Nuclear Blaze

Great indie game by the creator of Dead Cells. It looks and plays really good, the gameplay is fun and innovative, the controls are butter smooth with beautiful pixel art. Highly recommend this game.

I’ve always wondered why there weren’t more firefighting games, but the more I encounter, the less hope I have for the concept. Yet, one finally managed to create mechanics that feel like you’re putting out fire that propagates and is fun to play in the process. Nuclear Blaze not only achieves this, but within its short span, it manages to have an interesting and surprising narrative to go along with it.
Abbreviated Review:
Roasting in the Depths
Although the game starts you from a helicopter, it’s not long before you enter into an underground facility where you spent most of the game. The cramped corridors and passageways of the facility you enter serve to make sure you’re never too far away from the deadly fire that you’re there to extinguish. The purpose of this location isn’t revealed until you’re well within it, but it ends up making what may have been a relatively mundane story pretty interesting – despite only being a tiny part of the experience.
If you’re familiar with the SCP Foundation – a collection of mysterious and sometimes quite scary stories cataloged online – you’ll find some obvious connections here. You’ll probably recognize a slight variation on the iconic symbol for the organization plastered around. There have been plenty of games that delve into that practically limitless lore, but even though this isn’t directly derived from it, it does explore it conceptually really well. It doesn’t lean too heavily into it though. There are plenty of notable and cool little references throughout (including some secrets), but the game shines on the experience of the gameplay.
The Fighting of Fires
Starting out, you’re equipped with a seemingly magical water cannon that may bring back some memories of Super Mario Sunshine. Much like that tropical adventure, you’ll also need to refill it from water sources as you play. However, in the beginning, it can only fire water horizontally – which of course is sufficient for the initial encounters. On your journey to getting all of the fires doused and suppression systems reactivated, you’ll slightly expand your capabilities. Soon you’ll be able to aim your stream at more angles and envelop yourself in an umbrella of moistened safety – which you’ll have to do regularly as fires flash over from open doors.
The fires themselves will propagate if left unattended and can reignite previously extinguished areas if you don’t completely stop them. Many areas have fire-sensing doors that won’t open until the area is clear, so this is often one of the more challenging aspects of the game. Further along, you’ll find areas with electrified surfaces lit aflame, and hitting them with your stream will shock you. So you have to fight your way to their power source and shut them down. There are even parts with explosive objects that will countdown to detonation if they’re left stranded in the inferno.
The number of mechanics delivered within Nuclear Blaze makes it kind of disappointing that it’s so short. I would have been happy with twice as much content even if it just explored more of the mechanics already available. By the time you get to more complex parts with key cards and switching on water pumps, you’re already headed into the ending parts of the game.
The Ending Parts of the Game
I don’t want to spoil anything here, but the Nuclear Blaze introduces some unique encounters toward the end of the game. They weren’t unwelcome by any means, but they were surprising and fun - which again made me want more. I feel like the duration is the single aspect of this game that I can say could have been improved. The mechanics are solid throughout and the use of the SCP-like set-pieces is a great inclusion. When I finished the game, I felt like there might be more content featuring the type of gameplay I just completed. However, it shows up just long enough for you to enjoy it, and then it’s over.
(Side note, as of completing this I just found out a New Game+ mode is coming with additional content and challenges – so that may help resolve this issue.)
In addition to the regular campaign, it has a “kid mode” which is just a handful of separate short levels that let you run around with auto-aiming water hoses while taking no damage. The idea here, of course, is to have something simple that children could play to put out fires and save cats. So that’s nice and wholesome.
Even with the limited length, Nuclear Blaze was a pleasure to play. I don’t think I could have expected much less from the creator of Dead Cells. It’s appropriately priced even being only a couple of hours long because of the raw quality throughout. It delivers the familiarity of platforming and basic exploration with firefighting mechanics that are fun to use all sitting within a memorable premise. It should appeal to most, but I’m sure it will appeal to people afraid of short games when it inevitably goes on sale in the future. This is probably a good game to grab at full price though if you don’t have that phobia. Or I suppose a fear of fire?
If you'd like to see more of my reviews, check out my curator page here: Endyo’s Indies, Abbreviated Reviews, and online at BagoGames

I bought this game cause the creator of Dead Cells.
This game is fun, but too short. Sadddd.

