Vlambeer's next game will likely be smaller

It's been quiet on the Nuclear Throne front for quite a while now, with the last big update releasing back in February 2016. Developer Vlambeer broke that silence this week with a new update; the final update.

You'll find the patch notes below, but the intent for this one was to provide better game performance, easier modding, "and a lot of quality of life and balance fixes" for the brutal top-down shooter. The team even brought on Nuclear Throne Together mod creator YellowAfterlife, "and worked closely with community members and feed??back to create a??nd update 99 that is worthy of the wait."

As for what comes next, Vlambeer's Rami Ismail said in a reddit AMA that "Nuclear Throne was really, really rough on us??. While working on it was great, getting it wrapped up and being 'done' with it was awful. I think after this, we'll do some smaller stuff."

He added that "We've obviously spent a lot of time recovering, and we're now focusing on supporting our titles a bit. Ridiculous Fishing got an update, now Nuclear Throne, and maybe?? we'll have some more upd?ates for older games. Beyond that, we're prototyping some new stuff - some of it is exciting, some of it is totally not. It'll take some time for us to find something we really want to focus on, but in the meanwhile, it's fun to be back to creative work."

As much as I love/ha?te but mostly love the game, I'll be glad to see this crew?? tackle something new.

Update 99

Features
• Area/weapon/mutation seeding is now far more consistent.
• There's now an option for borderless fullscreen on Windows (Alt+Shift+Enter / in options).
• There's now a confirmation dialog when exiting/restarting a run; R confirms in it.
• Safe spawns now work consistently.
• Added a setting for native cursors - when supported, this gets rid of mouse lag once and for all.
• Added a setting for mouselock (when available) - for windowed or multi-screen setups.
• Both players can now play the same character in coop without making use of bugs.
• Added localization support (see lang-example.ini / copy to lang.ini for translating)
• Almost too many bugfixes.

  Balancing

• Weapons returned by Determination no longer have cooldown of last seen weapon in that slot.
• Trying to pause mid-generation now pauses as soon as loading finishes.
• Game now auto-pauses if connection is lost to the in-use gamepad.
• Grenades no long persist on level change (since they could break generation / kill you).
• Proto statues no longer keep rads from previous encounter if forgotten
• Discs now have an axis-aligned bounding box and bounce *a little* more predictably. (don't get too excited - the spread is still there and you'll still hit yourself a lot)
• Player' plasma shots now hit players with iframe rules when reflected.
• IDPD grenades now harm IDPD (alongside everyone else) if deflected.
• Mimics are no longer multiplied on loops.
• Select enemies now just don't increment kill count instead of reducing it by 1.
• You can now blow up the last enemy with Melting's Ultra A (the trick: it'll leave a corpse).
• Proto chest now defaults to rusty revolver if it's weapon is gone.
• Jungle now consistently offers new mutations on each visit.
• You no longer accidentally pick up weapons when entering secret areas via objects.
• Weapons can no longer end up under $$$-specific prop.
• Hyper Crystal now clears additional area upon noticing the player.
• Ravens no longer lift up and land on same spot if there's nowhere to fly.
• Giving up crown of destiny no longer can cause you to have -1 mutation points.
• Rads should now get stuck on wall edges slightly less often now.
• The game will take minor effort not to spawn the player right on top of cars/generators.
• IDPD explosions appearing on one spot no longer stack horizontally.
• In a particular location, other cars no longer explode when using one of them.
• Elite inspectors no longer pull non-moving projectiles.
• Maggot spawns can no longer be duplicated on loops.
• Enemy' slugs will no longer hit things while on last (almost gone) frames of animation.
• Frog can now use Hammerhead mutation - use active ability when standing next to a wall.

