in terms of deep/abyssal loop, no, he is by far the weakest character in the game, the limited movement speed and hp make him the most vulnerable character in the game, and his inaccuracy makes the ultra shovel unusable, which is one of the most important weapons you need, he's fun, don't get me wrong, but completely awful (not to mention he gets one less mutation due to being unable to get Crown of Destiny, and basically is forced to lose one to take extra feet)
The melting hate is honestly not even an issue, most of the time you will have strong spirit and rhino skin, and once you press right click anything that can threaten you is just not an issue anymore
@@Evo-wx7wb as someone who has made it to L7 as melting I can safely say that the corpse explosions do not remove all threats and the max hp is a hell of a detriment, it's not melting hate, he's one of if not my favorite character to play, but he is not ideal
I quite like how NT basically initiated the trend for Rogue-like and -lite games to have the LOOP mechanic. The mechanic that let's you got into more or less infinity to either get more abilities or test how far you can get (and how crazy shit can become) RoR and NT are two games I know which give you the "I HAVE ASCENDED INTO GODHOOD" moment once you are deep into loop- that time where each of your attacks unleashes nuke sized annihilation and even standing still and existing kills shit
Well, the "each attack annihilates the whole level" is something nuclear throne did well, but I'd say risk of rain didn't do it that well. Enemies keep spawning, and you have to sit by the teleporter for two minutes while all the enemies die instantly... also, most of the time, you're either killing everything instantly, or you die, there's not really a middle ground. Nuclear throne is a lot more balanced in that regard. Also, the way nuclear throne scales through each loop is much more interesting than risk of rain, where the first loop adds... a few enemy types to each level. That's it. And two more champion types. So exciting. And new loops after that add nothing special. What exactly is the incentive for looping? It's not like there is a challenge, if you have the right build you can literally go infinite. Nobody wants to grind the game for 12 hours straight on a single run where the enemies all die instantly and you're never at risk of dying. In nuclear throne, the difficulty scales not just through new enemy types (which are added all the way up to loop 3), an ending that is exclusive to looping, new bosses, bosses get more powerful in ways that aren't just more damage/health, new weapons, new crowns? Not to mention the difficulty scaling isn't just 'enemies have 100% more health, good luck killing anything unless you have a game breaking combo'. The fact that enemies don't respawn in nuclear throne means that you can actually whittle away at the huge hordes of enemies and feel like you're making progress, instead of the only option to progress being "shoot at these 4 dudes for an hour until they die, also you're doing this again next level, have fun!"
@@godlyvex5543 I love Risk of Rain 2 but I definitely agree that it doesn't handle looping very well. After you've looped a couple times you realize the only point in it is to give you more time to get strong enough to fight the final boss.
@@206lbs.hercules5 Yeah, I have more hours in ror2 than nuclear throne, and liked it enough to get all of the achievements, but it would be so much better if looping were expanded upon
i'm honestly kinda sad how nuclear throne never got the full spotlight it deserves, as it was kinda forgotten about after its official release out of Early Access (though it being released in not the best of shapes kinda explains it) there's also one negative thing that's about the game, though it's mainly coming from a dude wtih 2000 hours in the game (who is also somehow still top 100 on thronebutt like how): i do wish there were more viable weapons for deep looping, since personally it gets kinda samey using the same two weapons and similar mutation spread kinda makes me with for a potential remaster of the game in the future but for now this is still an amazing game that i recommend anyone tries, it's an absolute blast
Honestly it's so bizarre, because it's one of those games I know people love and many people in the scene consider an all time great, but like you said it never really got the full spotlight it deserved. Also never really considered the shovel problem either, definitely because I am a piss baby but yeah, that probably would get extremely boring.
