{"id":91703,"date":"2019-04-09T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/nuclear_throne"},"modified":"2019-04-09T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T17:00:00","slug":"review-nuclear-throne-fans-of-enter-the-gungeon-should-check-this-one-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/04\/09\/review-nuclear-throne-fans-of-enter-the-gungeon-should-check-this-one-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Nuclear Throne &#8211; Fans Of Enter The Gungeon Should Check This One Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/nuclear_throne\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/nuclear_throne\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Nuclear Throne Review - Screenshot 1 of 6\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/95822\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/95822\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Nuclear Throne Review - Screenshot 1 of 6\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>One of the top ten best-selling indie releases on the eShop to date is that of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/enter_the_gungeon\">Enter the Gungeon<\/a><\/strong>, a super-tough twin-stick roguelike that\u2019s great for local co-op sessions. However, those of you that regularly play on the PC may be aware that Gungeon was actually not the first notable game to execute the concept of a twin-stick roguelike; that honour belongs to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/nuclear_throne\">Nuclear Throne<\/a><\/strong>, which has now made its way onto the Switch. Though lacking in its presentation, Nuclear Throne proves that it knows what ingredients are needed to make a compelling roguelike adventure; it\u2019s a wildly fun game to play both alone and with a friend.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Nuclear Throne Review - Screenshot 2 of 6\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/95819\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/95819\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Nuclear Throne Review - Screenshot 2 of 6\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Nuclear Throne takes place in the distant post-apocalyptic future, a time where humans have long since died off and the world is overrun by insane mutants that vie for control of the coveted Nuclear Throne. You take control of one of twelve (unlockable) mutants, each with different strengths and weaknesses, in your bid for glory, shooting your way through the countless bandits, mutants, and derelicts that stand between you and your goal. Should you fail on your quest \u2013 and let\u2019s be real, you\u2019re going to fail <em>way<\/em> more often than not \u2013 you\u2019ve got to start over from square one and work your way back up. It\u2019s harrowing, difficult, and seemingly impossible, but Nuclear Throne is the kind of game that\u2019s excessively difficult to put down once it has its hooks in you.<\/p>\n<p>See, every run that you make for the throne is randomly generated; each \u2018world\u2019 still retains consistent theming and enemy types, but the arrangement of each level is entirely fresh every time you play it. This goes, too, for the weapons that you come across, which are randomly dropped via a couple of chests that appear at some point in each level, forcing you to become familiar and comfortable with a diverse lineup of firepower if you want a realistic shot at winning. Weapons aren\u2019t everything, however, as every killed enemy drops \u2018Rads\u2019 that act as experience points; once you collect enough of these, your character will mutate and you can pick from a randomized selection of buffs before entering the next level.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Nuclear Throne Review - Screenshot 3 of 6\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/95821\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/95821\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Nuclear Throne Review - Screenshot 3 of 6\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>What\u2019s immediately striking about Nuclear Throne is how \u2018arcade-y\u2019 it feels in nearly every aspect, in the sense that this is the kind of game that will <em>quickly<\/em> put you in the ground if you make the barest mistake. Levels generally feel quite claustrophobic in nature, and given that many of the mutants don\u2019t have viable escape options, it can be exceedingly easy to get cornered and subsequently torched. Or, in the rare cases where you find yourself in a wide-open area of a level, it\u2019s all too common to be surrounded on all sides by a silly amount of enemies that waste no time in trying to end your run. Though it certainly has a high skill ceiling, Nuclear Throne is very much a luck-based affair at its core and the hard truth is that you can often find yourself in scenarios where it\u2019s not about how you can win, but how you can best minimize your loss.<\/p>\n<p>For example, ammo is excessively scarce, which basically forces you to continuously be dropping weapons in favour of new ones, even if the new weapons are a \u2018downgrade\u2019. You can only carry two weapons at a time, and you just might be content with the two that you\u2019ve got on you, but if both of them are out of ammo, you <em>have<\/em> to drop one so you can finish clearing out the enemies and keep moving. Luckily, the weapon variety is deep \u2013 there\u2019s everything from ordinary shotguns to guns that shoot spinning blades that can bounce off walls \u2013 and there are very few that don\u2019t feel viable, but it\u2019s inevitable that certain types will jive better with your particular playstyle.