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This is something that Vlambeer has mastered over the years, and you can tell that the developers paid careful attention to which gameplay elements were essential and which weren’t, pulling no punches when it came to cutting out the non-essentials.Īll the pieces fit together to create a streamlined game, complete with enough screenshakes, explosive animations, and old-bit sound effects to make you feel like you’re playing a title from the golden age of arcades. The most impressive aspects of Nuclear Throne are its tight gameplay loop, clean and simple controls, and satisfying user feedback. Related: Unique roguelike games with twists on gameplay The Good It’s an addictive game, but offers little beyond mindless, repetitive attempts at survival-although it certainly pulls that off well enough to be enjoyable if you’re into that sort of thing. The barren wastelands of post-apocalyptic Nuclear Throne are a perfect analog for its gameplay: shallow, barren, and meaningless. Levels also contain chests, which drop weapons of varying sorts when touched. Enemies drop physical XP on death, and when enough XP is collected, the player can purchase upgrades. The player chooses to play as one of 12 characters, each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses, some of whom need to be unlocked through gameplay. This top-down roguelike-like shooter, developed by Vlambeer, has the player progress through procedurally generated levels in search of the Nuclear Throne, which the player is tasked with destroying, but at the risk of permadeath: if you die, you have to start over. Completely reasonable, too, given the nature of the game and how spectator-friendly it is: easy to understand, easy to watch.
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Nuclear Throne was super popular when it released back in 2015, and it consistently sat near the top of most streamed games.
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