Eh, to me it's the inevitable nature of the game. . . In an ever increasing difficulty loop, the viable strategies will eventually narrow down into a meta. I don't think the devs ever expected anyone to get much further than Loop 4, to be honest. I remember even when L4 was reached for the first time after the IDPD Freaks were added to the game (I believe it was Ideaot who got there first) what a huge deal that was. I think that they simply should have kept the Elites in past L2, and had both Freaks and Elites in L3 and onward. That's the one thing that's inconsistent and out of place about the game to me: Making any aspect of it easier by removing an enemy type three loops in. That would have put an end to these ridiculous deep loop runs.
Great video, I'm one of the devs of Repentance and a lot of things from nuclear throne we used as inspiration in tboi repentance. In particular Tainted Jacob and Tainted Eve were inspired by Rogue and Rebel respectively. Like you said, the game isn't as replayable nor does it have as much stuff as something like Isaac, but it's really consistent. Highly recommend NT.
Know I typed it during the characters but honestly that's super cool, all of the Repentance Characters are honestly so fantastic and transformed TBOI into a much better game with their inclusion. Never even really connected those two and it makes a lot of sense, thanks for developing such a great expansion :P
@@DaveyGunface Thanks, but actually my buddy _kilburn did a lot of the heavy lifting with repentance design, and he too is a big fan of nuclear throne. I just made the rooms and enemies is all.
Still, pretty sick that you worked on that. Every part of it is really freaking good so honestly the credit remains insanely well deserved, but I'll check out some more of _kilburns work as well. Also gotta say, Isaac Renegade Angel is the crossover I never knew I needed, thank you for that
Fun fact about the game design talk with the end portal that appears when you kill all enemies, there's actually a really subtle sound cue when there's only one enemy left. It subconciously lets you know without being intrusive, and if you don't actively recognise it you feel like you've got a sixth sense that the portal is going to spawn soon.
Also- the Throne boss fight has some slight lore implications. The implication is that the first Throne you fight is not the real throne, just a mechanical approximation of the Real Throne. If you played NT you probably got to know why you are looking for the Throne- each character wants their wish granted and Throne is said to grant you your wish once you sit on it. Idk if IDPD are behind the fake Throne or someone else made it, but the true Wish Granting Throne is the abomination you fight if you disable the generators, and just like a monkey's paw the wish it grants you is to try the game again- and maybe save people who get killed by IDPD in your absence (the menu level you enter before Throne II fight) And on fun lore side- I really love people's reaction when they get to know that Chicken and Crystal are ladies and that Steroids is a scientist
@@ker0356 Aside from that, they attack your base of operations- the camp from starting screen- when you are away. IDPD also spawn before the fight with fake throne which has implications that they know where The Palace is
For some reason I always thought that THE nuclear throne is located on the final location under white picture of a crown on the level progression line. But we can never reach this location, because we're getting teleported to the new loop the moment before.
I only knew crystal was a girl when me and my friend were playing co op and he unlocked her b skin he told me about it. Same with steroids but when we unlocked him normally. I just knew chicken was a girl
Dr. Steroids m.d.! Knew the world was ending so he injected a bunch of steroids! He's a swelled guy. Also yeah Chicken should be obvious since she's not called Rooster
It is a shame that developers disappeared not only because this game would be a lot better with new things but because the aesthetics and the whole history that could have been told.good vid and I freaking love Y.V.
Great video! 1:05:28 I am the statistic anomaly! I love Nuclear Throne, watched the development from very early on, then started Ultra mod way back at Update 19. It is surreal being called out like that, but thanks so much for the shoutout❤!
Hell yeah dude, love the stuff. Played a few rounds of my Robot guy right after this video was published too, needed to see the C Skin and ultras still :P Thanks for everything, again!
48:08 there's actually a "glitch" that was left in the game where when big bandit charges you, you can swing with a melee weapon and he will be hit multiple times during his charge animation, which can result in very quick big bandit kills with even just a wrench iirc the same applies to the big doggy guardians in the palace when they pounce at you
Doseone is so underrated, he made YVs mansion theme, gungeons ost, one of the gun gods songs, and a lot of other stuff. Considering how much you enjoyed YVs mansion theme I recommend you listen to some of his other songs, like Enter the Gungeon, and all the songs from Enter the Guneon: Heart in Halves.
