The world's first 'Sawtroid'

Disc Room was one of my favorite games of PAX East 2020. That's high praise considering that two new Shovel Knight titles, the laughably sexy Final Fantasy 7 remake, the return of one of Hideki Kamiya's greatest games, and the one and only Animal Crossing: New Horizons were just a few of the thi??ngs I played over the course of the show. 

My low expectations definitely helped Disc Room to shock me. When I first saw the game I thought "This looks like one of the harder levels in Super Meat Boy except it's top down, and it's the whole game." That assessment isn't exactly wrong, but it's a little like saying that Tetris "... looks like some blocks that you have to put together." Embracing tight limitations can lead to limitless inspiration. J.W. Nijman and Kitty Callis showed how deeply they understand that old game design maxim with Minit (one of the few games to receive a perfect score from this fine establishment), and I think they are about to show us again with Disc Room.  

Disc Room is about a lone explorer who is investigating a giant saw blade that suddenly appeared in space. The narrative takes inspiration from classic, pre-CGI Sci-Fi films where atmosphere and tone had to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Disc Room relies less on lighting and s??et design to engage the audience. In fact, the art style didn't do much for me until I played it, and then it clicked. First off, the game needed to have simple art direction because from the first room on, the screen is filled with a complex array of saw blades that require every ounce of?? your perception power to contend with.

Secondly, it makes sense for Disc Room to look like it was made by a regular person, because it's the story of a regular person. They're not a soldier or a super hero, and they don't have any special powers or abilities (at least at first). This is a game made by, for, and about your average shlub, looking around at all the horrible garbage going on in the world at any given moment as they think "I either have to try t??o survive or just give up."

Those who choose not to give up will be rewarded pretty quickly. Some rooms only require you to survive for a few seconds before they allow you to progress to the next one, while others offer branching paths forward, or bigger rewards for lasting longer or pulling off some other type of difficult feat. That's pretty commonplace for the genre. More surprising is how Disc Room handles death. You actually have to die in order to move on to the next room, making str??ategic suicide a potential part of your plans.

In fact, one of the earlier rooms contains a special "Dash Disc" saw blade that can c harge at you at a breakneck pace. Once it kills you, you learn how to dash yourself, making it a lot easier to escape from other blades fast or slow, big or small. So instead of killing enemies to steal their powers - like in Mega Man or Metroid Fusion - you actua??lly want to get destroyed by certain saws in order to gain their abilities.

So in Disc Room, the things that don't kill you make you stronger, except for the ones that in fact do make you stronger, and? faster, and who knows what else. J.W. tells us that you gain a fairly robust array of abilities throughout the game to aid you in taking on a surprising variety of different saws, including giant boss saws, cute little baby saws, poison saws, and a host of others. 

Like Minit and many of the games J.W. worked on as a member of Vlambeer, Disc Room asks very little of you in return for all that it gives. All you have to do is avoid getting killed by some saw blades, except for the times when you actually want to get killed by them. In exchange for that, the game gives you excitement, intrigue, laughs, and genuine sense of skill/power building tha?t sets in in less than a minute. I expect it to generate some serious buzz when it's released on Steam, Switch and PS4 later this year. 

The post Anyone could make Disc Room?, but only the creators of Minit e?ver would appeared first on Destructoid.

A new, short, free game every day this year

Ever wanted to play a different game each day? Sounds like it might be an expensive prospect, but things get easier when you expand your net to include indie and experimental titles. But there are so many! What should you play?! Deciding that might be a little bit easier this year in light of a just-launched new project from Vlambeer??'s Rami Ismail.

Titled Meditations, the project was originally conceived in early 2018, and consists of a free launcher that will, for every day in 2019, unlock a single short game created by one of hundreds of developers Ismail collaborated with over the course of last year. The games themselves were all developed in under a day by their respective developers, last just a few minutes each, and have varied mechanics, topics, and approaches, ranging "from curious small puzzle games and challenging little platformers to personal games about life and loss and happiness and love and death and everything." The launcher is already available to download from the Meditations website, and the first "Meditation" of 2019 is Tak's Tempres.

Each game is available only on the day it unlocks (in the GMT timezone, at least), and goes away at the end of that day, encouraging players to check in with Meditations as a habit of sorts. In essence, Meditations is a sort of indie-game equivalent to those "daily medit?ation" booklets you might find yourself or a loved one using as part of their morning or evening routine. Without knowing more about the games themselves, I think it's a fine idea, and a fun little way to discover more indie developers, especially if you're interested in the more experimental side of the scene.