  Fixes

• Fixed original weapon gaining cooldown of what last was in your secondary slot when picking up a new weapon while having only one (mostly affected only Chicken and Robot).
• Fixed portal not opening until van is gone if Big Dog and van are the last enemies on the level.
• Fixed automatic weapons/abilities being used when unpausing via Continue/ability button.
• Fixed necromancers trying to revive things that they can't revive (such as boss' corpses).
• Fixed necromancers not doing anything if the nearest corpse has no line of sight to it.
• Fixed a broken torch with T1 collision box behind T1 if dealing >1K damage to it during intro.
• Fixed grenades getting blown up in portal proximity few frames after opening.
• Fixed a number of oddities with Skeleton<->Melting changes.
• Fixed it being problematic to sit down on 7-3/HQ3 sometimes.
• Fixed portals in HQ not opening chests.
• Fixed IDPD freaks being able to freely leave 0-1.
• Fixed Rogue sometimes getting a rad canister on 7-3 with Open Mind.
• Fixed Crown of Love not applying to chests on 7-3.
• Fixed it being possible to farm kills by going between a level and HQ.
• Fixed some tiles being slippery when fighting guardians in 5-2 vault.
• Fixed a very occasional out-of-level hole appearing together with a hostile Horror.
• Fixed cluster spawns breaking through safe spawn walls sometimes.
• Fixed ultra bolts vanishing when out of 0-1
• Fixed it being possible to farm rads by killing-reviving Horror in coop.
• Fixed IDPD plasma ignoring iframes completely, as result dealing ~120 damage per second. It's now only almost always an insta-kill.
• Fixed ravens duplicating if killed just as they are about to liftoff.
• Fixed cars duplicating if grabbed by a snowbot just as they are about to explode.
• Fixed it being possible to force self to deal with a van by blowing up the last corpse around.
• Fixed Gun Warrant not allowing to use "infinite ammo" if clip is empty.
• Fixed blood weapon "exchanging" not working for Steroids' active.
• Fixed vans being required to destroy before a portal can open at 1-1 \ 1-2.
• Fixed proto chest jumping around if pulled onto the crown pedestal.
• Fixed jungle flower not spawning sometimes.
• Fixed certain 2-1 specific props not spawning sometimes.
• Fixed Technomancer spawning turrets outside of the level.
• Fixed a possibility of getting multiple 101-1 portals on loops.
• Fixed ultra bolts skipping enemies/walls sometimes.
• Fixed elite enemy spawn condition not being checked for each enemy separately when duplicating.
• Fixed "spawned" enemies (green rats, nest maggots) not getting killed upon entering secrets.
• Fixed Horror's Meltdown allowing to "reroll" any extra mutations due to some real old code.
• Fixed it being possible to pick up invisible weapons while in portal sometimes.
• Fixed big rads charging the statues only by 1 rad.
• Fixed 5-1 special prop sometimes getting destroyed by enemies on loops.
• Fixed laser and lightning crystals freely moving for a few frames if hit mid-charge.
• Fixed Lil Hunter extremely occasionally dying during spawn phase.
• Fixed weapons not being swappable during boss intros.
• Fixed it being possible to get free ammo via YV Ultra B when having no rads.
• Fixed IDPD portals spawning on top of the player without intending to.
• Fixed elite shielders telefragging the player sometimes (and generally teleporting oddly).
• Fixed golden cars still occasionally being amiss on 3-1.
• Fixed assassins not getting killed on special level transitions.
• Fixed quick restart in hard mode not incrementing hardmode runs statistic.
• Fixed "pop pop upgrade" not being free in terms of rad cost on ultra weapons.
• Fixed explosions and enemy flak-type projectiles not being cleared when a portal opens.
• Fixed it being possible to destroy throne columns with SPC/other wall clearing weapons before starting the fight.
• Fixed lightning weapons not working correctly at 0-1 boss fight.
• Fixed rogue strike canisters being replaced by rad canisters if a big weapon chest spawns.
• Fixed statues absorbing rads even before activation.
• Fixed weapons sometimes rapidly flying off in a direction because of appearing at the same spot.
• Fixed weapon pickup mask being slightly off-center.
• Fixed a rare crash related to elite shielder.
• Fixed 6-1' stationary enemies spawning under 6-1 L1+ boss sometimes.
• Fixed 7-3 and 0-1 bosses not dropping rads that were beamed into them.
• Fixed a rare softlock in 7-x enemy teleportation.
• Fixed "cursed"/glitched crown vaults (where non-guardian enemies would spawn inside).
• Fixed portals sometimes appearing at position of last exploded barrel on 1-x.
• Fixed Frog being unable to turn around when providing an opposite-to-moving-direction inputs.
• Fixed elite shielder's teleport not working correctly.
• Fixed a bug with specific prop unintentionally exploding after hitting it with an energy screwdriver and laser brain mutation.
• Fixed a rare softlock in raven flight algorithm.
• Fixed hyper launcher and hyper slugger hitting allies.
• Fixed a very rare bug with portals spawning off-level.
• Fixed portals spawning at an unnecessary offset from the last killed enemy.
• Fixed a rare crash on dying to CrownGuardian.