Watched the whole thing, glad you considered both the casual side and the high level gameplay when making this, usually top runs aren't even mentioned at all in these types of videos
I remember back in the day how big Nuclear Throne was, it's one of my absolute favourite games, it's a shame it hasn't gotten any further official support but mods are a thing and are pretty solid overall. Frankly the greatest sin is that the developers didn't keep the development videos on their Twitch so as far as I'm aware it's media and that sucks because they were amazing. Edit: The lore tidbits you wouldn't know otherwise are super fun and goofy and the game is full of them, many of them were brought up when asked during the development livestreams. Edit 2: There is indeed a bricking point, not only do you fight tougher enemies but enemies all gain additional hp, sure in theory you could keep going but at some point there will be too many enemies and not enough ammo since your damage doesn't scale, it's well beyond loop 8 is all I can say for sure.
@SpelunkyGuy101 Good luck with achieving that though since GMS is capable of going to multiple minutes per frame without hindering your computer's performance all that much, so it's more likely the maximum loop is whatever your patience can withstand :b
@Kyryl yes They come in various sizes, some examples: > Crystals originally did so much damage because they'd wrap your flesh all around themselves so the bigger the Crystal the more damage it did as it had surface to cover > Eyes had no gender because he can't speak, this was changed but I do not know the reason, I assume it's because he clearly can hum out words almost like speech or at least knows how to write :b > Big Bandit and Rebel are siblings > Little Hunter and Rogue were close friends > The Nuclear Throne is the source of the apocalypse but in game you'd only vaguely know this because of the floor tiles that occasionally show up in Crown Vaults > Rad canisters are either gameplay exclusive or lore related depending on which half of Vlambeer you'd ask > Guardians and Horror are mutated portals > When the player dies and they restart or return to menu they are jumping to a parallel dimension, I am unsure if this is also true for YV since he just teleports away from frustration which is also something you wouldn't know > IDPD are Finnish There's various more but I don't recall them all given how many years it's been since watching the development streams but several you can find on the Nuclear Throne wiki but know that there's probably plenty that are also missing.
This video popped into my recommended, having never watched a single one of your videos before. I leave it with my enjoyment for this game re-kindled and burning brighter than ever. Nuclear Throne was a game I literally grew up with, a friend introduced it to me way back in the 7th grade, 2015, and I cannot even imagine how many hours I spent playing this game when I should have been studying. Everyday I'd ask him if there was an update, and when there was, he'd transfer the newest version of the game onto a USB stick and I'd go from there. The struggles I went through trying to get to my first L2, and the triumphant feeling of beating Throne II and entering the portal to 1-1 L2, only to die about 15 seconds in. Nuclear Throne was actually the reason I even created a steam account in the first place, my username is even a reference to something from the game, and while I don't rank anywhere near the top guys in the game's community, the 527+ hours I've spent in the base game (who knows how many more playing NTT with numerous mods) have been some of the best fun I've had in front of a computer screen. I've even had a nice placement on a weekly leaderboard one time (steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2647425766). To sum it up, thank you for making this video, I'm glad I saw it, and I hope that others who see it that haven't tried the game before do so as soon as possible, it's unbelievable fun all the way through.
Gotta agree that the high consistency in Nuclear Throne runs makes progress way more satisfying. When I finally beat the Captain with Rogue I was shaking from adrenaline.
I am now 20 and am a game designer, going to school for the craft, and someone asked me what the most influential game was for me. Nuclear Throne was the fifth game I bought on PC. I must have been 10-13, and it gave me an adrenaline rush I’ve been chasing ever since. More importantly, when child me looked into the devs, the first thing on TH-cam is a GDC talk (think game dev TED talk). And I think that lecture sowed the seeds that brought me into this art form I love. So it’s a shame to me that this game goes forgotten, as I think it’s the most finely distilled an arcade shooter roguelike has ever been, and one of my main inspirations.
