A masterpiece of action roguelikes, for the simple reason that the moment to moment gameplay loop is so fast paced, satisfying, and engaging that I can endlessly replay it and have fun far past when I would be bored by any other I've played. It's a blood pumping continuous fight of using just two weapons, an active ability, and a build of passive bonuses of your choosing to blast your way through crowds of enemies that have their own threats and unique ways you need to approach them. You can die in half a second ending your run from a single mistake, a momentary lapse in concentration, but that threat only makes it more rewarding when you weave, aim, and use your abilities to their fullest to squeeze through deadly encounter after deadly encounter by the skin of your teeth. The random elements are relatively minimal for a roguelike, keeping some run variety, but everything is secondary to your reflexes and quick wits. I'm far from a very skilled player at these kinds of games, but the difficulty curve naturally built me up to being able to regularly feel exhilarated and in awe of my own abilities.

Nuclear Throne no es solo un juego, es una marca vital mia que ha ido poco a poco. Anaitgames, los streams de Pep Sanchez, jugar poco a poco la 1º vez que rebajo en Steam y jugar poco a poco gustándome ese feeling que tiene. Esa dificultad enrabiada que mueres a la mínima, que todo es peligroso.
Porque alcanzar el Trono Nuclear no es un paseo fácil, es de sufrimiento, mucho sufrimiento. Aún recuerdo estar atascado en el boss del mundo 5, morir y morir. Pero, cuando acabe con ese boss, ir a las zonas sorprendido y llegar al trono muriendo sin saber como y flipar, sabia que no sería fácil llegar ahí.
Y no lo ha sido, pero llegue y cayo derrotado. La cosa es que estaba feliz, muy feliz por fin alcancé el trono, mi meta conseguida super feliz estaba (y sigo estando mientras escribo esto). Hasta que suena la canción de los créditos y sentí una felicidad rara, era feliz por fin había cumplido mi meta pero se unía y une una tristeza y un vacío, algo se va y es ese reto.
Nunca pensé que Nuclear Throne me haría llorar y hacerme sentir que lo importante no era el trono, sino el camino recorrido. Escuchar el podcast, ver los directos, charlar con mi amigo Soliz de los podcast y el juego, de jugar y caer en el pique comentando en foro droga del nexo, los audios mañaneros al Klay diciendo lo que llevaba y los vicios al juego, esos momentos de felicidad y alegría
Porque al final jugamos para que nos saquemos una sonrisa un día malo, para reflexionar, porque nos gusta y comentamos con nuestros amigos y gente muy cercana.
Como siempre me he ido por las ramas, pero no esperaba que Nuclear Throne y su canción final me tocasen tanto. Es y será, de mis juegos favoritos de siempre y algo que llevare en el corazón este viaje tan bonito.
Gracias Nuclear Throne.

Good for a few hours, but quickly gets repetitive. Not enough depth and variety.

A lot of weird hate for Enter the Gungeon in the reviews, but Gungeon is a superior game in every way, even though obviously inspired by Nuclear Throne. Gungeon simply offers so much more variety for every playthrough - of items, characters, situations to solve, secrets, unlockables etc.

At its core Nuclear Throne has a solid fast-paced action loop. But it quickly gets boring, because every run is samey, the only thing you unlock (at least in the first ~5 hours that i played) is new characters.

There's a lack of variety in items and upgrades. Most guns within a bullet type largely do the same thing, and there's a lot of crossover between the types, too (energy and bolts pretty much do the same thing, as well as shotguns and explosives). Mutations are either highly situational or do the same boring utility thing (there's at least 3 different flavors for "get more bullets"). Compare that to Gungeon or Isaac where every pickup drastically alters your playthrough.

The characters are fun, but all the 5 additional ones that I unlocked seemed to be gimmick characters designed for runs with added challenge (one has 2 HP, for example). The basic two characters are the only two (that I've seen) that have any defensive capabilities, and that makes them far more useful.

It took me 18 hours before I got my butt on the throne, but every run was fun and worth it.

For its pixel art, it's pretty and it's capable of expressing the wonder and grossness of this world. The music rocks and moves with the energy of the game; guitars are blasting while you're blasting and mellows when the carnage is over.

