In April of 2021, the beloved Ludum Dare recreation jam happened with the theme of ‘Deeper and Deeper’. Members had 48 hours to throw collectively a recreation, and Sébastien Benard—identified for engaged on Lifeless Cells—determined to offer it a shot by making a firefighting recreation known as Nuclear Blaze. After the competitors was over, Benard needed to increase on the thought and provides it a correct launch, which led to the Nuclear Blaze that now we have at present. Although it nonetheless feels a little bit simplistic, this can be a nice bite-sized tackle the action-platforming style.
Nuclear Blaze locations you within the function of a firefighter deployed along with your crew to place out a wildfire that’s gotten uncontrolled. After placing out the worst of it, you come across a secret analysis black website within the forest which is additionally on hearth and go inside to research earlier than getting trapped inside and minimize off from communication along with your workforce. Left with no different selection, you delve deeper into the ability to place out the fires you may and to gather dossiers that may let you know extra about what occurred to the quite a few useless researchers there.
Nuclear Blaze isn’t precisely a story-centered recreation, however we nonetheless appreciated the environment that it conjures. The power you discover borrows closely from the mythos of the SCP Basis venture, a collaborative fiction which chronicles the notes and Kafkaesque paperwork of a mystical analysis and investigation group. Most of the redacted dossiers that you simply accumulate present fleeting glimpses of the unusual issues being contained inside and when you don’t truly get to come across very a lot spooky exercise, there’s nonetheless loads to like concerning the sense of quiet dread that builds as you enterprise additional into the darkish alone, understanding full properly that one thing acquired uncontrolled.
Gameplay unfolds throughout a level-based 2D motion construction the place you kick in doorways, use keycards to grant entry to new areas, save cats, and put out a lot of fires. Your trusty hose and water tank are your finest associates right here, however water is restricted, and you’ll solely fill again up at just a few spots. You thus must plan your actions by every stage to a sure extent, as fires that aren’t totally put out will quickly flare again up once more and undo all of your onerous work. And for those who occur to the touch any hearth even as soon as (on base problem), you’ll immediately die and be despatched again to your final checkpoint.
To maintain issues feeling contemporary, you often unlock new talents or come throughout new stage gimmicks that introduce some much-needed selection. The upgrades lengthen to comparatively small issues like a bigger water tank or the flexibility to shoot water upwards, whereas the extent gimmicks introduce issues like valves you need to find and switch to activate sprinklers or enemies that’ll harass you as you attempt to put out the blaze. Every stage will solely take you about 5 minutes or so to complete off, perhaps a little bit longer for those who seek for secrets and techniques and discover that stage’s hidden cat.
This leads us to what for some stands out as the greatest downside of Nuclear Blaze, which is its brief size. Given its improvement origins, Nuclear Blaze was clearly by no means supposed as a ‘full’ launch, and it clocks in at about two-and-a-half hours for those who’re actually taking your time with it. You possibly can lengthen this a little bit extra by enjoying once more in a New Sport+ known as ‘Maintain My Beer Mode’ which presents you with new rooms and talents with a a lot more durable problem, however that is actually not a recreation that can final you greater than a day or two. The temporary size just isn’t essentially a drawback—brief video games are extra welcome than ever as of late—but it surely’s price mentioning for individuals who might have been hoping for one thing longer. For higher or worse, Nuclear Blaze is only a cute little recreation that evenly explores just a few concepts earlier than winding all the pieces down.
Those that wrestle with the reasonably unforgiving base problem shall be happy to know that there’s quite a lot of accessibility choices to make sure that everybody can play at their very own ability stage and nonetheless see all the pieces with out compromising the core gameplay. You possibly can modify issues like how a lot (if any) injury you are taking or how lengthy it takes to expire of water, and there’s even a ‘Child Mode’ that options considerably simpler ranges alongside a lot of vehicles and helicopters.
For its visuals, Nuclear Blaze reminded us a little bit of Atooi’s Xeodrifter with its easy retro artwork type and tiny lead character. The spritework right here is usually properly executed, if a little bit unexceptional, and we appreciated the usage of a surprisingly various colour palette. You’d assume the inside of a burned-out authorities analysis facility can be reasonably drab and miserable, however we famous many cases the place various shades of blues, greens, and reds had been used to create some cool contrasts and make ranges extra visually interesting.
That is all matched by a soundtrack from Pentadrangle that borrows a bit from Metroid’s playbook in presenting gamers with an atmospheric and considerably menacing assortment of tunes so as to add to the sense of isolation and curiosity. There are even just a few chiptunes tossed in there, too, and whereas it doesn’t include a really in depth number of tracks, the soundtrack appears like a becoming match for the tone that Nuclear Blaze is clearly aiming for.
Conclusion
It might not final very lengthy, however Nuclear Blaze is a cool motion platformer that does a very good job of exploring its core concept of prioritizing preventing fires over preventing enemies. Issues like Maintain My Beer Mode and all of the hidden cats assist pad out the replayability a bit, whereas the robust stage design and tight gameplay makes the moment-to-moment motion really feel worthwhile. For 15 bucks, Nuclear Blaze feels prefer it does simply sufficient to justify the value of admission, particularly for those who’re a fan of 2D motion video games; we’d suggest you give it a go.