Check out this Twitter thread for more from Ismail about the project, or get more details at Meditations' FAQ page.

The post Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail launches ‘Meditations’, a game-a-day project appeared first on Destructoid.

Back to their roots

A week or so ago on our Discord, I pondered, weak and weary, over Valmbeer's relative quiet ever since Nuclear Throne came out of early access in December 2015. Well, call me clairvoyant because in a surprise move at?? PAX West, the studio showed off their new bullet-hell ??shooter to celebrate eight years of developing games together.

The currently untitled game was playable on the show floor and from the photos had a very simple control scheme. You move with the arrow keys and shoot with X, simple right? The complexity comes in the enemy spawning mechanic. When you kill an enemy, it leaves behind residue on the ground, the residue will sit there until you move too far away from it, at which point the residue will spawn even more enemies. Seems like a nice i??ncentive to keep you from running backwards constantly at the edges of the screen.

In an interview with IGN's Tom Marks, Rami Ismail described the game as "inverted space invaders, where you start with one enemy and as you destroy th??ose enemies they split into more and more enemies." Ismail also stated, "you will die, it's just how high can you get your score before you do?" There was also mention of possibly implementing a progression system with unlockables such as new ships or weapons that were not in the surprise release build.

Speaking also on their quiet in the post-Nuclear Throne launch years, Ismail said that they as a studio were used to making "six games a year" so to spend almost two straight years on one game was different and a bit exhausting for the team at Vlambeer?. So they took some time off and looked at fan desires, ultimately deciding to return to the smaller arcade shooters that they first got into game development for.

So, when can those who weren't at PAX West this weekend get to play Untitled Residue Shooter? "Soonish" is the word from Rami Ismail. No word either on the platforms the ?game will eventually be avai??lable for but I can almost guarantee PC, any others platforms we will have to wait and see.

Vlambeer surprise reveal at PAX West 2018 [IGN]

The post Nuclear Throne dev??eloper V??lambeer shows off their new bullet hell to celebrate eighth birthday appeared first on Destructoid.

Time flies

What's one minute of your life? I woke up today and spent 12 minutes scrolling through Twitter, looking a??t statements and jokes that I didn't particularly care to see. Later, I spent three minutes trying to remember other mundane wastes of time from this morning. (I eventuall?y settled on the meta-waste from the sentence you just read.)

The point is that 60 seconds flies by. Minit knows this and Minit accentuates this. Minit explores the exact length of one minute, cranks the font up to size 50, underlines it, and adds 10 exclamation points. Minit is astonishingly proficient at examining how one minute is enough time to be startling efficient and woefully inept.

Really, it's all so incredible.

Minit (PC, PS4, Xbox One [reviewed])
Developer: JW, Kitty, Jukio, and Dom
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Released: April 3, 2018
MSRP: $9.99

Minit's gimmick is that each run lasts a maximum of one minute. The unnamed protagonist, an oddly-shaped duck-alien thing?, finds a cursed sword and it comes with the unfortunate restriction that he'll die after living for 60 seconds. It's not all bad, though. When death is re-?positioned as an inevitability, it feels less like a failure and more like another chance at success.

That constraint -- knowing everything can't be accomplished immediately -- drives Minit's gameplay?? loop. Some attempts will be spent wandering and trying to piece together what's next; some will rely on execution after having already figured out how to proceed. It's all surprisingly low-stakes because there's the inherent safety net that a botched run will only take one minute to rectify.

For a central mechanic that's so on-the-nose minimalist, Minit is deceptively big. It's an adventure in the style of Link's Awakening -- full of quirky characters, item switching, and semi-obtuse objectives. There's a fish who pre?fers being on land rather than in the sea. There's a guy who genuinely just wants to hear some good tunes. The alternative to a sword is a watering can.

There's a lot to do and a lot to explore. That seems at direct odds with the minute-long time limit. Minit's solution is to carry over nearly everything that's accomplished in past lives. Any progress made is a permanent step toward the conclusion to this? grand journey.

Still, finishing Minit doesn't feel like Minit's ultimate reward. It's finding a familiarity with every inch of its world that's most satisfying. It's knowing how to get across the entirety of the map in under a minute (with plenty of time to spare, honestly). It's this learned mastery of all of Minit's systems and being at peace with the 60-secon??d timer. And then it's using all of that to figure how to wring out the last few elusive secrets. I feel like there's more stuff I should water.