  Misc

• Swap button now switches skins on daily, for lack of any other function.
• Weekly' tooltip now shows the name of the weapon in case you've no idea.
• Health chests now have a separate sprite when dropping from enemies with Confiscate in 2-?.
• Added a potential fix for music playing for a split second even if muted.
• Controls menu now knows more button names.
• Controls menu now waits until newly bound button is released to avoid triggering it's effect.
• Reworked formatted text drawing for performance and locale features.
• Holes inside 0-1 level are now a little darker for contrast.
• IDPD chests no longer appear to be regular large chests with Steroids' Ultra B.
• Proto chest now displays under the weapon(s).
• Names on daily/weekly boards are now shown to best extent.
• The game now randomly cleans up some of smoke/dust/debris if there's enough to lag the game.
• HUD now draws on top of mutation bar in case of too many mutations.
• Control menu' items can now be triggered with Enter (accept-key).
• Regular secondary weapons now draw with outlines during boss intros (b/c black background).
• Secondary weapon' outline now draws on 7-3 for ease of identification on screenshots.
• Van portals now display over most other enemies and effects (as they're a larger threat).
• Pickup prompt now shows the correct key name if it's not E.
• Crowns can now be picked with digit keys (like mutations/ultra mutations).
• Snowbots now have a separate sprite for holding red cars.
• Positional audio ("3d sound") can be disabled in audio options.
• Rusty revolver now has a separate sprite for loadout (thanks to BioOnPC).
• Most sounds can no longer restart more than once per frame, which helps performance.
• Large-scale wall destruction now lags less.
• Freeze frames now have decaying effect when stacking up too much (i.e. no 1s worth of FF).
• Settings are now saved right upon exiting the options menu in-game (to avoid loss of changes).
• Allies dying after portal opens should be a bit less laggy now.
• Grenades no longer make continuous sounds if hit near walls.
• 3-3 boss music now ends after it explodes.
• Captions are now shown for the nearest weapon, not for all nearby weapons. This is also guaranteed to be the weapon that you'll pick up on key press.

  Co-op
  Coop-specific fixes and improvements:

• If Chicken didn't find a health pickup on time in coop and was revived by other player, max health is no longer further reduced by 2.
• Fixed the game only checking if one (random) player has low health for health chest spawn.
• Swords & guitars now drop even if the according L1 level was skipped.
• Fixed rads not being attracted to a non-Horror player during beam use.
• Unsuspecting players now cannot be hurt by Frog "not holding it" during level loading.
• Fixed a player being stripped of Rhino Skin passive if they were fainted when it was picked.
• Mutation bar no longer displays under mutation buttons in coop.
• Players can no longer attempt revival of coop partners while at 0 health.
• Health chests can now restore maximum health to both players at once if they are Chicken.
• Rogue' ammo is now preserved upon reviving.
• Hammerhead uses left are now preserved upon reviving.
• "mutation bar" now displays the coop ultra mutations.
• If one of the players is YV, you now get the expected one-time effect on level ultra.
• P2 can now skip credits as well.
• Fixed Horror' passive having no effect on coop mutation choice with Crown of Destiny.
• Coop HUD no longer has duplicate elements for P2.
• Item drops now consider both players in calculations.
• Fixed Crown of Death' effect wearing off upon revival.
• Fixed "Eagle Eyes" bonus wearing off upon revival.
• Fixed camera looking at nothing if your Chicken's (missing) head gets exploded.
• Bloodlust/lucky shot now proc simultaneously for both players with the according "bond" mutation.
• Robot' passive now works consistently in coop.
• Fixed Strong Spirit recovering only for one player per level.
• Players now will automatically pick up their weapons upon revival, provided that they are still lying nearby.
• Fixed extra feet speed boost wearing off after a player dies.
• Fixed it being possible to pick wrong mutation in coop when both players are actively mouseovering them.
• The game now displays a separate kind of HUD for fainted players.
• Fixed Melting sometimes getting 3/2 HP upon revival.
• Fixed discs starting to hurt one of the players in coop earlier than the other.
• Fixed chests and crowns not always playing the touching player' sounds in coop.
• Fixed wrong line 2 color in Throne Butt description in coop.
• Fixed proto chests closing only by proximity towards one of the players in coop.
• Fixed player-race-specific alternate soundtracks not always triggering in coop.
• Fixed area-specific player sounds playing only for one of the players in coop.
• Fixed ammo pickups getting cursed only based on one player's actions.
• Fixed shovel/ultra shovel precision based on one player's stats in coop.
• All of the players are now shown on loading screens.
• Fixed various skills and effects only displaying above one player in coop.
  (Bloodlust, Horror TB, Laser Brain, Level up, Robot' active, Steroids TB, Strong Spirit, weapon switch)
• Fixed Rogue' chests not always appearing in coop.
• Fixed Rogue not always causing the additional enemies to spawn.
• Fixed Melting' passive not always working in coop.
• Fixed weapons not always uncursing correctly in coop.
• Fixed gas TB effect not always working in coop.
• Fixed Rebel-specific sound on 1-3 victory not always playing in coop.
• Fixed Horror' passive not always working in coop.
• Fixed Y.V. specific loading screen text not always appearing.
• Fixed maggot canisters not checking appearance condition correctly in coop.
• Fixed big maggots only attempting to ambush one of the players in coop.
• Fixed 2-1 exploding enemies not always making the "approaching" sound in coop.
• Fixed 2-1 L1+ boss item drop condition not always working in coop.
• Fixed 4-1 entrance condition not always working in coop (now requires any player to meet the condition)
• Fixed 5-3 boss being biased towards terrorizing one of the players in coop.
• Fixed 6-1 exploding enemies only desiring to explode near one of the players in coop.
• Fixed 6-1 stationary enemies only being triggered by one of the players in coop.
• Fixed 6-1 L1+ boss not necessarily tracking the right player.
• Fixed 7-3 boss being only activateable by one of the players in coop.
• Fixed 7-3 boss only being interested in walking towards one of the players. If you had situations where one of the players was randomly ran over by the boss, that's what it was.
• Fixed vans being biased towards running over one player in coop.
• Timer now displays in bottom-left corner of the screen in coop.
• Fixed timer going faster than usual in coop.
• Fainted players now carry over to the next level as you could expect them to.
• Fainted players now emit a small amount of light in dark levels.
• Fixed wasting health on reviving characters with less maximum health.
• Fixed "Bloodlust" proc not working correctly in coop.
• Fixed "Recycle Gland" resetting P2's bullet ammo.
• Fixed Fish' passive working only at P1 slot.
• You can now switch to B-skin in coop by using "swap" key on character select screen.
• Fixed "Trigger Fingers" mutation' effect in coop.
• Fixed "Rhino Skin" mutation' effect wearing off after respawn.