It’s painful to see rogue like developers ignore Nuke Throne’s incredible formula. Gunplay feels smooth and has an endless armory. Enemies snap and shoot with no telegraphing besides some boss indication. Straight to the point with its difficulty, with loops being cutthroat and properly earned. Even spamming with characters that prioritize mindless shooting is addicting and fun. It’s barebones simplicity brought so much space for what is essentially a power-hungry rush as you navigate through the chaos. Glad to see the love. We need more games like Nuke Throne. Games are afraid to just go fast and quite literally just “run around and shoot da guy”.
thanks for the video, this game is my childhood and always had a special place in my heart, its one of the games that started my love for roguelike/roguelites (the other one being tboi, that and nt were the only things i played/watched years ago) and im honestly really sad that no one really talks or knows about it anymore
NT can be really fun sometimes, it's easy to lose track of time during a good run and it's intense all the way through. I think NT and Spelunky (HD) are some of the best roguelites.
I've clocked over 300 hours in Nuclear Throne and have unlocked about three dozen crowns yet I still suck ass at it. One of my favorite games ever. It's a perfect combo of fast action, quick improvisation and strategy, occasional bullet hell-esque dodging and an extremely cromulent upgrading system that can get insane if you know what you're doing.
I only picked up this game a few months ago and was disappointed to see how such a well made and fun game had a small following. Thanks for making this video and possibly helping to change that.
Why I love most about this game is that it's specifically not a "lite". There is virtually no permanent vertical progression, which means you don't just throw yourself at the game until your stats let you overpower the content. Any progress you make is due entirely to yourself becoming better at the game. You start dying to bandits, but then you get farther and farther and eventually you're going completely insane things that you never thought you'd be able to do.
I played Nuclear Throne every morning before going to the university for about 2 years, awesome routine :D Always playing muscle guy trying to go for dual crossbow runs, ending up with grenade rifle and shovel but doing great!
“Alligators that have a really powerful shotgun blast” …I’m sorry, what? That is the most bizarre, cursed, and metal sentence I’ve heard in quite some time and you said it as though it’s just business as usual.
Making this after completing my first run in a haze of adrenaline. Thank you so much for introducing me to this beautiful game and I gotta say, it was calming hearing Kings and Queens of Wastland after 20 odd minutes of fear. Fear of losing and having to restart. Fear of never beating it, as was the case of Hotline Miami. But I overcame it. Thank you Davy, from the bottom of my heart.
Followed this game through it's whole development & it was amazing to see what an absolutely solid product they managed to come out with. 1,500 hours in it & I still come back sometimes, it becomes like a second sense eventually
Yeah you should check it out some time, honestly don't know if you stream at Twitch Dot TV Slash Master Underscore Underscore Underscore Sparky but maybe it'd be a good game to check out sometime? I don't know.
nuclear throne does actually throw together rooms at least to some extentive seen parts of stages (mainly the desert) get repeated between runs, its just less noticeable because the parts are interconnected directly into one large area instead of being seperate rooms (also probably have entirely random tiles connecting them, making it even harder to tell)
Okay this whole video on this game is cool and all, but my biggest takeaway from it is the fact Aviators was refferencing this game in his RoR2 song with lyrics "Temples high in trails of pain for a Moonlit Throne"
I don't play the game because I'm so bad at it I can barely beat a stage, but man, the music in this game is INSANELY good. Gun Locker is just a staple song in all of my playlists.
amazing video much like the previous one! i've been on the sidelines watching some nuclear throne stuff, but i didn't know it went this deep with loops or bosses and such, it was really cool to learn about! super excited to see what other kind of videos you put out, so far you're on a streak!