By contrasting a relatively-large adventure against a relatively-brief time frame, developers JW, Kitty, Jukio, and Dom found a unique piece of game design that's incredibly effective. Everything about Minit should feel overwhelming. It doesn't. Instead, everything feels attainable in due time. There's this weird and perfect harmony about knowing you're rushed and also not caring. It's liberating. I could keep gushing about Minit? but, given the source? material, this review is already too long.

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

The post Review: Minit appeared first on Destructoid.

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 feedback to create and 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 bei??ng '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 updates 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/hate but mostly love the game, I'll be glad to see this ?c??rew 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! Ask all your burning ques??tions you've always wanted an answer to! [reddit]

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

They're off the hook for now

Ridiculous Fishing is one of the few mobile games that I consider to be a “classic.” It takes the simple mechanic of t?ilting your phone side to side and evolves it in ways that keep the exp?erience continuously charming as hell.

As explained by Jim Crawford recently, iOS games are at particular risk of becoming unplayable in the near future due to compatibility issues on the App Store. Luckily, Ridiculous Fishing just received an update for 64-bit support along w??ith two new speedrun leaderboards.

You may be familiar with the developer, Vlambeer, from their more recent games Nuclear Throne and Luftrausers, bu??t this silly adventure about fishing is what really put them on the map for me. Even though it’s still available on Android devices, it warms my heart to know that others will have the opportunity to experienc??e this thing, in all its glory, for the foreseeable future.

The post Ridiculous Fishing receives 64-bit com??patibility update 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 rec??ently teamed up with Vlambeer to produce some nifty-looking miniature ??figurines depicting each of the 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 check out som?e more phot?os of the figures in the gallery 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 radioactive 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 mushroom-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 mankind triumphing ag??ainst his darker nature.

Nuclear Throne isn't about any of that. Nuclear Throne is about annihilation. And s?ometimes, I'm a??ll for a little annihilation.

Nuclear Throne is abo?ut 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 possible with minimal resource usage. It's about repeating that pro?cess 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 just a click a??way.

Nuclear Throne isn't a game about learning from the mistakes of the past, 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 right back in and eat another one. Die immediately trying to figure out how to play as Melty, the incredib?ly squishy pile of walking goo? Play as him another 20 times in a r?ow 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 w??allow in them. 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 became the black core of its angry heart. That the unrelenting aggression of both the enemies and the player (mo??ti?vated by a strict score-attack combo system to keep fighting at all costs) was a result of how they 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 suicide bomb that triggers a skull-shaped nuclear explosion 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 nihil??ism. 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 for 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 a?s 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 ski??lls 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 coppe?r 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 ha?s 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.

I mean, you've seen the rest

It's like the middle of January and you've read about five thousand GOTY lists at this point, so let's get? to brass tacks. There were some great games released last year, but which ones were the best?

I have no idea.

Sorry, there are no mathematical formulas or a??lchemical recipes to definitively tell us what the best game of the year was (even though I think our site's democratically elected GOTY is a pretty strong contender). I can tell you what I personally enjoyed this most this year though. So here are what I consider the best parts of 2015.

Best game of the year: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is one of my favorite games of all time. As I've shared before, I've replayed it at least ten times over the years. I didn't keep coming back to it just because it was fun, I kept coming back to it because it was surprising. Every time I played through it I'd fin?d something new.

I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface of The Phantom Pain's surprises.

F?orget replaying the entire game, every time I replay one of ?? The Phantom Pain's missions I find something new. Every other week someone posts a YouTube video of some outrageous tactic or bizarre mechanic I never even considered before. The other day, I found a new cassette tape despite having plunged more than 70 hours into the game already. Let that sink in, I've played this game for 70 hours and I haven't even uncovered all the easy to find stuff yet.

Of course, it's also an amazing game to play. The Phantom Pain is a to??tal leap for the series, a massively needed redesign of Tactical Espionage Action that finally, FINALLY, makes you feel like the super-spy Snake was always trumped up to be. Instead of t??he hurky-jerk movement of previous entries that saw Snake frequently kneeling in front of a a two-foot high obstacle and then somehow accidentally dropping a flashbang at his feet while searching for the right button, this Snake moves just like how you'd expect of the world's greatest soldier. He effortlessly hurdles barriers, dives into cover, slides down hills, and climbs sheer walls, and you never find yourself reaching for the manual. Combat is fast, fluid, and accurate, the enemies smart and responsive. A never ending supply of gadgets, gear, partners, and chopper support options provide an answer to almost any situation you could get yourself into.

The Phantom Pain is one hell of a game. Despite Konami doing everything it can to ruin the game post-release, it still remains the best time I had playing video games this year, and I wouldn't be surprised if I end up coming back to The Phantom Pain just as much as I did with Snake Eater.