Update #99 - Update 99 - November 6th, 2017 [Steam]
Vlambeer AMA! As??k all your burning questions you've always wanted an? answer to! [reddit]

The post Nuclear Throne’s final major update has landed appeared first on Destructoid.

Where do I attach the Throne Butt?

Vlambeer's roguelike Nuclear Throne has been going strong since it came out of early access on Steam last year, and it's proven popular on PlayStation 4 as well. Fangamer recently teamed up with Vlambeer to produce some nifty-looking miniature figurines depicting?? each of th?e game's playable characters.

The figures are available at a discount in three sets of four figures each. Set one contains Plant, Rogue, Rebel, and Eyes. Set two has Yung Venuz, Horror, Crystal and Melting, and set three includes Steroids, Chicken, Fish, and Robot. If you just want one character, they're also available individually.

The figurines were modeled by the same artist who previously crafted the 3D models Fangamer sells for Undertale. You can chec??k out some more photos of the figures in the galler??y below.

The post Nuclear Throne mutates into 3D appeared first on Destructoid.

I DEMAND A CROWN

It may not seem like it, but most post-apocalyptic narratives are fundamentally optimistic. They might be set against a godforsaken backdrop of radioa??ctive fallout with roaming packs of cannibalistic thrill-killers, but beyond all the horror there is always a glimmer of hope, always something?? to hold onto.

They can be used to illustrate the redemptive power of a clean slate, the chance to start again. Look at something like Fallout 4 with its emphasis on rebuilding, on getting humanity back to where it was after being kicked down a few pegs by nuclear war and giant radioactive scorpions. They can be about family and the importance of sticking by the people you care about, as seen in The Last of Us, with broken people healing and bonding over the corpses of raiders and mus??hroom-zombies. These are stories about love and trust, even if they play out in the nightmarish hellscape of a broken world. The post-apocalypse is supposed to teach us about the importance of coming together, of valuing peace over conflict, about what is good and hopeful in ma??nkind triumphing against his darker nature.

Nuclear Throne isn't about any of that. Nuclear Throne is about annihilation. And sometimes, I'm all ?for a li??ttle annihilation.

Nuclear Throne is about mutants and freaks obliterating each other in a fucked up biohazard of a world over a supposed seat on a likely meaningless throne. It's about winning the right to lord over?? a dead world.

