Nuclear Throne
Nuclear Throne | |
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Release |
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Genre(s) | Shoot 'em up, bullet hell, roguelike |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Nuclear Throne is a
Gameplay
Nuclear Throne is a
The game resets upon death. Except for special weapons acquired in a hidden level and "crowns" retained until after defeating the final boss, anything acquired in one playthrough does not carry over to the next. The game has a leveling system, where the player gains experience in the form of radiation pellets, or "rads", dropped by enemies, that allow them to get different mutations and choose what would benefit the character the most out of a selection of four, randomly selected mutations. Upon reaching level 10, the player can choose a character-specific "ultra-mutation".
The player starts with the basic revolver, but they may upgrade by taking weapons from red chests and collect more ammunition from yellow chests. The player can have two weapons equipped at any time, such as a shovel and an assault rifle. The weapons available to the player get increasingly advanced and powerful as the enemies become increasingly difficult and numerous. After looping the game, special "golden" and "ultra" weapons become available. Aside from certain melee weapons, weapons consume one of five different ammo types (bullet, energy, shell, bolt, and explosive).[1]
Plot
Nuclear Throne features a minimal plot. The game's community has formed theories about Nuclear Throne's story by analyzing the game's world, environment details and loading tips. Most canon information shared by the developers was revealed during development livestreams.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, characters called mutants have gathered together with the aim of travelling throughout the world to reach the Nuclear Throne. The developers theorize each new run is a new alternate universe, where everybody is alive and they have yet to decide who will attempt to complete the task.[2]
Development
Vlambeer's Jan Willem Nijman and Rami Ismail served as the game's designer and producer, respectively, and shared the development work. Paul Veer, who had previously animated Vlambeer's Super Crate Box, returned to contribute art to Nuclear Throne.[3] The game's promotional art was drawn by Justin Chan, an art student hired on the basis of his fan art for early releases of the game.[4] Nuclear Throne's music was composed by Jukio Kallio, who had composed for several previous Vlambeer titles. A friend of Kallio's, Joonas Turner, worked on the sound effect design.[5]
Jan Willem Nijman and Rami Ismael were invited by
The aspect ratio of Nuclear Throne is permanently set to 4:3 instead of the industry standard 16:9. This was done to create an even balance of visual threats onscreen. Vlambeer generates their random levels using “workers”. This programming system creates tiles and walls beginning from the character with a random amount of distance it can cover. Once the walker reaches the end of its randomized distance it will place an item or object of interest such as an ammo crate or explosive barrel. Each region within the game has its own sets of random generation restrictions creating distinct differences between the progressive areas.[2]
Release
In January 2016, Vlambeer teamed up with the subscription box company, IndieBox, to offer a physical release of Nuclear Throne. This limited collector's edition included a themed USB drive with DRM-free game file, soundtrack, instruction manual, Steam key, and various custom-designed collectibles.[10][11]
Reception
Aggregator | Score |
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Metacritic | PC: 89/100[12] PS4: 82/100[13] NS: 88/100[14] |
Publication | Score |
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Destructoid | 8/10[15] |
Game Informer | 7.5/10[16] |
Hardcore Gamer | 4/5[17] |
IGN | 9/10[18] |
Nuclear Throne has received positive reviews from critics, with the game's PS4 version scoring 82/100 on Metacritic,[13] and the Windows version 89/100.[12]
Alexander Chatziioannou of Hardcore Gamer gave the game a 4 out of 5 saying, "Nuclear Throne is impeccably presented and tightly designed. There is enough variety in characters, upgrades and weapons to ensure that playthroughs never get repetitive and its visceral combat is a joy in itself."[17] Jordan Devore from Destructoid rated the game an 8/10 saying, "it's one of the hardest, most rewarding games I've ever played. But as satisfying as it can eventually become, I think it is far too demanding for its own good."[15]
IGN awarded it a score of 9.0 out of 10, saying "Nuclear Throne is an enjoyably tough run-and-gun with tons of energy and variety to justify hours and hours of replays."[18]
References
- ^ Evans-Thirlwell, Edwin (December 14, 2015). "NUCLEAR THRONE REVIEW". PC Gamer. Future plc. Archived from the original on May 6, 2021. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
- ^ a b c d Nuclear Throne - Developer Session EGX 2014, archived from the original on October 2, 2021, retrieved October 2, 2021
- ^ "Interview: Jan Willem Nijman On Nuclear Throne's "Feel"". Rock Paper Shotgun. October 21, 2013. Archived from the original on December 10, 2015. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
- ^ "Nuclear Throne: You Did Not Reach the Nuclear Throne". PlayStation.Blog. November 9, 2015. Archived from the original on December 10, 2015. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
- ^ Mike Rose (April 7, 2014). "Meet Joonas Turner, Vlambeer's sound guy". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on December 11, 2015. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
- ^ "Humble Bundle Mojam". Humble Bundle. Archived from the original on October 2, 2021. Retrieved October 2, 2021.
- ^ GDC (September 7, 2016), Nuclear Throne: Performative Game Development in Hindsight, archived from the original on June 28, 2023, retrieved February 13, 2018
- ^ a b Grant, Christopher (December 5, 2015). "Bastion, The Bit.Trip series, Nuclear Throne coming to Vita and PS4 today". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on December 7, 2015. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
- AOL Tech. Archivedfrom the original on December 7, 2015. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
- ^ "Collector's Cabinet: Nuclear Throne IndieBox Edition | Hardcore Gamer". March 15, 2016. Archived from the original on June 24, 2017. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
- ^ "Nuclear Throne changes up IndieBox, has plush maggots - Geek.com". Geek.com. February 26, 2016. Archived from the original on September 12, 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
- ^ CBS Interactive. Archivedfrom the original on November 13, 2020. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
- ^ CBS Interactive. Archivedfrom the original on May 19, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
- CBS Interactive. Archivedfrom the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
- ^ a b Jordan Devore (December 15, 2015). "Review: Nuclear Throne". Destructoid. Archived from the original on December 20, 2015. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
- ^ Tack, Daniel (December 5, 2015). "Nuclear Throne". Game Informer. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
- ^ a b Chatziioannou, Alexander (December 27, 2015). "Review: Nuclear Throne". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on December 29, 2015. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
- ^ a b Rad, Chloi (December 16, 2015). "Nuclear Throne Review". IGN. Archived from the original on May 30, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
External links
Media related to Nuclear Throne at Wikimedia Commons