Best spoooooky: Bloodborne

Dark Souls is still my favorite From Software game to date, but Bloodborne certainly gave it a run for its money. While some elements of Bloodborne's design disappointed me (the PvP never felt as well developed and I would have loved a few more sets of clothing and armor to choose from), I was absolutely enamored with the Victorian Gothic look of the world. Yharnam is a scary place, and the population of w??erewolves, fallen priests, and creepy eye monsters never let me drop my guard for a second. 

Best budget anatomy lesson: Mortal Kombat X

I like to learn. I've always considered myself an eternal student, but have you seen the cost of post-secondary education these days? One can't afford to just take up a medical class as a hobby anymore! Which is why I was so delighted to see how detailed and painstakingly rendered the bloody viscera of Mortal Kombat X was. If anyo?ne ever needs an emergency whole ??body bisection via a razor-bladed hat, I'm the man to call.

I feel like MKX didn't make a lot of GOTY lists, and that's a shame. For my money, it's the best Mortal Kombat game ever made. Sure, it has balance issues and the PC launch was an absolute travesty, but the core gameplay is best the series has ever offered -- fast, brutal, and mean, the way Mortal Kombat should be. The variation system that gives each character three distinct fightin??g styles with different strengths and weaknesses is something I'd love to see more fighting games adopt.

Best interior design options: Fallout 4: Happy Home Designer

I have no idea why I put so much time into the settlement system of Fallout 4, but I did and I loved it. Fallout 4 is a magnificent game (even if it is lacking the role-playing options of New Vegas and the quests work a little too hard to funnel you down certain paths) with an amazing sense of exploration and surprisingly fun gun-play. But it turns out if you put a half-baked doll-house simulator in a game, I'll focus on it nearly exclusively to the abandonment of all else. Maybe I should just start playing The Sims and get it over with.

Best descent into nihilism: Nuclear Throne

Something about this game brings out the worst in me. It's my “2:00am, I should go to bed but I've been drinking and feeling sad, so why not do another run (or twenty)” game. A blitzkrieg of furious action and pointless violence that I'm more than happy to wallow in at the end of a long frustrating day. If Fallout 4 was my chipper little game about optimism and rebuilding life after a disaster, Nuclear Throne was its dark shadow, ?a celebr?ation of defeat and chaos.

Best dinosaurs: ARK: Survival Evolved

Yeah, this is technically a Steam Early Access game, but who cares? It has dinosaurs! Who would have thought watching a mutant caveman getting devoured by a Carnotaurus could be so much fun (even when you are the mutant caveman in question)? I didn't play tons and tons of ARK, but my time wandering around the jungle jabbing my pointy little stick at anything that moved left an impress?ion. I still think of heading back into the wil??ds every now and then.

Best “I should play more of this”: Galak-Z: The Dimensional

I love everything about Galak-Z; the way the ship moves, the rogue-lite structure of the missions and power-ups, the retro '80s anime aesthetic, it's all great. I just haven't played a ton of it. I got into the second season of the game (when you get the big robot), died, and never quite got back to it. It isn't that I haven't wanted to, it just seems to keep getting buried under something more pressing (or convenient) to play. I have a feeling if I played a little more, Galak-Z could end up being my next Binding of Isaac.

Best argument to buy a Wii U: Super Mario Maker

Why the fuck didn't I buy a Wii U!? I'm such a moron. Can I borrow yours? C'mon, just for a week or two? I've been watching all these videos and I have an idea for a level that uses P-switches in a really fucked up way and I'm just dying to try it and...

Best way to find out your friends are total monsters: Jack Box Party Pack 2

Ever?ything is all fun and games until someone makes a punchline?????????????????????????? out of Boko Haram.

Best use of fingers: Fingered

The stubby digit of justice.

The post Nic Rowen picks the best of 2015 appeared first on Destructoid.

You did not reach the Nuclear Throne

Nuclear Throne is not a game for people who g??et frustrated 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 promising ??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 more of a love-hate relationship tha??n I'm used to.

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-di?mensional police force collectively forming a believable, lived-in world. You never develop a full picture of this post-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 bas??ic revolver, but you will soon find more in??teresting 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 gratifyi?ng. 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 stockpil??e. It's a clever way to encourage adaptability 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 powerful passive abilities like health or ammo regeneration, slower-moving enemy bullets, 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 persistent acros??s runs.

