In April 2021, the beloved Ludum Dare game took place with the theme of ‘Deep and Deeper’. Participants have 48 hours to play a game together, and Sébastien Benard—known for his Dead cells—decided to give it a try by creating a firefighting game called Nuclear Flames. After the contest ended, Bernard wanted to expand on the idea and give it a suitable release, which led to nuclear flame that we have today. While it’s still a bit simplistic, it’s a great piece for the action platformer genre.
Nuclear Blaze puts you in the role of a firefighter deployed with your crew to put out a wildfire that’s spiraling out of control. After solving the worst problem, you stumble upon a secret research black place in the forest. But also ignite and go inside to investigate before being trapped inside and cut off from your team. With no other choice, you dig deeper into the facility to put out a possible fire and gather records that can tell you more about what happened to the many researchers who died there.
Nuclear Blaze isn’t exactly a story-focused game, but we still appreciate the atmosphere it evokes. The facility you explore borrows heavily from the mythology of SCP Foundation project, a collaborative novel that chronicles the notes and Kafkaesque bureaucracy of an organization that investigates and studies paranormal phenomena. The many reprocessed records you collect provide glimpses of the strange things that lie within, and while you don’t really come across much Ghostly working, there’s still so much to love about the silent dread that forms as you plunge deeper into the dark alone, knowing full well that anything else has lost control.
The game unfolds on a level-based 2D action structure where you kick in doors, use keycards to grant access to new areas, save cats, and kill a monster. much of the fire. Reliable faucets and water tanks are your best friends here, but water is limited and you can only refill it at some point. Therefore, you must plan your move through each level to a certain extent, as flames that are not completely extinguished will soon flare up again and destroy all your hard work. And if you happen to touch any flame, even once (based on base difficulty) you will die instantly and be sent back to your last checkpoint.
To keep things fresh, you occasionally unlock new abilities or come across new level gimmicks that introduce some much-needed variety. Upgrades extend to relatively small things like larger water tanks or the ability to shoot water upwards, while level gimmicks introduce things like valves that you have to locate and rotate to activate the sprinkler or enemies will harass you as you try to extinguish the flames. Each level will only take about five minutes or so for you to complete, maybe a little longer if you search for the secret and find the level’s hidden cat.
Which leads us to what for some may be Nuclear Flame’s biggest drawback, which is its short length. Given its development roots, it’s clear that Nucle Blaze was never intended to be a ‘full’ release, and it should run for about two and a half hours if you Actually spend your time with it. You can extend this a bit more by replaying in the New Game+ called ‘Keep My Beer Mode’, which gives you new rooms and abilities on a much harder difficulty, but this is for sure. Definitely not a game that will last you more than an afternoon or two. Short length doesn’t have to be one problem—short games are more welcome today than ever—but it’s worth mentioning for those who might have been hoping for something longer. For better or worse, Nucle Blaze is just a cute little game that lightly explores a few ideas before ending things.
Those who struggle with a rather annoying base difficulty will be pleased to know that there are many accessibility options available to ensure that everyone can play at their own skill level and still see everything without compromise. affect the core gameplay. You can tweak things like how much damage (if any) you take or how long it takes to run out of water, and there’s even a ‘Kids Mode’ that has significantly easier levels along with many trucks and helicopters.
As for its visuals, Nucle Blaze reminds us a bit of Atooi’s Xeodriter with simple classical art style and tiny main character. The spritework here is generally well done, if somewhat unremarkable, and we appreciate the use of a surprisingly varied color palette. You’d think the interior of a burned down government research facility would be rather dull and drab, but we’ve documented many cases where different shades of blue, green, and blue were used. and red to create some interesting contrast and make the levels look more appealing.
All of this is combined by a piece of music from Pentadrangle that borrows a bit from Metroidtheir manual in introducing the player to a collection of atmospheric and somewhat threatening tunes to add to the feeling of isolation and curiosity. There are even some chiptunes thrown in there, and while it doesn’t contain a huge selection of tracks, the soundtrack feels like it fits the tone that Nuclear Blaze is clearly aiming for.
Conclusion
It may not last long, but Nucle Blaze is a fun action platformer that does a good job of exploring its core idea of prioritizing firefighting over fighting enemies. Things like Hold My Beer Mode and all the lurking cats improve replayability a bit, while the aggressive level design and tight gameplay make the moment-to-moment action worthwhile. . For $15, Nuclear Flame feels the same only enough to justify the entry price, especially if you’re a fan of 2D action games; We recommend you to try.