about the section on portals, they do have a set location, it's the last thing in the level that has died (which can be anything with health, not just enemies, so the portal can open on a radiation canister or a prop if you broke it after killing the last enemy) and the second-to-last enemy in the level makes a loud, washed out thud noise to let you know that the next enemy will spawn the portal you can abuse this, for example, to negate the downside of present chests (they give you ammo that you don't have equipped if you open them regulary, but the portal breaking them will spawn regular mini ammo pickups which *do* give you ammo that you can use)
I've 100%'d this game TWICE (which, for the uninitiated, is of comparable difficulty to getting say, Dead God twice in Isaac) and commenting on the story, the reason I feel this game is so good is because it recognizes that it's a game first. The story is there, but it takes a complete backseat to game mechanics. Every location has some pretty interesting lore, there are character interactions, and some cool parallels that you can draw from the various locations in game that fill in the gaps, but absolutely none of it compromises the gameplay. You can take the time to observe these things over the course of your runs, or you can totally ignore it and 100% the game without knowing a single thing about the world. Also Y.V. for life
43:35 the portal will always spawn on the last corpse of a level, can also be on broken items like rad cans and cacti if they're destroyed after you kill the last enemy
I remember finding chubbyemu when i was hyper fixated into NT, and I came to his channel after a break and was surprised at the content. Now I watch his old stuff and new stuff lol
i really happy right now roguelike/lite is one of my favourite genres in videogames and nuclear throne is definitely one of my all time favourites in the genre and im really happy to see a more indeep analysis from one of the youtubers i love
Amazing game, started playing it again recently. This is one of those games you can pick up and play, and put down for a few years and come back to it and still enjoy it. Simple, difficult and very fast. Great video.
Unless my game has been glitched for years, you can play Weekly challenges as many times as you want - they’re only called Weekly because each week there’s a set map, character, and crown you have to play with in the challenge. It’s great for unlocking crowns
Oh man. I used to watch this dude called sleep cycles when this game was getting updates and i got to watch the game from almost the start of development to the last update . This video reminded me of how much i loved this game and how much i enjoyed seeing and playing it while it was in development Thanks for the reminder that i have this game and how fun it is. Ill go play it again
Admittedly he may have done it already, but I would definitely love to see him stream the game again at some point. Plus I'm admittedly really happy that he didn't take the old videos down (like you would kinda expect him to?)
An important note to make about eyes pulling events towards yourself, how this is a BENEFIT vs a "why would you wanna do this"is the fact it hinders events moving erratically around your aim or waiting behind cover. If you've a powerful piercing/precision weapon or even shotgun, limiting the enemy movement in a more predictable state makes them easier to kill. You're also in FULL CONTROL of how much or little you desire to use the ability. No resources, cooldown, or timer gauge. You affect everything's movement again, including deadly attacks going towards you.
Godamn this game is so based, I’ve gotten nt back on ps4 and used to watch sleepcycles (if anyone know or remembers him) but holy shit is it a shame that it’s such a niche game that not a lot of people talk about. Also the ost is so fucking badass
just picked up a copy of nuclear throne because of this video, figured if i was going to watch over an hour of content then i should at least give it a try. anyway another great video davey love you king
I used to play this game with a friend all the time some time back, it was a game we both shared a deep appreciation for and had a bunch of fun playing together, spending long summer nights talking to one another while playing different characters and trying to unlock everything the game had to offer. We eventually lost touch with one another but I still play the game till this day and I still think it’s one of the best rogue likes ever hands down, having a tight gameplay loop and addicting unlock system, very few games can pale in comparison to that of Nuclear Throne, love this game sm :-)
43:40 The portal opens up wherever the last enemy was. And it also helps that when there's only one enemy remaining on the level, you hear a deep bassy sound (reducing music volume makes it easier to hear it). So you can definitely predict when and where the portal will open up.
fun fact: if you want to challenge yourself, and play a character with "no downsides or perks", then play chicken, and just don't ever interact with any of her abilities. No throwing or using her passive (ok maybe throwing is ok).
