The team sought to find gameplay to fit Rare co-founder Chris Stamper's idea for a building destruction game.

Blast Corps was released to critical acclaim and received Metacritic's second highest Nintendo 64 game ratings of 1997.

The game sold one million copies — lower than the team's expectations — and received several editor's choice awards.

The player controls vehicles to destroy buildings, farms, and other structures in the path of a runaway nuclear missile carrier.

The eight demolition vehicles vary in the way they clear structures: the bulldozer rams, the dump truck drifts, the lightweight buggy crashes from higher ground, the motorcycle shoots missiles, another truck presses outwards from its sides, and three different robot mechs tumble and stomp from the land and the air.

[4] By destroying any remaining structures, finding secrets, and activating lights throughout the level, the player raises their score and final medal ranking.

The team worked to fit his idea to a gameplay concept and devised a "Constantly Moving Object" conceit that would give the levels a time limit.

[4] Retro Gamer credited Wakeley for Blast Corps's idiosyncratic ideas and humor in light of the game's serious premise.

[4] For instance, the Mario Kart 64 "power slide" drift mechanics inspired that of Blast Corps's dump truck.

[4] Wakeley determined the game's high score "goal medal" objectives, in which players would attempt to better a set completion time on each level.

The Super Mario 64 demo at Nintendo's annual trade show in 1995 helped Wakeley envision how a true 3D world worked with the controller's 3D analog stick.

[2] In its 1995 trade show preview, it was originally titled Blast Dozer, a name it retained for its Japanese release.

[7] (The team had considered other titles, including "Heavy Duty Heroes", "Blast Radius", and "Power Dozer".

[12] The game received "universal acclaim", according to review aggregator Metacritic,[13] and "unanimous critical success", according to Retro Gamer.

[2] Trent Ward commented in GameSpot that the premise taps into childhood fantasies, while "the unique relationship between the terrain and the vehicles you pilot ensures that Blast Corps will exercise your mind as well as your reflexes".

[21] A Next Generation critic agreed, asserting that the vast size of the levels and numerous secrets and bonus areas make Blast Corps "one of the few Nintendo 64 games that justifies its exorbitant price tag".

"[16] Crispin Boyer of EGM wrote that the game's best feature was its "palpable sense of suspense" as the carrier advanced on resistant buildings.

Schneider praised the game's texture maps, which made the night scenes and houses look realistic, and the canyons breathtaking.

[15] Scott McCall (AllGame) praised the game's realistic polygonal models and technical prowess,[14] and Steve Polak (The Weekend Australian) wrote that Blast Corps showcased the console's graphics capabilities.

"[21] Schneider said Blast Corps was on par with the quality of Shigeru Miyamoto games and an excellent display of Rare's potential.

[33][34][35][36][37][38] The game was re-released on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack in North America and Europe on February 21, 2024,[39] and in Japan on April 24, 2024.

[40] Rare's Blast Corps began a run of highly praised Nintendo 64 games, including GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, and Jet Force Gemini.

[4][41] After the industry had changed, Blast Corps designer Martin Wakeley reflected a decade after the game's 1997 release.

In 2009, Wakeley said, a studio would rarely entrust the scope of a project like Blast Corps to a team of four recent graduates.