Blast Corps, originally developed by Rare and released in 1997 on the N64, revolves around the beautiful art of demolishing buildings with vehicles of all shapes and sizes. The objective is to pave the way for a big truck carrying a pair of defective nuclear missiles that explode upon impact. For some reason the truck can’t slow down, so you’re constantly hard-pressed to remove the next set of buildings before the truck reaches them.

The game would lend itself well to the portable platform. Being able to play a game in short bursts is a big plus for any portable game, and Blast Corps is no exception. Like the original, the DS version could consist of dozens of small levels that don’t take much more than five minutes to complete. The game would be easy to pick up and play, and you don’t need to pour in several hours to get results.

A slightly irritating flaw in the original was the lack of a map that showed you the position of your vehicle in relation to the surrounding buildings and the truck. The small on-screen radar hardly gave you all the necessary information. On the DS, the bottom screen could be used as a map, providing a convenient overview of the area. Touching an area on the map could result in an air strike that would completely obliterate the surrounding buildings. Of course, you would only have a limited number of these air strikes available, so you’d be forced to use them at strategic points.

Multiplayer modes over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection would also be a blast. Besides the obvious implementation of co-op play, you would be able to compete with a friend to see who can cause the most destruction in a set amount of time. Big buildings placed at the outskirts of a level could be worth more points than regular ones; players could race each other to reach them.

All in all, Blast Corps was—and still is—a highly unique game, and there is a ton of potential for expanding its basic ideas to accommodate a portable platform. - Lasse Pallesen

Pinball video games are something of a niche, though the genre has a decent-sized audience. The number of gamers interested in military strategy is probably the same size. The unlikely combination of the two genres may have been to be too obscure, leading to Odama's poor sales. That, and it came out too late in the GameCube's life for it to be relevant.

It didn't help that the game was mediocre, or that the gameplay setup was awkward. A microphone clipped on to the bulbous backside of the GC controller allowed you to issue voice commands to your attacking forces. The commands let you control the general direction of your troops, but it was an inexact science. This lead to the Odama rolling over as many as your own men as those of the enemy.

Since the inception of the handheld, the potential for real-time strategy games has been great. The voice command aspect of Odama is the first of many reasons why it would make more sense to put the game on the Nintendo DS. The microphone is built right in, so there's no need for an attachment. Nintendo could even bundle in the official DS microphone headset to entice game sales. The headset would make it much, much easier to speak to the game, and since voice recognition technology has improved since the original's release it may be possible to include more complex voice commands.

The touch screen opens up the possibility of adding more strategy to the “strategy pinball" mash-up. Selecting units would be as easy as selecting a group of units with a touch, then telling them where to go. The touch screen's more precise controls would allow for a two-pronged attack, or at the very least make it easier for your troops to avoid the crushing Odama.

The vertically-stacked DS screens also lend themselves perfectly to the pinball format. Two screens could provide for a larger field of view, as seen in Metroid Prime Pinball. Alternatively, since the lower resolution screens may create limit troop visibility, one screen could zoom in on the Odama or troops while the other provides a wider perspective. The overall view could be repositioned as needed.

A weird game like Odama would best work on a weird system like the Nintendo DS. It wouldn't be a smash hit like many other Nintendo titles, but it's something that enough people would probably be interested in for it to still sell well, especially if the headset were included. If Nintendo can get enough Advance Wars Dual Strike and Metroid Prime Pinball players to give it a try, it might take off. You never know. - Steven Rodriguez