As someone that poured hundreds of hours and enjoyed the crap out of NT, I'm so happy you made a video that the game really deserves. So much love and craftsmanship went into making Nuclear Throne and I'm admittedly somewhat disappointed in how the game finished, with bugs on the console versions and distant developers, but the journey towards the game that we have was an amazing experience.
oh hey an actually relevant ad for me for once lol. been going keto again and my usual water flavor packets have just a bit too many carbs that add up. next paycheck I'll probably grab one to try and hopefully remember to use your code
robot is my favorite character too and summoners/necromancers are the best, I love just sitting back and letting my autonomous allies do all the work for me while I sip my wine I especially enjoy ones where you can turn enemies into allies
I’m glad that other people appreciate the struggle and reward this game has to offer. One of the reason I love this game so much is the reply ability, design, and the soundtrack. One of the best soundtracks I have heard. I just wish it had a bigger fan base
As a person that went really deep into this game and had several WRs at the time (i hit skeleton and rebel distance world records), thank you for this video Davey This game is something that i never experienced in my life before, over 1k hours spent trying and learning, and the game never stopped to bring up new ways to flip me over. Thats one of the reasons why i enjoyed skeleton, his is the lowest of the low, but being so behind on everything told me a lot about the game, and i hit L15 some time after. Also just spamming SPC every 3 frames for free before its loop 9 is something to have fun with (and mutation shenanigans, i was the guy to figure out that redemption melting can get 7 hp maximum). Nuclear throne did replayability better then any other game of the genre, and, unintentionally, endless difficulty raise as well.
NT is my favorite rogue like game by far, I have 250 hours and I'm only 2 achievements away from ultra mutant! I wish there was more content being created for this awesome game
I 100%'d this game, still my proudest 100% but man was it a little tedious, especially with getting every crown for every character. That being said, god I fucking LOVE this game, Y.V is still my profile pic on steam, honestly a work of video game art just how fun and gripping this game is.
Best roguelite ever in my opinion. I have almost 500 hours in this game and it still feels fresh and new and the art style and aesthetics are super fun. Thank you so much for making this video, I'm glad I'm not the only one that truly loves this game lmao
I love this game. I have been playing it since 2017 but still have not reached the Nuclear Throne yet :( Still trying though. Great video! Good to know that there are others who like this game too.
I'm avoiding spoilers so I'm not sure if you mentioned it in the video but this game runs at 60 fps in the steam beta, which is awesome. Not sure why it isn't in the base game though
actually, the flame attack from the salamanders in Level 3 and beyond deals only 1 damage per hit. it just usually hits you multiple times/you have boiling veins
Yay, very glad to see what someone still remember this game. I really love NT, maybe this is my favourite game. It's always nice to come back and play it again
I won't stand for this skeleton hate. He's a very, very strong character if you can actually get him and get him up to ultra mutation
Agreed I’m tired of my main being hated on
in terms of deep/abyssal loop, no, he is by far the weakest character in the game, the limited movement speed and hp make him the most vulnerable character in the game, and his inaccuracy makes the ultra shovel unusable, which is one of the most important weapons you need, he's fun, don't get me wrong, but completely awful (not to mention he gets one less mutation due to being unable to get Crown of Destiny, and basically is forced to lose one to take extra feet)
The melting hate is honestly not even an issue, most of the time you will have strong spirit and rhino skin, and once you press right click anything that can threaten you is just not an issue anymore
@@Evo-wx7wb as someone who has made it to L7 as melting I can safely say that the corpse explosions do not remove all threats and the max hp is a hell of a detriment, it's not melting hate, he's one of if not my favorite character to play, but he is not ideal
But he also has 2 hp but I can kinda understand using him if you get rhino skin
Edit: crystal tho
I quite like how NT basically initiated the trend for Rogue-like and -lite games to have the LOOP mechanic. The mechanic that let's you got into more or less infinity to either get more abilities or test how far you can get (and how crazy shit can become)