Levels are procedurally generated wit??h 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 stands 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 particu??lar 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 make it back yet to tr??y 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, thankful??ly, 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 can 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.]}

The post Review: Nuclear Throne appeared first on Destructoid.

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 soon 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.

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

The post Nuclear Throne is finally out of Early Access appeared first on Destructoid.

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 glimp?se 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.

The post Amazing Nuclear Throne teaser inspired by Doom 4 appeared first on Destructoid.

Rami thinks you're awesome, bets your friends are as well

Rami Ismail of Vlambeer has come up with a creative and generous way to effectively double the Nuclear Throne community while at the same time saying thanks to all those who supported the Early Access title during 2014.

As of January 1, 2015, owners of the delightful top-down shooter will receive a free, giftable copy that Ismail hopes you'll pass along to friends who in turn will provide valuable feedback as the team finishes?????????????????????????? up work on the title later in the year.

"You've become really adept Nuclear Throne players, and we want to call upon you for your help. We need new players, people that are great players, that would love Nuclear Throne, and we need them to be part of our community. We're sure you know somebody like that, and if you do, we want to ask you to invite them to the Nuclear Throne community. We need fresh eyes on the game, people that will still get decimated by Big Bandit and that will complain about the ravens in the scrapyard. We need to know how they feel about Nuclear Throne, and we need your help to reach them."

Rami's just the best, isn't he? Anyways, the offer's also good for new purchases made until January, so if you've been wait??ing to try it out fo??r yourself and would enjoy having a second copy to pass along to a friend, this is your golden opportunity.

The post Vlambeer is giving away free cop??ies of Nuclear Throne in ??January appeared first on Destructoid.

In theory

After months of updates, the in-development Nuclear Throne now has an actual Nuclear Throne, though ge?tting to it -- and surviving the ensuing battle -- 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 further 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:

The post It’s now possible to reach Vlambeer’s Nuclear Throne appeared first on Destructoid.

Vlambeer shoot-em-up to get even shootier

Today at PAX East, Vlambeer's Rami Ismail announced that their latest game, Nuclear Throne, wi??ll feature cooperative multiplayer. 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 i?n an update to Steam Early Access players).

This feature will really change a lot in terms of the gameplay, I su??spect, 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 mult??iplayer 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.

The post Cooperative multipl?ayer mode coming to Nucle?ar Throne appeared first on Destructoid.

Rami Ismail responds to beliefs that you play as a Nazi pilot in their game.

Vlambeer are no strangers to positive press, having endeared themselves to many through their tenacity in the face of a sometimes malicious marketplace, constant efforts to help others find success, and most importantly, producing great videogames. Accepting praise and affection can offer its ow??n set of challenges, but it's generally less dicey than managing criticism. V?lambeer has gained a level of influence in the industry where they are bound to face much greater scrutiny than they have in years past, and it seems they're rising to meet that scrutiny as best they can. 

Luftrausers, their latest full release, has drummed up some discomfort in potential players who feel the game's imagery comes too close to depicting the player as a Nazi war pilot. It's easy to see where that feeling comes from. Everything from the game's name, prem??ise, and art direction evoke World War II era German military iconography, albeit mixed with the kind of beyond-real super-science that many at that time feared that the Germans had managed to secretly develop. While it may be a leap to go from "depiction of our now-antiquated fears of German military superiority" to "Nazi protagonist", it's not a leap that Rami would begrudge anyone for taking.  

We know that feeling bad ab?out your taste in videogames is non-productive. Being attracted to or repulsed by Luftrausers isn't an issue of morality or quality of character, it's a question of particular tastes and sensitivities. It's great to see a developer acknowledge that, apologize for leaving a bad taste in some people's mouths, while clarifying their intent and perspective. These points of contention don't have to turn into conflict. They can ma??ke for a jump off point for discussion that will potentially edify all involved. Lets hope that's what comes of this situation. 

Response to recent Luftrausers concerns [Vlambeer]

The post Vlambeer apologizes for ‘discomfort’ from Luftrausers imagery appeared first on Destructoid.

Luftrauser? I hardly even know her!

Luftrausers is perfect on the Vita in the same way Vlambeer's Super Crate Box was perfect on the Vita. It's "perfect for the Vita" because it's a great game. While either title, with their minimal arcade sensibilities "make sense" on a portable (with buttons) for their quickness, you're not likely to play Luftrausers for just ten minutes on your commute.

You're more likely to miss your stop beca??use you mashed "up" to launch, cr?aving one more run. This time you'll do better. This time you'll kill that blimp.

