'd already done to

(01:27:43):
that level is still done and that the missiles are no longer
there. And and it like it kept.
I also expected if I went back, I would have to redo like
driving past all the things and all those kinds of things and it
stores those. So I am at least flipping over
to a Nintendo on this because I haven't done the exploration,

(01:28:05):
but that opened up the exploration in a way that was
much less painful than I thoughtthe game was going to be.
Yeah, yeah, it's night and day. The feeling of going back and
exploring and destroying the other stuff.
Like that's what rare is it best.
The collectathons, the Banjo Kazooie, get all the little
puzzle pieces. This game scratches that itch
once you've gotten rid of that damn carrier.

(01:28:26):
I love it because it's like you have the anxiety part of the
game, which Mike only experienced, right?
And then without having to do much more, they still have the
same level. You know, all the same stuff is
there, but you got to go back and get do it at your own pace
and you're just blowing up buildings and stuff.
So you kind of have like, it's funny saying it's like a calming

(01:28:47):
thing, but like, you know, afterexperiencing the anxiety of the
first mission and then going back, it is like a cozy game,
you know, like it turns into like a cozy game.
Yeah, 100%. Well, love it or hate it, I say
there's simply nothing else quite like Blast Core.
It's ambitious, it's creative, it's sloppy, it's funny, it's
just truly a rare game in every sense of the word.

(01:29:09):
So while I recommend you play iton Switch 2, because by the time
this episode comes out, Switch 2will have been released and the
ability to rewind on N64 games would have been huge, it would
have really helped you get around a lot of the frustration
inherent in the janky programming.
So I have to give this game a recommendation, especially since

(01:29:30):
if you have a Switch to, you canplay it the best way ever, which
is letting you rewind and not pull your hair out in
frustration. So it's an enthusiastic Nintendo
for me and that we're going to call that game over for today.
The final score for Blast Core is a unanimous Nintendo.
Nate, thank you so much for talking with us today.
Before you get on out of here, why don't you tell our listeners

(01:29:51):
where they can find your stuff? Yeah, thanks for having me.
This was a blast to revisit us again.
I don't think I would have gone back unless I had like, you
know, a purpose for it. So yeah, and, and even
discovering this part of my switch, I was like, oh, I I had
this. I never unlocked it, so I'll
have to go back and check out more things while I follow along

(01:30:11):
with the podcast. But people can find us.
And my brother Sam, who I told about this, and he was he, he's
unfortunately teaching right nownot.
A loser. But he was like, I remember that
game, but he was psyched about it, too.
So you can find us Sunday nights, 9:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM

(01:30:35):
Pacific on official WKK on Twitch watching movie trailers.
And if you want to play along, you can submit to Misery loves
dot US. Some people play and they just
there aren't able to even watch the show because the time zones
or whatever. So we do have a bunch of them on

(01:30:56):
YouTube as well on the widest kids channel.
We're we're about a season behind though, So we do about 26
episodes of season, I think. So yeah, you can check us out
there as well. And go compete with Mike and see
if you can beat his high score in Who can submit the coolest,
funniest, wackiest, most noteworthy trailers?

(01:31:16):
Love it. Love it or?
Alternatively, figure out which ones are my trailers and vote
for them. There you go.
There you go. Well, that sounds northeast
Excellent. Everyone.
Join us next time and we will strive to see the bigger picture
when we cover Clue Clue Land forthe NES and Pit Cross for the
Gameboy and Super Nintendo. Pit cross is great, I love that.

(01:31:37):
OK, I mean, listen to that episode because I got some stuff
to say about Pit Cross. Everyone.
Don't forget to visit www.theoldswitcharoo.com.
There you can find links to our Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, and
all the social medias you can shake a joystick at.
You can even leave it's an old timey voicemail, meaning we
would literally love to hear from you.
Or even better, join the fun on our Discord server where you can

(01:31:59):
play games, talk games, and evenmake a friend or two.
Big thanks to Crystal Fields forour incredible intro song.
And thank you, dear Listener forliking, commenting, subscribing,
reviewing, and playing along with us every step of the way.
This has been the old Switcheroowhere we've been talking gaming
retro with Mike and Jamo. I've been Mike.
And I've been jamo game on everyone.

(01:32:32):
The sibling video game stuff is always really funny.
Like Sam and I are big fans of like English Premier League
soccer and a lot of it is because of FIFA 97 on the 64,
because, you know, like we didn't have soccer on TV.
So, you know, we learned all theteams and the players to the
video game and we would have another friend come over and,
and he was just awful at it. And we would be like, you know,
it's a, it's early days of videogaming where like you could do

(01:32:54):
one move and it was like kind ofscore 100% of the time.
If you, if you got that set up, you know, it was just you were
learning like how the game was, was worked.
And so this guy secretly went and bought the game and would
practice at home until because we were just like talking so
much shit and he would get so angry that he like went and

(01:33:15):
bought a 64 and the game just toplay it to practice.
So that was always really funny for us.
Our house was the video game house where everyone came and
played games. I like to imagine that someone,
somewhere, their first introduction to basketball was
NBAJM and they thought that was going to be amazing and then
they saw a regular basketball and was just like no one is on

(01:33:37):
fire. There's no one heating up at
all.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}S3E10: Blast Corps -or- I've heard of a crash course, but this is ridiculous!