A fun little game that's about 90 minutes long. I can see speed run potential here, too. Buy it and help an indie developer out!

Wow, this was really great. It's a 2D platforming game where your main enemy is simply fire, and you have to put it out with your portable hose and backpack, refilling at regularly spaced stations. It works because the fire is alive, spreading up walls, across ceilings and into adjacent rooms as you'd expect, and you have to approach it tactically especially later in the game with more complex rooms, valves to open, gas mains to turn off, and more. From this simple concept the devs spin a solid two hour adventure, introducing a handful of extra abilities as you go, and really squeezing the maximum possible out of the core concept.
The graphics are nicely done here, especially in use of colour, light and highlights. When the fire is really raging, the screen glows an angry orange and you really start to feel the heat. And once it's out, a satisfying blue hue envelops everything. Music complements the action nicely.
If I had a criticism it would be a late-game addition that can be a little frustrating, often sending you back to the last checkpoint with little warning, but once you learn to deal with it, frustration levels subside somewhat. Still, it took many, many attempts to beat the epic fire in the penultimate area.
Props to the devs for including a kid mode, where the objective is to simply rescue some lost kittens from burning buildlings. You can't die in kid mode, and aiming and movement are greatly simplified.
At 2+ hours the game does perhaps leave you wanting at its conclusion, but it's such a great 2 hours that it feels satisfying and complete. There's some replayability if you want to find all the secret rooms and rescue all the kittens, and some difficulty tweaks in the settings, but it's going to play out largely the same.

Edit: Completed the game in 119 minutes, missed 2 cats / 2 achievements on first run. Overall the game was awesome, but like most people are saying, way too short. It felt like I was getting through an Act 1 and heading into an Act 2, but nope, that's it .
Another issue I had with the game is the lack of enemies. I understand that the game is about putting out fires and that mechanic of the game is great, but I would have liked to have seen more enemies than just 1 and a boss.
Ok let's be real here.. What's here is a great time, but this deserves to be a bigger game! I would love to see a sequel or new IP similar to this but with much more content.
I would like to try the kid mode with my 4 year old daughter, will report back if/when that happens.
Something that maybe should get addressed, I found a way to cheeze the final boss
Stand in the center of the room right on the water recharge station and spray all over the place. You don't even have to move.
Still recommend at $9/10 price point is fair, there can be some replay-ability with built-in speedruns and difficulty modifiers. Would still love to see something at a higher price-point but a more meaty experience
Original Review:
I got about a half hour in, but so far it's awesome. Fun game play loop where you have to clear out all the fire on each level to proceed to the next level. Pixel graphics and retro music are both on point. The atmoshphere and the story are also very interesting so far. Will write a more thorough review once I beat the game, but I can already tell this is gonna be awesome.
Right now my only gripe is there is no way to remap controls for controller, or to use mouse with keyboard controls. Just an annoyance that I hope gets patched in.

Fun game, I played the jam version a lot before this. The fire fighting itself feels good which is probably one of the most important things to get right in a firefighter game. The rest of the controls are sluggish (e.g. slower acceleration but quick decceleration, jumps with a tiny amount of grounded startup etc.) since this is not a fast paced platformer but a slower paced puzzle game, which rewards resource management and moving across rooms strategically.
The pixel art and post processing shaders look also beautiful. A lot of work went into post processing and adding a lot of small details, making this game look just as good as the artstyle allows it.
If you are into puzzle platformers this is a pretty good deal for 9 bucks imo.