The passives change things like the amount of ammo you pick up, your speed, your starting health, or-one of my personal favorites-all weapons becoming automatic, while the various active abilities help you react to the enemies and the world around you. Each character possesses a unique passive and active ability. And not just artistically or contextually. One of my favorite aspects of Nuclear Throne is that each one of the twelve characters feel different from each other. These are, usually, ridiculously powerful. On top of the plethora of choices, every character has two ultra mutations to pick from at level 10 that will dramatically alter how you play the character. Some of the mutations are pretty powerful, and can really change the way you play.
The different weapons and mutation combinations alone have given me enough reason to continually go back to the game. In the context of Nuclear Throne, when you level up, you mutate, giving each of the your newly-acquired powers a nice flavorful context. Most enemies in the game drop “Rads,” this game’s form of experience. The game also has a leveling mechanic that rewards you with “Mutations” upon each successive level. (Although the really cool weapons usually drop after a loop.) As you get further and further into the game, more and more powerful weapons will drop, giving you the tools you need to fight back. However, as well as having to deal with an unrelenting tide of never ending death constantly trying to pull the very life from you, the game also adds new bosses only available after a loop!īut fear not! The odds aren’t entirely stacked against you.Īlthough the game certainly throws legions at you. Enemies are no longer bound to particular stages and can all appear in one giant writhing death ball that would make the Zerg blush. After a loop, the game literally throws everything at you. The higher score you wish to achieve, the more loops will undoubtedly be necessary. This is known as looping and it’s a main component of the game. If you are mentally prepared and can best this final challenge… then the game starts over and is even more difficult! *Cue confetti and pyrotechnics* Once you reach the final boss and beat it, you are taken to a second phase of the fight. But not impossible to beat! Just believe in yourself. I still have trouble with the boss on 5-3. On the final level of each stage, you must fight a boss, which is actually fairly difficult until you get the hang of them. The next stage begins and the game continues on until you die-I mean win! Stages are made up of three levels, IE 1-1, 1-2, and 1-3, then followed by a dark transition stage, where your sight is impaired, like 2-1. Starting the game with a revolver, you must kill every enemy in a level before progressing to the next. You select your character from a choice of twelve then are sucked through a portal and thrust directly into the chaos. The game is broken up into stages and transition stages. Nope.)ĭespite being a Bullet Hell game, Nuclear Throne is also a Rogue-Like in that the world is randomly generated each time and you only have one life. (I’m not going to think about how that’s 20.75 hours between each win. It can be hectic and hard to follow, yes. an example would be Touhhou Project - However, thankfully for us mortals, Nuclear Throne isn’t nearly as insane as other games. Some Bullet Hell games are ridiculous, stupidly over the top, and-in my opinion-for people who are at least part cyborg. Now if that sounds like pure absurdity, it’s probably because it is. For if you fail, the princess will be eaten… by like, a dragon or something. It’s your job to dodge the rubbery onslaught and make it out in one piece.
And then suddenly, and all at once, they launch their dodgeballs at you with the sole intent of pelting you with malicious, unholy, precision. Imagine standing in a gymnasium surrounded by about 100 people with dodge balls, each and every one looking at you with murder in their eyes. If you’re not familiar with that genre, let me paint you a picture: Nuclear Throne could most easily be classified as a Bullet Hell game. Hard enough to make me rage quit with some amount of regularity, or exclaim my fair share of foul language. And despite having a working understanding of Nuclear Throne… this game is hard. Not only have I put 83 hours into the game myself, I spent at least that much time watching various YouTubers play it for at least a year before taking the plunge. Nuclear Throne and I have a rather long history.