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Nuclear Throne Review - Screenshot 4 of 6\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/95820\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/95820\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Nuclear Throne Review - Screenshot 4 of 6\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Similarly, the mutations system pushes you to make tough decisions, as most of the four buffs offered to you after each level up are sure to make a notable difference in your survival. Do you take the mutation that gives you back some ammo after every kill, or do you go with the one that adds four points to your max health? What about the one that increases the drop rate of medkits? As with the rest of the game, there aren\u2019t strictly any <em>wrong<\/em> answers here \u2013 which is why Nuclear Throne can be so rewarding to continuously replay \u2013 but nonetheless, the decisions you make both in the short term and long term directly correlate with whether or not you succeed.<\/p>\n<p>You only have access to a couple of mutants at first, with later ones being unlocked after reaching certain milestones and finding secrets, and we found it admirable how the developers have made each one play so distinct from the next. One of the earlier mutants, Crystal, is fit for more defensive players, as it has an unusually large health pool and an ability that grants it temporarily invincibility. On the other hand, Melting is more geared towards the offensively-minded players, as it gets more rads from kills and can blow up enemy corpses, but at the cost of a paltry 2 HP health bar. Regardless of playstyle, there\u2019s sure to be something here for everyone, and we appreciated how the different mutant kits can make subsequent runs feel entirely different, cutting back significantly on any grindiness.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Nuclear Throne Review - Screenshot 5 of 6\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/95818\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/95818\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Nuclear Throne Review - Screenshot 5 of 6\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Though online isn\u2019t featured here \u2013 other than daily and weekly runs that offer the community one shot at a set challenge \u2013 local co-op is present and correct, adding an extra layer of complexity to an already difficult game. You and your partner don\u2019t share guns or ammo, so there\u2019s less for you both, but you <em>have<\/em> to ensure that you keep each other alive. If one of you goes down, the other one only has a few seconds to run over and revive; if the survivor doesn\u2019t make it there in time, their health depletes rapidly until they join their fallen comrade in death. If the survivor <em>does<\/em> make it there in time, half their health is automatically drained to revive their partner. It\u2019s gruelling, to say the least, but having the extra firepower offered by a friend certainly does help, especially in later levels. All the same, we\u2019d recommend you play this one with a friend who\u2019s similarly skilled in playing twitchy shooters, as you can\u2019t really \u2018carry\u2019 someone to the end.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, adding a friend to the mix causes a notable issue with overall readability that hinders how much fun you can have. Nuclear Throne features a letterboxed view and the camera is already fairly zoomed in, so throwing another player into the fray can make for a chaotic and messy screen in which its difficult to track who\u2019s who and what\u2019s going on. It\u2019s not deal-breaking, and disabled screen shake in the settings helps to mitigate this, but after seeing how well the co-op works in Enter the Gungeon, it can be hard to put up with the sub-par co-op offering found in Nuclear Throne. Your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Nuclear Throne Review - Screenshot 6 of 6\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/95817\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/95817\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Nuclear Throne Review - Screenshot 6 of 6\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>From a presentation perspective, Nuclear Throne manages to satisfy, if not impress, going for a goofy, pixelated wasteland vibe that\u2019s nice to look at but not particularly memorable. All the pixel art and animations are fine and adequately convey the information they need to, but we were hard pressed to find any \u2018wow\u2019 moments here that show any meaningful ambition; it\u2019s clear that the focus was placed more on gameplay than visuals, which is a fine, though disappointing, decision. Similarly, the next to non-existent soundtrack seldom adds much to your experience, although the random screams, squeals, and other mutant noises do help to instil the moment-to-moment action with some much-needed charm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Nuclear Throne proves to be an enjoyable and devilishly challenging roguelike shooter that no fans of the genre will want to miss out on, even if it does tend to become more frustrating if you add in a second player. Though the visuals and music are rather disappointing, the core gameplay of Nuclear Throne more than makes up for any deficiencies through its variety and feedback loops; it\u2019s the kind of game that\u2019s so easy to jump into, you just can\u2019t refuse having \u2018one more go\u2019. If you\u2019re a fan of Enter the Gungeon, roguelikes, or difficult games in general, Nuclear Throne is going to be right up your alley; we\u2019d give this one a high recommendation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the top ten best-selling indie releases on the eShop to date is that of Enter the Gungeon, a super-tough twin-stick roguelike that\u2019s great for local co-op sessions. However, those of you that regularly play on the PC may be aware that Gungeon was actually not the first notable game to execute the concept [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}