It may have taken a quarter of a century, but Rare’s 1997 N64 game Blast Corps has finally received official merchandise.The merch was revealed over at Fangamer's official Twitter page, and even Rare seemed to think it was funny that it’s taken this long. According to Rare, Fangamer approached it about the idea first, and the studio loved it.For those that missed out on the N64 era, Blast Corps is an action title that did in-game destruction better than almost any game up to that point. The concept is simple – in each level the player has to stop a runaway nuclear missile carrier by leveling anything in its way. Players are given all manner of construction vehicles to achieve the goal, from demolition vehicles like bulldozers and dump trucks all the way up to massive robot mechs. Once selected, players must race around smashing buildings in order to clear a path before the missile carrier collides with something and the nuke goes off, destroying the entire city. There are 57 levels in the game, offering countless opportunities for cathartic destruction.
Players can now show off their love of the now-retro game with the brand-new Fangamer merch. One piece of merch is a t-shirt featuring the 120-ton mech J-Bomb, which sports a jetpack and allows you to smash buildings from above. The other piece is a sliding pin featuring Thunderfist, another mech that’s missing a left hand but more than makes up for it with its “Thunder Crash” uppercut, which can level the largest buildings in the game. This neat pin has a sliding piece that mimics Thunderfist's uppercut move.
Fangamer is well known for making physical merch for games, along with collector’s editions of previously digital-only titles, like Stardew Valley. It has a whole section full of hats, shirts, pins, and even Banjo-Kazookie plushes dedicated to Rare, but this is definitely the most niche Rare title it's worked on yet.
Blast Corps is currently available on Xbox as part of the Rare Replay collection, which contains 30 titles from Rare’s long history. Since Rare is owned by Microsoft, fans can play the collection for free if they subscribe to Xbox Game Pass. Now that Nintendo has been expanding its Switch Online collection with the Genesis and N64 expansion, many are hoping it will also come there, as it would be perfect for destruction on the go. Hopefully, Microsoft will one day allow it.
Blast Corps is available now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X.