It's about twitch reflexes, the honing and sharpening of the most mechanical and merciless of gamer reactions. That dead-eye arcade stare that comes from quickly identifying the most pressing threat and eliminating it as quickly as possi?ble with minimal resource usage. It's about repeating that process about a thousand times, trying to get ever so slightly better at it every time you try.

It's about dying, quickly and cheaply. It's about a health bar that is so fragile as to be essentially meaningless. Bullets that gouge three pips of health out of a bar of eight and don't even have the decency to make you flicker for a second. One-hit kills from bosses. One-hit kills from mutant sewer rats. One-hit kills from cars accidentally exploding too close, the clumsy use of a plasma cannon, or getting a little too curious about a mysterious crystal. It hardly matters, most games of Nuclear Throne take anywhere between five and fifteen minutes. Another try is ju??st a click a??way.

Nuclear Throne isn't a game about learning from the mistakes of the pa?st, it's about doubling down on them. Fucked up the planet with nuclear hellfire and warfare? Well, guess we better slaughter each other by the dozen to fight over a fancy chair. Get killed by a random grenade? Mash that "retry" button to jump righ??t back in and eat another one. Die immediately trying to figure out how to play as Melty, the incredibly squishy pile of walking goo? Play as him another 20 times in a row until it's late and your eyes sting, and you know you'll hate yourself in the morning.

To me, Nuclear Throne is the game I turn to when I'?m not in the mood to learn from my mistakes, when I'd rather wallow in th??em. When I want to pile them on top of each other again and again until I can make myself a comfortable pile of failure to sit on.

I've read that Luftrausers, Vlambeer's previous game, was made while the team was angry. That the fury of having one of their other games ripped-off in the Apple marketplace and the long, bitter process of trying to resolve that issue crept its way into Luftrausers and b?ecame the black core of its angry heart. That the unrelenting aggression of both the enemies and the player (motivated by a strict score-attack combo system to keep fighting at all costs) was a result of how t?hey felt at the time.

It's not hard to extend the logic and imagine how those feeling influenced the rest of the game. The ultra minimalist design, the obsession with cutting out every superfluous element of the game, reveals a design team wasn't just uninterested in niceties, but hostile to them. One of the iconic ship abilities in Luftrausers is a suici??de bomb that triggers a skull-shaped nuclear explo?sion when the player dies, clearing out every enemy left on the screen. It's pure schadenfreude -- they might as well made the nuclear cloud a middle finger.

In many ways, Nuclear Throne seems just as angry. It's hyper-aggressive and utterly merciless. The kind of game where you are expected to die. Failure is the default state and winning is the rare, precious exception (and all it does is toss you back into an even harder NG+). The game is hostile to the player, with disorienting screen shake accompanying every explosion, dick-bag cheap shots from off-screen enemies, monsters disguised as ammo boxes -- the kind of tricks you'd expect to see in something like I Wanna Be the Guy.

But it's also a whole lot of fun.

Nuclear Throne celebrates nihilism. It finds the joy in self-obliteration. Every aspect of the design speaks to a willful disregard for safety, a rejection of self-preservation. While ammo and health are precious commodities, half the?? weapons you can pick up are more dangerous to you than they are the enemy, and the rest gleefully waste ammunition. Suicidal choices like the disc gun with it's bouncing buzzsaw blades that are 100% guaranteed to ricochet back at you, radiation grenades that leave dense clouds of toxic smoke for you to walk into, blood sledgehammers that gamble health fo??r a more powerful swing -- madness in a game where you're always a hair's breadth from death.

There is dumb shit like the triple and quad machine guns, which flood the screen with firepower while evaporating your ammo reserve in the blink of an eye. Great fun for about seven seconds or so. Or Y.V's “Brrrpt” upgrade that lets him fire a weapon four times per trigger pull combined with something like the “precision” crossbow. Completely wasteful, entirely satisfying. Nuclear Throne seems like the kind of game the War Boys from Mad Max would enjoy.

Then you have the little details. The loading screen messages that alternate between poignant and asinine, constantly pointing out how pointless and nihilistic the situation is only to laugh at it. The grotesquely cute design of the characters, little monsters you can't help but love. Chicken, an avian-samurai so committed to carnage that she'll keep fighting for a few seconds even after losing her head. Or my personal favorite character, the Robot, who's special ability is that he can devour spare guns to restore health and ammo. He is a being that literally subsists on violence, but that doesn??'t stop him fro??m being cute as a button.

I play a lot of different games for many different reasons. There are some games that I play for the story, or the world, the Fallouts and Dragon Ages of the world. I like fighting games and multiplayer first-person shooters to test my skills against other players, and MOBAs as an excuse to ?play with friends.??

