this game is ridiculous. these kinds of infinite, randomly generated indie games have been hugely important to me for a long time and this is one that i just missed, for some reason or another. thanks to unreal, i got it for free, and oh my god im so happy i did.

this game scratched an itch ive had for a very long time. binding of isaac will always be one of my favorites, but with Rebirth and especially Afterbirth, rounds just kept getting longer and longer and items got less inventive and rooms got significantly worse (especially with those shitty spawners) but nuclear throne takes it right back to basics.

snappy, ten minute rounds full of pulse-pounding action with extremely satisfying visuals and sound design makes this feel like bliss. after playing ruiner, i feel like i just died and went to a heaven where shit actually responds to my inputs. everything about this game is quick, and snappy, and precise.

and i love it. it brings me back to a simpler time, when indie games were starting to get really big and spelunky and BoI are takin' the world by storm. playing nuclear throne feels like wrapping up in a warm blanket i forgot about. its probably a bad sign that my comfort zone is hyper-violent indie games about dying repeatedly.

A decent roguelite twin-stick bullet hell shooter let down by a nauseating 30fps lock and difficulty curve that just feels a bit more punishing and intense than I'd like for a game that demands such precise twitch reactions. Maybe I'd get used to it if it ran at 60fps, though, but come on. It's an obnoxious oversight for such a fast, frantic game. I know making a game is unbelievably hard work, and I know Game Maker makes it a ridiculous pain to convert a game to a new framerate, but it strikes me as a lack of care and polish, especially when dedicated developers like Heart Machine showed that it's possible--and entirely worth it--to make the conversion with Hyper Light Drifter. Anyway, as far as action roguelites go, I'd sooner play another one anyway, framerate be damned.

edit: apparently this got fixed a couple years back. I'll probably try it again someday

Nuclear Throne is Vlambeer in its element - a fast, crunchy projectile-saturated shoot 'em up roguelike. Unlike many roguelikes, it's not really focused on "builds" - there are upgrades, yes, but these upgrades are rather rudimentary things like "move faster" or "have more max health". The simplicity works well for the game, though, since the focus is meant to be on the combat itself. There's a lot of weapons in the game, most of which are pretty fun to use, especially when paired with certain characters' special abilities and late-game Ultra Mutations. The ability to loop through the game after reaching the titular Nuclear Throne adds a fun amount of replayability to the whole thing, especially since it only takes a handful of minutes to get there. All in all, this is a very solid title.

This is the only game I didn't play as a kid that I have over 500 hours in. It's not even a constant, sometimes I just boot up the game and can't stop playing it for multiple weeks. This game is just a dopamine rush of constant action and insanity, on top of being an infinitely replayable arcadey roguelike. Can't recommend it enough, just make sure you play it on PC. Mainly for better controls (and that it's really easy to run), but also because I highly recommend trying out Nuclear Throne Together, a mod that allows for easy online co-op and genuinely some of the best mod support I've ever seen for a game.