Maybe my handheld love makes Luftrausers perfect on the Vita for me, but there's something freeing in its total parity with the PS3 and PC versions, but ??on a dense, gorgeous OLED. The PC controls almost make more practical sense. It helps that there's an elegant balance of risk (if you shoot, ??you don't recover health) versus reward (the only way to score big is to combo, to generally keep shooting things).

This is not a traditional shmup. You're freewheeling around, left and right, up and down, a finite area, trying to stay alive. And the "up" to engage engine, left and right arrow to control orientation makes sense, what with your ability to have a finger on all those necessary keys at once. Playing Luftrausers with the d-pad -- and, heck, maybe you prefer the analog -- took some getting?? used to because it doesn't control how you'd expect. 

But I quickly got into the rhythm of rolling my thumb across the top half of the d-pad and the fluidity of Luftrausers is wonderful. It's not that it's imprecise, but as if everything operated on sin waves rather than Super Crate Box jumps on linear platforms. Thank the finely? tuned physics and gravity for its satisfying chaot?ic choreography.

The best way to fly, though this may be build dependent (it makes more sense with the laser), is a manic starting and stalling, changing direction (and laser aim) in midair. Curved serpentine, pulling up at the last moment and skimming the damaging water at?? the bottom of the screen. Aside from the immediate changes in direction, it feels as abstractly representative of actual dogfighting as you can get.

Luftrausers is a great fit on the Vita because a match can last seconds. Minutes if you're an ace pilot. And that always makes sense on a portable system. But I spent hours at a time playing while sitting in bed, dancing across the skies like a waltzing pinball,  trying and trying again. Even if I can't kill the damn blimp.

The post Impressions: Luftrausers makes too? much sense on ??the Vita appeared first on Destructoid.

pewpewpew

[Update: Contest ove??r! Winners h??ave been PM'd their codes.]

Vlambeer's customisable dogfighter Luftrausers released last week to near-universal praise after an agonising wait in certification that may or may not have ??contributed to my impending mental breakdown.

One half of the indie duo, Rami Ismail, was kind enough to give me five Steam codes to?? celebrate the launch and while I'm reluctant to give even more people the opportunity to beat my high score, I should probably share.

'Luftrausers' appears to be a portmanteau of the German word for 'air' and a word that doesn't really exist, but that doesn't matter because German is awesome. To get your hands on a code, all you have to do is leave a comment with your favourite German word below. The wackier the better. Don't have a favourite German word? Go find one. Consider it homew?ork.

I'll go first: 'Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsau??fgaben&uum?l;bertragungsgesetz' was a a 63-letter long ti??tle of a law 'for the delegation of monitoring beef labelling'. Your move.

Good luck! Don't forget: Our Huge members get automatic entry into all contests.

The post Contest: Win a Steam code for Luftrausers! appeared first on Destructoid.

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!)

The post Vlambeer changing direction of Nuclear Throne appeared first on Destructoid.

Behold the awesome might of the URAUSER

After no small amount of effort (and a couple of glitches that I am a bit peeved about), I finally managed to complete all of the challenges in Luftrausers and the reward you get for doing so is totally amazing.&nb?sp;

The post Luftrausers final unlockable is a monstrosity appeared first on Destructoid.

So many choices!

I've been slavishly playing Luftrausers like a madman this past weekend, and I'm shaping up to be a fairly decent player. To help you get a sense of the different Rausers you can pilot, I put together this little video showin??g four of my favorite configurations.

I'm seriously addicted to this game. Only three absurdly difficult challenges stand between me and total completion, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let them get the better of me. Make sure you go and read our full review!

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Initiate wing attack plan 'R'

Vlambeer's air combat game, Luftrausers, has finally been cleared for take-off, following a wa??it that seemed ?far longer than anybody expected it would. It's been worth holding out for, and fans of high speed, challenging shoot-em-ups have something pretty special on their hands.

Luftrausers (PC [reviewed], PS3, PS Vita)
Developer: Vlambeer
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Release: March 18, 2014
Price: $9.99

[Disclosure: The author of this review is listed as a "Play Tester" in the credits for this game. Though the credit list consists of a number of journalists and critics, effectively people who have been playing versions in pre-release, we thought it best to mention this to avoid any seeming impropriety. -Ed]

Like many arcade-style experiences, the core gameplay of Luftrausers is instantly accessible. Piloting an aircraft called a "Rauser," the player faces a increasingly powerful opposition from all directions in a two-dimensional playing field bordered by the ocean and an atmospheric limit (both of which are damaging to penetrate). The Rauser has two defenses, a weapon and an automatic repair system, with only enough power to use one at a time. Surrounded by en??emy planes, ships, submarines, and other war machines, maintaining the balance between offense and defense is central to securing a high score.

