Overview

Nuclear Throne is a top-down 2D action game with a strong emphasis on shooting and positioning created by Vlambeer. It features a roster of mutants with different traits and abilities, randomized levels and a wide assortment of weaponry. Characters can be levelled up by picking up experience from fallen enemies or pick-ups scattered about levels. When a character levels up, an additional trait can be selected – one of four randomly selected options can be picked – to help along the journey to the titular Nuclear Throne.
The game is generally considered quite difficult; characters have little health and enemies can inflict substantial damage. The sheer quantity of enemies and projectiles on some levels has resulted in slight comparisons to games in the bullet hell genre.
Nuclear Throne was originally created for Mojam 2 under the name Wasteland Kings. The name was changed due to worries of confusion between it and the Wasteland series by InXile.
It was released on Steam as an early access title on October 11, 2013 and received weekly updates for over two years until its release in late 2015.
Release
During PlayStation Experience 2015 it was a surprise announcement on the 5th of December during the keynote press event that Nuclear Throne was now released and available on PS4, PS Vita and with PS3 to follow. The game was also now 'released' on Steam out of early access. This was a huge surprise to fans of the game as, although they knew Vlambeer was wrapping up on development, it was not mentioned in any of the livestreams in which they normally so transparent about the development process.
The initial release on PlayStation hardware suffered several technical issues including but not limited to:
- Random crashes
- Crashes on death when certain sprites are present
- Inaccessible character unlocks
- Broken leaderboard functionality
- Broken Trophy data
The game did not receive a single patch until update 1.01 was released on August 25th of 2016. The Vita version currently has not received a patch.
Characters
Critical Reception
The Molyjam 2012 version of the game is featured in the 03/01/2013 Unprofessional Fridays, during which Jeff is heard to exclaim "Oh wow!"
PC System Requirements
Minimum
- OS: Windows XP
- Processor: 1.2Ghz+
- Memory: 1024 MB RAM
- Graphics: 256MB
- Hard Drive: 200 MB available space
Recommended
- OS: Windows XP
- Processor: 2Ghz
- Memory: 2048 MB RAM
- Graphics: 1GB
- Hard Drive: 500 MB available space