But you know what? Sometimes I'm not in the mood to go scavenge around for copper wire or perform? fetch quests for peasants. Sometimes the last thing I would want to do is go online and put up with trash talking morons or try to put on a happy face for my friends?.

Sometimes at the end of the day I'm tired and sad. I don?'t have the energy to invest in some 80 hour RPG or the focus to deal with online bullshit. I just want to blow everything up. I want to get killed. I want to do it over and over again until I feel like all the bile and frustration of the day has been expunged.

That's a valid reason to play games as well. As the industry moves further into huge triple A multiplayer titles and massive open-world adventures, and many indies become increasingly story driven and emotional charged, I feel like that desire for mindless, cathartic, healing obliteration is getting lost in the shuffle. It makes me thankful for Nuclear Throne and its sweet embrace of annihilation.

The post The sweet annihilation of Nuclear Throne appeared first on Destructoid.

You did not reach the Nuclear Throne

Nuclear Throne is not a game for people who get frust??rated easily.

My first few hours spent with this top-down shooter from Super Crate Box and Ridiculous Fishing developer Vlambeer didn't go well. I struggled with aiming and, as a result, ammo conservation. I had a hard time predicting patterns well enough to evade attacks. Levels felt overloaded with danger, almost as if an algorithm forgot it was?? generating levels for humans, not infallible beings. And, most irritating of all, I kept ending promisin?g runs with a single tragic slip-up that stole all my health. (Usually an explosion.)

As much as I enjoyed the general idea of Nuclear Throne, early on, it just wasn't clicking.

Nuclear Throne (Linux, Mac, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 [reviewed], PlayStation Vita, Windows)
Developer: Vlambeer
Publisher: Vlambeer
Released: December 5, 2015 (Linux, Mac, PS3, PS4, Vita, Windows) / TBA (PS3)
MSRP: $11.99

This is a roguelike, and a brutally difficult, bullet hellish one at that. These games have an uncanny ability to push us to the brink of madness only to win us over, in the end, and form an unbreakable bond. I'm no stranger to that process. But with Nuclear Throne, it's far m?ore of a love-hate relationship than I'm used t??o.

A large part of what kept me going despite repeated, soul-crushing failure was the look and sound of the setting and the strange creatures who inhabit it. The overall vision here is superb, with mutants, monsters, robots, and even an inter-dimensional police force collectively forming a believable, lived-in world. You nev?er develop a full picture of this p??ost-apocalyptic wasteland, or what its future might hold, and that's a good thing. Vlambeer provides just enough hints to stoke imaginations without oversharing.

As a mutant, your basic goal is to kill everything. And I do mean everything -- that's how you progress to the next level and, with persistence, reach the titular Nuclear Throne. Initially, you will fend off bandits, maggots, and scorpions in a desert area. They're all good fodder for learning the basics before the real scary stuff comes out. Depending on your character, your adventure starts with a basic revolver, but you will soon find more interesting guns with varying rates of? fire, bullet spreads, and other quirks.

It's a shame you can only hold two weapons at a time, because I never wanted to part with anything. They're all delightful to use, and once you've grown accustomed to the way combat flows, it's so gratifying. But ammo is finite and the maximum amount you can store of each type (bullets, shells, bolts, explosives, and energy) isn't very high. That's by design. You're meant to continually cycle weapons in and out to match the situation at hand as well as what's left in your ammo stockpile. It's a clever wa?y to encourage ada?ptability and it also helps the game maintain a sense of excitement over hundreds if not thousands of runs.

There are also melee weapons, which are just as enjoyable as guns if not more so. They can be supremely useful in the right situation. Most of them can reflect projectiles back at enemies and, with sufficient reach, even attack through certain walls. There is a major downside to getting up close and personal, though: more than a few enemies explode when they die, and some bosses will even try to bring you down with them. They'll probably succeed, too.

Rads (experience points) are the other major piece of Nuclear Throne. They're a type of collectible dropped by slain enemies, and you need to be quick to nab them because they fade after several seconds. Once you've earned enough rads to level up your character, you'll be able to choose a mutation (perk). These grant powerfu??l passive abilities like health or ammo regeneration, slower-moving enemy bull?ets, and better melee range. But you don't get to pick a mutation until you have successfully obliterated everything and exited the level, and they're presented in a random group of four. Depending on your character's specific strengths and weaknesses, or your personal playstyle, you may not like the choices available.

