Explosion body is a 1997 video game developed by Rare for the Nintendo 64, and one of thirty games featured on Rare recovery for Xbox One. Despite being one of the first Rare games on a fifth generation console, Explosion body was universally acclaimed for its originality, level design, and variety – it was successful enough to be included in the Nintendo Switch Online expansion pack on February 21, 2024. Although it is primarily about An action game, players must think quickly and creatively in most of its 57 stages. Lead designer, Martin Wakeley, sees Explosion body like a puzzle game, since the player starts each stage with everything needed to complete it but must figure out how to do it.

Today, Explosion body is one of many rare Nintendo 64 classics, alongside Golden Eye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, Jet Force GeminiAnd Perfect dark. It received several Editors’ Choice awards, including runner-up for “Most Original Game of the Year” in Electronic Gaming Monthly’s 1997 Editors’ Choice Awards, just behind PaRappa the rapper. Peer Schneider of IGN believes Explosion body tied with Shigeru Miyamoto’s games, while Official Nintendo Magazine ranks it as the 84th best Nintendo game ever made.

Demolition work has never been so exciting

Ironic, given the principle of preventing a nuclear explosion

Related

What classic game do you never want to see remade?

Video game remakes are all the rage these days, and it can be great to see outdated titles updated for the modern era. However, some remakes fail to capture the magic of the original, leaving some fans wishing the developers had left it alone completely. What video game would you never want to see remade in case it doesn’t do the first one justice?

Each main step of Explosion body features a runaway nuclear missile carrier that will burst into a massive explosion if it collides with anything that isn’t a wooden fence – this includes any buildings and structures in its path as well as the chosen vehicle. To successfully complete each main step, The player must destroy everything in the path of the missile carrier before it hits something and destroys everything.Explosion body the plot is admittedly stupid and absurd – it’s just there to justify why destroying unsuspecting buildings can be considered heroism. In this way, Explosion body is a blast from the past – a time when the most important aspect of a video game was the gameplay.

The game’s intro displays four missions for its main stages:

1. Clear path for carrier to each main level.
2. Activate all RDUs and destroy all buildings to earn a second gold.
3. After completing the main levels, find the six scientists to ensure a controlled detonation.
4. Reach gold on all levels to begin Time Attack.

It doesn’t mean that Explosion body has no history. If the player leaves the game idle on the title screen for around ten minutes without starting the game, the opening scroll reveals background information about the members of the titular Blast Corps team and the nuclear carrier. A three-part comic detailing the game’s history was also published in Nintendo Power issues 97-99 to promote this game. No part of the exposition is necessary to play the game, so the decision to put it all behind additional material and the opening is a wise decision.

Explosion body Adjustable camera angle depicts the world from a three-quarter aerial view with the ability to zoom and rotate horizontally. It’s a bit like Super Mario 64camera controls if it were used for a real-time strategy game, and it works great for Explosion body. The emphasis on speed and problem-solving forces players to see everything in their immediate vicinity at all times, although the missile carrier’s point of view can be seen in first person at any time. Each stage, whether completed or failed, allows players to watch replays of their gameplay. This allows them to decipher what went wrong and why or simply allows them to show off their skills to friends and family before YouTube existed.

Plenty of vehicles keep the core gameplay fresh

Fans don’t like negative reactions, though

Any first-person shooter worth its salt offers players a massive arsenal of weapons with which they can annihilate their enemies. Explosion body follows this trend by providing eight vehicles used to demolish every building in the game. Each vehicle has unique features that set them apart, although some are easier to use than others. For example, the Ramdozer is a bulldozer that can pass through buildings and push TNT blocks easily, while the Skyfall is a dune buggy that must drive up ramps at high speed to land on buildings.

Two vehicles require their own “ammunition” to use: the Sideswipe is a flexible vehicle that uses extendable rams on its sides to destroy buildings, while the Ballista is a motorcycle that destroys buildings with missiles. Three robotic vehicles are used to destroy larger buildings and skyscrapers that other vehicles can’t do: the Thunderfist is a giant chrome robot that rolls into buildings, the Cyclone Suit is a smaller yellow robot that somersaults into buildings, and the J-Bomb is the only vehicle that can to fly. He can crush buildings with a ground blast from the sky.

The Backlash is the most controversial vehicle in the game. This is a dump truck that must skid or use terrain as a ramp to quickly destroy buildings, although skidding is a difficult maneuver to perform quickly when racing with the missile carrier. Many of the harder stages require players to use the Backlash, which has led to its dislike. It was an intentional part of Explosion body‘design philosophy — Martin Wakeley attributes Backlash’s infamy to a 2016 Games completed quickly event as a special guest.

“The games were generally much, much harder… looking at Backlash now, I
love
the fact that it was difficult to use, so much the better, that was all. But now you would never make a game with something that difficult as the main character because people wouldn’t bother playing, they would immediately stop the game.”

Four other vehicles are also available for racing stages once unlocked: a police car, a patriotic hot rod with a horn inspired by The Dukes of Hazzarda muscle car modeled on the Grand Torino of Starsky and Hutchand the van of Team A with a horn that sounds like MT These vehicles have different speed, handling and acceleration, like any good racing game. The muscle car, in particular, can go off-road without slowing down. Some stages feature trains, barges or cranes used to transport other vehicles. — many are used in the missile carrier puzzles for the main stages.

Hidden stages and medals provide replayability

Platinum medals have little margin for error

Communication dishes are hidden in certain stages which unlock a new one if found. These stages make up some of the most interesting side stages in the game. One takes place on a giant pool table in space where the player must use a Ramdozer to push TNT boxes into the six pockets in order to destroy the cues billiards that stick out. Another stage takes place in a magma-filled volcano where the player must use J-Bomb to destroy moving geodes and rafts without touching the molten terrain.

Two other steps take place in Pac-Man-like mazes where the player must navigate Backlash to collect each RDU without hitting a “ghost dozer”. The Moon and four other planets are the icing on the cake: they are accessible at the end of the game. Each main stage has two medals to earn, while each sub stage has one. These medals initially range from bronze, silver and gold – players earn medals based on their performance in their respective stages. The first gold is automatically earned when the missile carrier’s path is cleared in each main stage, while the second is earned after two additional criteria are met: all buildings must be destroyed and all RDUs must be activated .

A third objective, freeing all survivors, is always achieved when all buildings are destroyed. These medals make up the player’s total score in the game. Gold medals grant three points each, silver medals grant two, and bronze medals grant one. Additionally, six scientists must be discovered throughout certain main stages to trigger post-game content.

Every 12 points accumulated, the player gets a promotion to a new rank. There are 31 ranks in total, including the one before being promoted at the start of the game. Although these ranks are arbitrary, they become increasingly humorous as the player rises higher. If the 57 stages don’t seem to add up to 30 promotions worth 12 points each, that’s because they don’t.

A fourth medal, Platinum, is available once all gold medals in all stages have been won, including time trials. Platinum medals award four points each but are notoriously difficult to obtain – so difficult that Explosion body the developers stated that it was supposedly impossible for anyone to win all the platinum medals single-handedly. The final leaderboard for doing this, which means 100% completion, is aptly titled “You Can Quit Now.”

Explosion body may not have the heritage that Golden Eye was able to hold its own, but without him leading the way first, the gaming landscape would likely look very different today. Fans looking to further explore the indie gaming scene should definitely check out this underrated title, as its DNA has inspired many mechanics that gamers take for granted. Plus, a good old-fashioned challenge is a great way to change things up.