New Game Plus - A Retro Gaming Podcast · New Game Plus

Episode 479: Blast Corps ft. Sasser

·1 hr 3 min·5 clips

Sasser has run 2000 miles listening to New Game Plus, more than the hosts have walked in their lives.

This episode features hosts Dustin, Kenny, and Nolan welcoming guest director Sasser to discuss the Nintendo 64 game Blast Corps. Sasser is a long-time community member and runner who discovered the podcast while searching for gaming content. He selected Blast Corps for its personal significance as a bonding game with a friend and its status as a lesser-known Rare title. The group explores the game's absurd premise of clearing a path for a runaway nuclear missile carrier using various demolition vehicles. They detail the gameplay structure, which includes over 50 levels combining timed destruction objectives with exploration and collectibles like Radiation Dispersal Units. Sasser reveals he once achieved the highest rank of "You can stop now" by earning all platinum medals, a feat requiring 15-20 additional hours. The hosts highlight specific vehicles like the drifting dump truck, missile-shooting motorcycle, and the one-armed Thunderfist robot, whose design resulted from polygon limitations. Memorable stages include Ebony Coast, which involves loading a vehicle onto a train, and bonus levels set on planets with altered gravity physics. A surprising insight is the game's expansive backstory, detailed in a three-part Nintendo Power comic later compiled by Dark Horse. The soundtrack, composed by GoldenEye's Graham Norgate, features banjo-heavy tunes that oddly contrast the apocalyptic premise. The hosts debate whether the N64-era graphics are serviceable or notably rough, with Sasser praising the vehicle models. The tone is conversational and nostalgic, filled with inside jokes and lighthearted debates about Rare's catalog. Retro gaming enthusiasts and fans of quirky, destructive sandbox games will appreciate this deep dive. Listeners seeking modern graphics or narrative-heavy experiences might find the discussion too niche.

As heard by us

A loose, specific retro-game discussion that makes destruction feel like strategy.

New Game Plus sticks to its retro-gaming groove: three hosts, a director's episode with Sasser, and a chat that keeps coming back to the pleasure of swapping between vehicles while clearing stages.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want a director's episode that turns a building-crashing game into a hangout, this is the one to press play on.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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