Ammo and health pick-ups also expire shortly after dropping onto the field, which means even if you have carved out a secluded spot that enemies won't wander into, you can't afford to stay put. Nuclear Throne is adept at making you feel unsafe. You're utterly fragile in this game, with or without full health. Everyone and everything packs a tremendous punch, so one wrong move can be the end. Only a select few elements like unlockable characters are persisten?t across runs.

Levels are procedurally generated with variable layouts and enemy placements, but there are consistent themes (desert, sewer, caves, lab, etc.) on the path to the Nuclear Throne. Unless you skip around by entering secret areas -- the underwater oasis is a personal favorite ?of mine -- the overall structure will be the same on every run. Bosses show up on specific levels, so when you get to level 5-3, you know Lil' Hunter is going to drop in and ruin your day. He's the fucking worst.

With practice, you can heighten your skills and know how best to leverage a character's special abilities. You'll be able to rapidly scan and prioritize threats. You'll generally know what lies ahead and which weapons to hold onto. But that's not always enough. Sometimes, Nuclear Throne will just screw you over. And that's where it falls short. There will be times when you spawn into a level surrounded by enemies and explosive objects and immediately die. Sometimes, it's that exact scenario plus a boss in the mix. It can be unfair. Or, at the very least, uneven. I expect that in roguelikes to a certain extent,?? but it especially sta??nds out as a problem here.

Bad spawns aside, there is a weird jump in difficulty in the Frozen City. Every time I managed to clear that particular zone, I went on to beat the next few levels without much trouble and made it to the Nuclear Throne (the point at which you can fight a boss and end your run, or "loop" it). The first time I fought the boss, ten hours in, I brushed up against the thing, causing a game-ending error. It was another two hours before I got another chance and succeeded. I haven't been able to mak?e it back yet to try looping (think new game plus), so I know I'm missing out on some weapons and bosses, and an even greater challenge.

If I could do it all over again, I would probably opt for the PC version instead. Mouse and keyboard controls would have been a godsend while I was learning the ropes. On PlayStation 4, there is an aim assist option, thankfully, and you can remap the controls. I suggest playing around with those settings and switching the "change weapon" button ?to something other than triangle. For folks interested in playing local co-op with a friend, know that the brutal difficulty persists. It's set up in such a way that if one player dies, they need to quickly be revived, and both players lose part of their health. So it's not really any easier.

In the end, I have come to love and loathe Nuclear Throne. It's one of the hardest, most rewarding games I've ever played. But as satisfying as it ca??????????????????????????n eventually become,?? I think it is far too demanding for its own good. With additional polish and balancing, this could be a masterpiece in the genre. It's not quite there yet, but it's close.

_{[This review is based on a retail ??build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Officially launched on PC, PS4, and Vita

It feels like Vlambeer's Nuclear Throne has been in Early Access limbo for ages, but the punishing roguelike shooter has finally reached its official release date. You can now purchase the finished version of Nuclear Throne on PS4, PS Vita, PC, Mac, and Linux for $11.99. It's also coming so?on to PS3?.

I played this a lot while it was still in ?Early Access, and found it to be exceedingly difficult but absolutely addicting. I don't think I ever even made it past the second area, the sewer with all those pesky rats, but I kept wanting to go back and try again and again. Maybe I'll finally make it a bit further now that the game is finished.

S?omeday I will reach the nuclear throne if I just believe in it hard enough, right?

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Fish can lol

Rami Ismail of Vlambeer was inspired by today's super hot, extra informative Doom 4 teaser to whip up a little something for Nuclear Throne. This tantalizing glimpse of the frenetic early access title (that you can play right now) is a conundrum wrapped in a riddle. I know I'll be spending the rest of the day breaking apart this teaser frame?? by frame and comparing my findings on?? reddit.

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In theory

After months of updates, the in-development Nuclear Throne now has an actual Nuclear Throne, though getting to it -- and su??rviving the ensuing bat?tle -- won't be easy.

"To us, reaching the Nuclear Throne is the most crucial moment in the lore of the world, but there is much left to be told about the world that the game takes place in," wrote Vlambeer. "For the second half of development, we will revisit much of the content already in the game, but also start expanding on the lore and the world in the game."

The team is still working toward making the game "feature complete," after which point it will begin implementing all of its content and polishing. Followed by more polishing. Then, it'll be time for release -- first on PC/Mac/Linux, and then on PS3/PS4/PS Vita.

Back when I was sharing an apartment with former Destructoid editor Conrad Zimmerman, I got to watch him push through Nuclear Throne and wanted to play, too. But as with most games that I'm sure I'll enjoy, I'd rather wait until it's furth??er along in development before jumping in.