Just this alone is tremendously fun to play. ?The Rauser is a nimble, responsive craft that spins and thrusts instantly on command and soars through the sky. Turns can be taken quite sharply (though gravity and momentum play significant factors in precisely how much) and pulling up and out of an oncoming stream of enemy fire is exhilarating. Colliding with enemies deals damage to both the enemy and the Rauser, adding an additional, risky offensive option. And so, the central mechanic of being able to either shoot or heal creates constant, second-to-second decisions regarding when it's better to run or fight and how to best do either.

Luftrausers' simple arcade gameplay is broadened through a challenge-based progression system that offers more to work for than straight score. Each attempt to play comes with up to three mission objectives, which vary from achieving a minimum score, killing a specific number or type of enemy and other similar goals. As these? goals are completed, new ways to customize the Rauser become unlocked by way of additional components.

A Rauser consists of three parts: a weapo?n, a body, and an engine. Each unlocked part comes with its own advantages and disadvantages which contribute to the overall craft. Some of these are obvious (the more armored body is heavier, duh) while others have more subtle impacts on the Rauser's abilities that can be enhanced or diminished with complementary components in other slots. While most work pretty well together, it's possible to build some pretty disastrous combinations as well. Experimenting to find one that best suits the player's preferred play style can take time, but results in a Rauser that feels personal and a joy to pilot.

Once all of the components are unlocked, five for each part of the craft, the range of Rausers available is considerable. Each component also comes with its own line of mission objectives, thus extending the game's content with further goals. Those driven to accomplish the most difficult challenges offered by Luftrausers will ??likely find themselves further experimenting within the constraints of using specific equipment just to accomplish objectives.

That sense of progression is also necessary to keep difficulty from being overwhelming to the point of discouragement. There is little mercy given by the enemy AI. Air combatants relentlessly hunt the player, while oceanfarers spray ammunition into the sky, usually right into their path. Evasion is often difficult, and there comes with experience some awareness of how not to get oneself into impossible situations, but eventually everyone succumbs. Cold comfort when you've been killed for the thousandth time, but that and the option to try again are all you'll get out of Luftrausers.

The most frustrating enemy is the battleship, which drifts across the ocean firing its twin cannons into the sky at regular intervals. These are large and heavily armored, second only to the blimp -- the game's "final boss" enemy -- in terms of the beating they can take, and getting ca??ught in their line of fire can very easily get a Rauser killed. Their targeting can be exploited and destroying them is more tedious than difficult with practice, so the issue isn't really with their design which is, at worst, annoying.

Where the battleships become a problem for the game lies in the way Luftrausers spawns its enemy groups. Too often, there will ??develop a concentration of as many as six of these monstrosities with nothing else to fight, forcing a dragged out battle to take down even one of the things. It absolutely kills the frenetic pace of play whenever this happens, the slow creep of the battle?ships feeling out of place as the sole enemy combatants, and there hardly seems any way to avoid it, as sinking them takes more effort than nearly every other foe by a considerable margin.

It only gets harder the further you play, and culminates in the absurdly challenging "SMFT" mode. This version of the game is completely uncompromising, with no gradual ramp up in difficulty whatsoever andmore aggressive enemies with new behavior patterns and increased firepower. Players will die immediately upon starting the mode, which leads the game's background music with a blaring air raid siren that rings out long after most will have died -- a mere 13 seconds. It's ways can be learned as well through grit and determination, "SMFT" allows n??o room for error and no pity in its onslaught.

Luftrausers' visuals are brilliant in their cohesion with the gameplay. What appears basic on the surface enjoys a greater level of complexity hidden beneath as smoke trails from damaged ships and sparks fly ??from the Rauser, giving visual indication of its state. It's rather amazing what has been accomplished with just a six color palette, though the design does sometimes work against the player when silhouettes of multiple enemies cover one another and make ??it difficult to accurately assess risk.

Fast fun and devilishly hard, Luftrausers shows once again that Vlamb??eer understands how to make classic arcade mechanics feel fresh and exciting. It's great in short bursts, the speed of each round often terribly brief, but lends itself to hour-long sessions of hammering on the controller to start a new game. While the pacing occasionally runs into a few iss??ues, this is still a phenomenally fun shoot-em-up that will challenge players to meet its demanding difficulty.

The post Review: Luftrausers appeared first on Destructoid.

