Despite being an essential component to human survival, fire has a reputation of being a terrifying element when it gets out of control. This is the basis of Nuclear Blaze, the debut title from developer Deepnight Games – a “one-man” studio founded by Sébastien Bénard, former Motion Twin associate, and lead dev and game-designer on Dead Cells. When an explosion from a mysterious facility spreads to the surrounding forest, the player – a plucky firefighter – is quickly dispatched to quell the blaze and unravel the cause of what really happened. So sets the stage for one of the most creative and satisfying games of the year.
A Retro Facade
Nuclear Blaze is at it’s core a 2D side-scrolling platformer with a main character that looks like he could have existed somewhere in the SNES/Genesis era of gaming. While the aesthetic is built around all things retro, it is injected with plenty of modern tech to elevate each and every pixel to spectacular heights. For starters, rendered backgrounds give off an incredible level of detail. You begin your fire fighting duties in the middle of a forest and eventually progress into the aforementioned facility where the remainder of the game takes place. As you descend into the labs and into the sub-basements, the environment transitions and helps tell the story along with the main character’s monologuing as well files you’ll find along the way. The one visual asset you’ll be seeing the most of is the fire. As the focal point of this entire drama, it is without a doubt the best looking feature in the game. Its high-definition render contrasts beautifully with the pixel art, and the lighting effects the flames give off are nothing short of jaw-dropping. When you enter rooms that are completely engulfed, the screen takes on a distressing orange hue that emphasizes the severity of the inferno. It’s terrifying and mesmerizing at the same time. Nuclear Blaze is no slouch in the audio department either and features a soundtrack that is just as intense as flames.
From the get-go Nuclear Blaze greets you with an absolutely rocking soundtrack that carries through from the title screen all the way until the credits roll. During gameplay, the music knows exactly when to ramp up to heighten the tension. If your navigating your way through a ruined corridor, the music remains reserved. Yet when things get out of hand and the flames start devouring the entire screen, the soundtrack reacts accordingly. Like with the game’s visuals, the score is reflective of modern sensibilities applied to a retro ideology. All the bleeps and bloops are cranked up to insane levels and make this romp through a blazing inferno so much more enjoyable.
Stellar audio and visual design alone do not make a great, however. So the question remains: how does Nuclear Blaze play? Frightfully addicting.
It’s A Platformer, But Wait…There’s More!
On its surface, the gameplay loop is pretty simple. You enter a room with a sealed door that cannot be opened as long as there is a fire in that room. Extinguish the flames and move on. Discover drips and drabs of the facility and further explore until you come across more fires to deal with. As effective as this literal rinse-and-repeat formula is from a gameplay perspective, Nuclear Blaze takes things a step further and turns up the heat in what would otherwise have been a pretty standard platformer. There is a genuine challenge to be found here, so much that Nuclear Blaze plays out like a puzzle-platformer. The way the rooms are designed, especially late game, require a plan, a solid course of action to complete. It’s more than just blindly spraying until you can proceed.
Your water tank, for example, drains quickly. This is remedied by having refill stations all over the place throughout the game. There are a few in each room, but they are placed in places that make it so you’ll need to keep a mental note of their location. You all need to act quickly if you want to proceed further as fires can and will spread back to areas you’ve already cleared. The top-notch lighting effects come back into play smoldering effects on the fringe of the fire informs you where a good starting point would be. It won’t be long in the game before you realize that water management – and having enough supply to get you to the next refill station – is necessary for survival. Fire won’t be the only thing you’ll be fighting though. Late in the game you’re introduced to some light combat elements. It isn’t entirely out of place if you pay attention to the files throughout the game, and they don’t take away from the experience. There’s one enemy type: a wasp-looking creature that can set things on fire as it flies around. It’s a nifty way to through another threat for you to deal with without detracting from the main threat.
Control are simple and precise, exactly as it should be for a platformer. There are only actions you need to be concerned with: spraying water, jumping, and dodging. The devil, as usual, is in the details. Even though the controls are basic, it’s nuanced just enough to keep you on your toes. It handles exactly as you want it to.
Coming in Hot
What began as a firefighter game simple enough for the developer’s three-year old to play, evolved into something truly special. Nuclear Blaze is a definite buy. What Nuclear Blaze lacks in length, it makes up for in charm and challenge. Tight gameplay, striking visuals, and a memorable soundtrack make for a deeply satisfying experience. In terms of replay value, completionists can test their fire-fighting skills and try to rescue the defenseless kitties you’ll find scattered throughout the facility. There’s even a Kid Mode so gamers of all ages won’t be excluded from the action.
Nuclear Blaze is currently available for Steam and will hopefully expand to other platforms in the future.