You can now reach the Nuclear Throne [Vlambeer]

Here's what shape the game is in as of update 33:

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Vlambeer shoot-em-up to get even shootier

Today at PAX East, Vlambeer's Rami Ismail announced that their latest game, Nuclear Throne, will feature cooperative m?ultiplayer. The mode will allow for up to four players to play simultaneously, either locally or over the internet (with the former to be made available soon in an update to Steam Early Access players).

This feature will really change a lot in terms of the gameplay, I suspect, as players will have to scramble to collect experience. You'll also have to avoid killing teammates with the few ways one could accidentally kill themselves in solo play, such as?? exploding grenades and the dreaded Disc Gun. Could be really excellent, with additional players contributing to the game's occasionally overwhelming chaos. I'm not entirely sure I'll do a whole lot with the feature, as I like the game just fine in solo and would probably only fire up multiplayer for local play with house guests, but I'm sure quite a few people will be excited at the prospect of fighting through the wasteland with friends.

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Shift to first-person perspective playable now

I really love Nuclear Throne. The procedurally generated stages and high challenge level have kept me coming back time and again as Vlambeer has continued to tweak and expand the game in Early Access. Today comes perhaps the most dramatic update of all, as the independent studio has announced that Nuclear Throne will now be a first-person shooter.

As I've been playing the game every day, I made a little video checking it out. There's still a long way to go, clearly, but this is an exciting direction. If you've picked up the Early Access release of Nuclear Throne, you can play the new and improved version of the game by accessing the "FPS_01Apr2014_Beta" beta from within the "?Properties" menu of the? game.

(April Fool's!)

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Shrewd move, Vlambeer

The latest title from Dutch indies Vlambeer, Nuclear Throne, has appeared on Steam today in Early Access. In an interesting development, purchasing early will come at a higher price t??han the game's final release. 

Vlambeer's Rami Ismail explained the decision in an e-mail to Destructoid, saying, "we feel that being part of development and having the o?pportunity to talk and affect the final game in the livestreams on www.nuclearthrone.com. We think that's ?worth the slightly higher ?price."

The procedurally generated shoot-em-up has been operating in a kind of "live development" atmosphere, with twice-weekly streaming video sessions on the game's website which feature the developers as they work to refine and improve the game. Players who have purchased the Early Access version are exp?ected to receive new versions of the game on a weekly basis and gain a further involvement in the development process.

I think it's a great idea from a business perspective for smaller developers to take this route,?? but it remains to be seen if such a tactic will be effective in the highly competitive Steam marketplace, where games offered pre-release are almost always available at a "sale" price to ca?pture an early audience. Vlambeer's growing name-recognition and reputation might make them an ideal test case.

When asked what the final version of Nuclear Throne would be priced at, Rami said, "We don't know the final price yet, but the difference will probably be absolute??ly minor."

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Unfortunately, not to 'GUN GODZ: Legend of Yung Venuz: Originz'

Vlambeer (Super Crate Box, Ridiculous Fishing) is the vlambest. On its website, the indie studio announced its upcoming PS4, Vita, and PC "roguelike-like" Wasteland Kings would be renamed Nuclear Throne. An employee of InExile (Wasteland) contacted Vlambeer, expressing concern over brand confusion with its upcoming Wasteland 2.  Vlambeer responded well.

We’ve been through a lot of trouble with people riding on things of ours, and we understand that American trademark law is pretty strict in that not defending a trademark weakens it. We realize that both games are set in a similar setting, that the names are similar and that InXile obviously felt the need to reach out. Although we aren’t sure Wasteland Kings and Wasteland are confusing enough for thi??????????????????????????s to be an issue, both us and InXil?e really don’t want to spend development time on arguing over trivialities.

Most of all, we appreciate that the first contact between us was by a normal employee, and not a lawyer. There was no extravagant Cease & Desist-letter, nor a threatening letter in an envelope labelled ‘URGENT’. The e-mail we ??received was short, amicable and to-the-point. It was followed up by a quick conversation on Skype, in which we established that it would be the right thing for us to change the name.

Hooray for niceties and doing business reasonably. Let's also have a moment of remembrance for the possible name changes that were beaten out by Nuclear Throne: ‘Genetic Miracles Fish & The Gang Vault Runners,’ Trash Monarchs, Kingstarter, and ‘GUN GODZ: Legend of Yung Venuz: Originz.’

You can watch the team at Vlambeer live stream Nuclear Throne development on its site while you wait for Luftrausers to come out.

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