Like many other indie proposals, it is in the flames of a Ludum Dare that the concept of Nuclear Blaze was forged in 48 hours. It must be said that the simplicity of the title suits particularly well the constraints of a game jam : our little firefighter advances and jumps into the rubble, armed with his water hose, with the sole purpose of extinguishing the fire which is ravaging the underground complex. And if a way out of this top-secret maze is found on the walls, well, it can’t hurt. But safety first. The first (and greatest quality) of Nuclear Blaze, is its accessibility. Easy to learn, it also offers many settings to adjust the difficulty and live the experience as you wish. Speed of fire propagation, armor points, unlimited water… Not to mention the Kid Mode which further softens the progression for toddlers.
Captain Flames
It’s funny since Nuclear Blaze reminds your faithful servant of memories of youth, entire afternoons spent sanding the Nitrome catalogue. The same paradigms pixel art govern, more or less, the game of Sébastien Benard. If the environments are very nicely detailed, alternating between mossy caves, high-tech laboratories and military enclaves, the characters opt for more caricatural proportions, multiplying their cuteness by 130 (approximate figure). The “Flash HD” aesthetic is reinforced by a skilful play of lights: if the atmosphere is red and heavy near the flames, extinguishing the fire gradually brings back the clear and bluish lights. Many spotlights and lamps insert islands of photons here and there. Overall, the visuals are therefore a real success on the artistic level.
Alas, if the pupil is flattered, said play of light tends to blur the action. Yes, the concern with fire is that it is as formless as it is luminous. Whether Nuclear Blaze works with a system of tiles on the ground – the fire does not spread smoothly, it advances square by square – it is not always easy to understand hitboxes. How many times have we accidentally rushed into a deadly flame larger than we thought? Because, this is the main defect of the title (in addition to its lifespan), we are very poorly protected, for a firefighter. Any contact with a large flame kills us instantly. This generates a rather unwelcome artificial difficulty that contrasts with the accessibility of the title. If it is possible to recover (rare) armor points in the levels, instant death remains very awkward.
Nuclear Blaze works almost like a puzzle game, asking us to assess the spread of fire in order to smother it at the root. Different tools punctuate our progression (water reserves, adjustable lance, etc.), and the 23 levels are dotted with valves to be activated to trigger the fire showers, or cut off gas leaks. Sometimes it’s also about cooling reactors before they explode, forcing us to run around and plan our route. Judiciously placed water reserves make it possible to fill the tanks. Unfortunately, the concept struggles to renew itself, and the introduction of a handful of action-enhancing mechanics on the later levels is taking too long to realize the full potential of Nuclear Blaze. Too bad, because the sauce took.
Short wick
But with only two hours in a straight line, Sébastien Benard leaves us unsatisfied. For the brave, a hardcore mode titled Hold my Beer (“hold my beer, kid, and admire the work”) acts as New Game Plus, reworking each level to increase the difficulty tenfold, and increasing the duration to around six hours – dying repeatedly makes it longer. But this time, the hand is leaning too far towards the red side of the dial. The checkpoints are not permissive enough and we often find ourselves looping the same route again, mechanically, before dying by accident and starting over.Yes, it’s redundant. Between (too) cozy campfire and charred hell, Nuclear Blaze can’t really find the balance.
Is the experience unpleasant? Great gods, no! Already because the few perfectly spiced rooms are really interesting. Then because the universe is rather original for this type of production, reappropriating the collaborative fiction of SCP to make it a narrative framework. SCPs are inexplicable entities classified and controlled by a secret government organization (think Control or X-Files). If the best-known SCPs are digital horror figures, here their absurdity is gently subdued, becoming adequate for younger viewers. Besides, Sébastien Benard knows his ranges. Like the 16-bit classics, many secrets are hidden in the levels. Often, it is a question of finding a lost cat and bringing it to the exit. Just scan the walls to detect a secret door or a conduit. These collector parentheses often lead to easter eggs and heartfelt references. Nuclear Blaze shows that you can make jokes about internet culture without being clumsy, which is refreshing, forgive the pun…