RoR and NT are two games I know which give you the "I HAVE ASCENDED INTO GODHOOD" moment once you are deep into loop- that time where each of your attacks unleashes nuke sized annihilation and even standing still and existing kills shit
Well, the "each attack annihilates the whole level" is something nuclear throne did well, but I'd say risk of rain didn't do it that well. Enemies keep spawning, and you have to sit by the teleporter for two minutes while all the enemies die instantly... also, most of the time, you're either killing everything instantly, or you die, there's not really a middle ground. Nuclear throne is a lot more balanced in that regard. Also, the way nuclear throne scales through each loop is much more interesting than risk of rain, where the first loop adds... a few enemy types to each level. That's it. And two more champion types. So exciting. And new loops after that add nothing special. What exactly is the incentive for looping? It's not like there is a challenge, if you have the right build you can literally go infinite. Nobody wants to grind the game for 12 hours straight on a single run where the enemies all die instantly and you're never at risk of dying. In nuclear throne, the difficulty scales not just through new enemy types (which are added all the way up to loop 3), an ending that is exclusive to looping, new bosses, bosses get more powerful in ways that aren't just more damage/health, new weapons, new crowns? Not to mention the difficulty scaling isn't just 'enemies have 100% more health, good luck killing anything unless you have a game breaking combo'. The fact that enemies don't respawn in nuclear throne means that you can actually whittle away at the huge hordes of enemies and feel like you're making progress, instead of the only option to progress being "shoot at these 4 dudes for an hour until they die, also you're doing this again next level, have fun!"
@@godlyvex5543 I love Risk of Rain 2 but I definitely agree that it doesn't handle looping very well. After you've looped a couple times you realize the only point in it is to give you more time to get strong enough to fight the final boss.
@@206lbs.hercules5 Yeah, I have more hours in ror2 than nuclear throne, and liked it enough to get all of the achievements, but it would be so much better if looping were expanded upon
i'm honestly kinda sad how nuclear throne never got the full spotlight it deserves, as it was kinda forgotten about after its official release out of Early Access (though it being released in not the best of shapes kinda explains it)
there's also one negative thing that's about the game, though it's mainly coming from a dude wtih 2000 hours in the game (who is also somehow still top 100 on thronebutt like how):
i do wish there were more viable weapons for deep looping, since personally it gets kinda samey using the same two weapons and similar mutation spread
kinda makes me with for a potential remaster of the game in the future
but for now this is still an amazing game that i recommend anyone tries, it's an absolute blast
Honestly it's so bizarre, because it's one of those games I know people love and many people in the scene consider an all time great, but like you said it never really got the full spotlight it deserved.
Also never really considered the shovel problem either, definitely because I am a piss baby but yeah, that probably would get extremely boring.
An absolute nuclear blast you mean.
Eh, to me it's the inevitable nature of the game. . . In an ever increasing difficulty loop, the viable strategies will eventually narrow down into a meta.
I don't think the devs ever expected anyone to get much further than Loop 4, to be honest. I remember even when L4 was reached for the first time after the IDPD Freaks were added to the game (I believe it was Ideaot who got there first) what a huge deal that was.
I think that they simply should have kept the Elites in past L2, and had both Freaks and Elites in L3 and onward. That's the one thing that's inconsistent and out of place about the game to me: Making any aspect of it easier by removing an enemy type three loops in. That would have put an end to these ridiculous deep loop runs.
honestly something easily fixed by making a risk of rain returns style of remake
Great video, I'm one of the devs of Repentance and a lot of things from nuclear throne we used as inspiration in tboi repentance. In particular Tainted Jacob and Tainted Eve were inspired by Rogue and Rebel respectively.
Like you said, the game isn't as replayable nor does it have as much stuff as something like Isaac, but it's really consistent. Highly recommend NT.
