In April of 2021, the beloved Ludum Dare sport jam came about with the theme of ‘Deeper and Deeper’. Contributors had 48 hours to throw collectively a sport, and Sébastien Benard—identified for engaged on Lifeless Cells—determined to offer it a shot by making a firefighting sport known as Nuclear Blaze. After the competitors was over, Benard needed to increase on the concept and provides it a correct launch, which led to the Nuclear Blaze that now we have at the moment. Although it nonetheless feels slightly simplistic, this can be a nice bite-sized tackle the action-platforming style.
Nuclear Blaze locations you within the position of a firefighter deployed together with your crew to place out a wildfire that’s gotten uncontrolled. After placing out the worst of it, you encounter a secret analysis black website within the forest which is additionally on hearth and go inside to analyze earlier than getting trapped inside and minimize off from communication together with your staff. 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 sport, 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 magical analysis and investigation group. Lots of the redacted dossiers that you simply gather present fleeting glimpses of the unusual issues being contained inside and when you don’t really get to come across very a lot spooky exercise, there’s nonetheless loads to like in regards to the sense of quiet dread that builds as you enterprise additional into the darkish alone, realizing full properly that one thing received 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 mates right here, however water is restricted, and you’ll solely fill again up at a couple of spots. You thus need to plan your actions by every degree to a sure extent, as fires that aren’t completely put out will quickly flare again up once more and undo all of your exhausting work. And in the event you 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 degree 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 degree will solely take you about 5 minutes or so to complete off, perhaps slightly longer in the event you seek for secrets and techniques and discover that stage’s hidden cat.
This leads us to what for some would be the greatest disadvantage of Nuclear Blaze, which is its quick size. Given its improvement origins, Nuclear Blaze was clearly by no means meant as a ‘full’ launch, and it clocks in at about two-and-a-half hours in the event you’re actually taking your time with it. You’ll be able to lengthen this slightly 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 definitely not a sport that can final you greater than a day or two. The temporary size will not be essentially a drawback—quick video games are extra welcome than ever lately—however it’s price mentioning for many who might have been hoping for one thing longer. For higher or worse, Nuclear Blaze is only a cute little sport that evenly explores a couple of concepts earlier than winding all the things down.
Those that wrestle with the moderately unforgiving base problem might be happy to know that there’s a wide range of accessibility choices to make sure that everybody can play at their very own ability degree and nonetheless see all the things with out compromising the core gameplay. You’ll be able to alter issues like how a lot (if any) injury you’re taking or how lengthy it takes to expire of water, and there’s even a ‘Child Mode’ that options considerably simpler ranges alongside numerous vehicles and helicopters.
For its visuals, Nuclear Blaze reminded us a little bit of Atooi’s Xeodrifter with its easy retro artwork model and tiny lead character. The spritework right here is mostly properly accomplished, if slightly unexceptional, and we appreciated using a surprisingly various colour palette. You’d suppose the inside of a burned-out authorities analysis facility can be moderately drab and miserable, however we famous many situations 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 a couple of chiptunes tossed in there, too, and whereas it doesn’t include a really intensive choice of tracks, the soundtrack seems 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 an excellent 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 sturdy degree 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 in the event you’re a fan of 2D motion video games; we’d advocate you give it a go.