Pre-orders are up now

We already knew developer Vlambeer's Lufrausers was headed to the PC, PS3 and Vita platforms, but now we have a concrete release date -- March 18th. Publisher Devolver Digital has also confirmed today tha??t it will be dropping on the Mac and Linux platforms as well.

I had a chance to play an early build of Luftrausers, and was sufficiently impressed with its simplistic, yet engaging gameplay. If you're already keen for the game, pre-orders are up now on Steam for $8.99.

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'Hope to have a date soon'

Vlambeer's arcade shooter Luftrausers will see a simultaneous release across Windows, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita this year, publisher Devolver Digital has announce??d.

It's been?? taking a while but for a small team like?? this to support multiple platforms on day one while also developing other titles, fair enough. I can remain patient. And besides, I haven't yet been disappointed by a Vlambeer game. Devolver says it hopes to have a release date soon.

Devolver Digital [Twitter]

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We're the Wasteland Kings!

Forget that year of Luigi nonsense, the real thing you should be celebrating is Indie Month on the Videogame Clubhouse. We're keeping the hype train a-rollin' with the fantastic Nuclear Throne. If you're not all up in this business already you can expect to see fish dudes mur?dering a whole bunch of baddies. It's also one of the best games I played at PAX last year. 

Additionally, the guys behind the game are the raddest. Want to know more all about the hypest post-apocalyptic game this side of Fallout? We're going live at 2pm PST over on Dtoid.tv! Huzzah!

Question: Nuclear Throne is ?out via Steam Early Access, which games would you want to play in an unfinished state before they were released?? officially?

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Here's what's up with the flame bear

It's been a little while since we've heard anything from Vlambeer about their upcoming projects Luftrausers and Nuclear Throne. Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for news on the former. The game is still without a release date, largely due to the lengthy certification process. On the bright side, it sounds like plenty of new content is headed to Nuclear Throne. The dev team sounds extremely encouraged by the response to the game so far (10K in pre-release beta sales so far) and are working to take all the feedback they receive from players into the continued design of the final produ??ct. 

The biggest news here is that Vlambeer's mobile classic Ridiculous Fishing is headed to Android. When can we expect the game to head to the popular smart phone consumer base? According to Vlambeer "It might be sooner than you think". As Jimmy Durante once said "Ha chachachacha!"

Vlambeer News Roundup &ndash; September & October 2013: Exploding Airp??lanes & Fearless Mutants & Shooting Fish [Vlambeer]

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A breath of fresh air

While some of the larger videogame companies have made a habit out of asserting copyright claims against YouTubers that broadcast videos of their titles, Vlambeer is taking the exact opposite approach. The Dutch indie developer outwardly encourages the practice o??f YouTubers monetizing videos of its games, and even goes so far as to give them the legal recourse to legitimize it all.

As reported by SideQuesting, Vlambeer has launched an express consent generator, aptly named "monetizethat$hit", which allows users to simply enter their u?sername and come away with a document that grants them permission to make videos of the developer's games. Vlambeer wrote the program after receiving multiple requests from YouTubers who were anticipating needing to take the appropriate steps,?? lest their videos be taken down.

The form, which has an entertaining tone, reads "This permission is (retro-actively) valid from the moment your service has been launched until the end of time / apocalypse / the events in Nuclear Throne become a reality. This permission shall not be limited to any territory, planet, solar system, universe or hypothetical a??lternate realities." It goes on to emphasize that? Vlambeer loves to watch people enjoying its games, as it's creatively energizing.

Vlambeer also couldn't resist the opportunity to provide a bit of commentary. The end of the form states "Either way, if somebody can earn a penny or get filthy rich doing tha??t, we're totally cool with that. That's not upsetting. It'd be upsetting if someone got filthy rich by, say, stealing our game idea and mostly replacing the main character with a ninja or something silly like that."

Vlambeer's 'monetizethat$hit' page allows you get 'filth?y rich' on its games [SideQuesting]

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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, purc?hasing early will come at a higher price than the game's final release.&nbsp;

Vlambeer's Rami Ismail explained the decision in an e-mail to Destructoid, saying, "we? feel that being part of development and having the opportunity to talk and affect the final game in the livestr??eams on&nbsp;www.nuclearthrone.com. We think that's worth the slightly higher pr??ice."

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 v??ersion are expected 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 th??e highly competitive Steam marketplace, where games offered pre-release are almost always available at a "sale" price to capture an early audience. Vlambeer's growing name-recognition and reputation might make them an id?eal 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 ab??solutely 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 this to be ?an issue, both us and InXile 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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