It's pretty darn difficult and even the slightest misstep is punished immediately in the game. There's a learning curve to understanding the environments, enemies and weapons as they're introduced to the player, without much explanation. Sometimes, I'd fire a gun at a wall just to see what it actually does, or carefully approach an inanimate object in a new land just in case it causes damage. There's not much explained to the player, so they have to try to learn from their failures - or get a definitive answer through a wiki.

However, every run is incredibly smooth to get in to. After a death, I curse my mistake, think "that wasn't fair!", correct myself (it was fair), then immediately hit re-try and I'm back in the action. The repetition is diffused by the randomly generated levels, vast array of weapons, and secrets to find throughout each run. Sometimes I find myself craving another try for the throne, which is convenient because of how quick this game streamlines getting into the fun of it all.

The introduction of Early Access Games was a neat development in the game industry, as a direct counterattack to the industry's love affair with never admitting anything is happening in their games until they have to either apologize or promote something new. Nuclear Throne introduced to me a brand new downside: The Desire They'd Stop Working On The Game, It's Fine The Way It Is. There's a Nuclear Throne that exists a few versions before launch that I would kill to get back, because the thing it is now cares too much about the interstitial and not just hitting the button to fuckin deploy the asskicking. In many ways, this is the story of Vlambeer: violent action that couldn't get out of their own fuckin way. Seeing their blueprints aped so poorly is worse, but not an unfamiliar bummer for anyone who likes The Jesus Lizard and then hears 90% of noise rock bands.

I feel like I got to this party a bit late. I'm an avid fan of the roguelike genre and Nuclear Throne does have a very solid minimalist design, but I can't help feeling it's a bit limited even by the standards of its day feeling more like something suited to the gameboy.

NT is one of the earlier twin stick roguelikes containing the skeleton of the genre. The gunplay is fast paced, tough, and simple. Upgrades come in the form of mutations which vary by character, and each level is a minimal, tiny, blocky arena that can be expanded via explosions.

Gameplay is centred around the guns and character specific gimmicks. Survival is achieved by learning how to wield the different weapons without killing yourself and familiarising yourself with the different enemies, how they react to being shot, and how to dodge their projectiles. The small resolution and tight spaces combined with large explosions and enemy attacks provide most of the difficulty here.

It has a lot of charm in it's simplicity but the gameplay lacks nuance so it becomes repetitive fast. I can see why people might grind this one for hours at a time but it's not substantial enough for my taste.

I'll give 5 stars to Nuclear Throne because I have a deep fondness for this game, and it brings back a nostalgic feeling from when I used to play it in the past. Besides that, I really enjoy playing it.

That being said, I believe the game can truly be rated as 5 stars for some or 3 stars or even something in between those numbers. Nuclear Throne shares a similar issue with Hades, in that it creates a barrier that divides most players into two types: those who only see about 20% to 40% of the game and those who experience approximately 100%.
In the case of Nuclear Throne, this barrier is the fact that the game relentlessly challenges you in so many ways that it sifts out those who play it, and it can be very discouraging for many players because everything kills you, everything deals abnormal damage, some weapons you can use can kill you, and what drives your progress is sheer persistence and the desire to win.
This might be interesting, but only for those who truly enjoy this type of gameplay, as you will die many times and become frustrated until you finish the game. This problem prevents many people from even getting to know all the enemies, seeing all the weapons, defeating all the bosses, collecting all the collectibles, and unlocking additional game modes beyond the initial ones.
Setting aside this issue, the game, for those who enjoy this kind of gameplay, is quite enjoyable and interesting. Runs are fast (since you die quickly, and it generally doesn't take long to reach the final boss compared to other games of the same style), you become attached to the characters (with a total of 12 unlockable characters plus two secret ones), and for hardcore players, there's the possibility of collecting 12 crowns for each character, which adds more challenge and gameplay hours.
Overall, I like how the game is fast-paced, dynamic, with characters I've grown attached to, a nice visual style, good music, and sound effects. It appeals to the type of games I enjoy playing, but I completely understand the criticism of those who find the game mediocre or worse.