Know I typed it during the characters but honestly that's super cool, all of the Repentance Characters are honestly so fantastic and transformed TBOI into a much better game with their inclusion. Never even really connected those two and it makes a lot of sense, thanks for developing such a great expansion :P
@@DaveyGunface Thanks, but actually my buddy _kilburn did a lot of the heavy lifting with repentance design, and he too is a big fan of nuclear throne. I just made the rooms and enemies is all.
Still, pretty sick that you worked on that. Every part of it is really freaking good so honestly the credit remains insanely well deserved, but I'll check out some more of _kilburns work as well.
Also gotta say, Isaac Renegade Angel is the crossover I never knew I needed, thank you for that
HOLY SHIT HI LEATHERICECREAM I LOVE YOU
@@DaveyGunface yeah, I do that sometimes
Fun fact about the game design talk with the end portal that appears when you kill all enemies, there's actually a really subtle sound cue when there's only one enemy left.
It subconciously lets you know without being intrusive, and if you don't actively recognise it you feel like you've got a sixth sense that the portal is going to spawn soon.
I think i know what sound youre talking about. Is it like a really quiet portal explosion? That is so cool if that is what that is for
Also- the Throne boss fight has some slight lore implications.
The implication is that the first Throne you fight is not the real throne, just a mechanical approximation of the Real Throne.
If you played NT you probably got to know why you are looking for the Throne- each character wants their wish granted and Throne is said to grant you your wish once you sit on it.
Idk if IDPD are behind the fake Throne or someone else made it, but the true Wish Granting Throne is the abomination you fight if you disable the generators, and just like a monkey's paw the wish it grants you is to try the game again- and maybe save people who get killed by IDPD in your absence (the menu level you enter before Throne II fight)
And on fun lore side- I really love people's reaction when they get to know that Chicken and Crystal are ladies and that Steroids is a scientist
If IDPD made the fake Throne then it explains why they attack you right before you get to the true Throne
@@ker0356
Aside from that, they attack your base of operations- the camp from starting screen- when you are away.
IDPD also spawn before the fight with fake throne which has implications that they know where The Palace is
For some reason I always thought that THE nuclear throne is located on the final location under white picture of a crown on the level progression line. But we can never reach this location, because we're getting teleported to the new loop the moment before.
I only knew crystal was a girl when me and my friend were playing co op and he unlocked her b skin he told me about it. Same with steroids but when we unlocked him normally. I just knew chicken was a girl
Dr. Steroids m.d.! Knew the world was ending so he injected a bunch of steroids! He's a swelled guy.
Also yeah Chicken should be obvious since she's not called Rooster
It is a shame that developers disappeared not only because this game would be a lot better with new things but because the aesthetics and the whole history that could have been told.good vid and I freaking love Y.V.
They're back
@@BishopArtificier how do you know
The modding community is pretty active for the game!
@@BishopArtificierwait fr??
Great video!
1:05:28 I am the statistic anomaly!
I love Nuclear Throne, watched the development from very early on, then started Ultra mod way back at Update 19.
It is surreal being called out like that, but thanks so much for the shoutout❤!
Hell yeah dude, love the stuff. Played a few rounds of my Robot guy right after this video was published too, needed to see the C Skin and ultras still :P
Thanks for everything, again!
48:08
there's actually a "glitch" that was left in the game where when big bandit charges you, you can swing with a melee weapon and he will be hit multiple times during his charge animation, which can result in very quick big bandit kills with even just a wrench
iirc the same applies to the big doggy guardians in the palace when they pounce at you
Yeah. As a guy with a golden wrench, that's how I always kill big bandit.
Doseone is so underrated, he made YVs mansion theme, gungeons ost, one of the gun gods songs, and a lot of other stuff. Considering how much you enjoyed YVs mansion theme I recommend you listen to some of his other songs, like Enter the Gungeon, and all the songs from Enter the Guneon: Heart in Halves.
Watched the whole thing, glad you considered both the casual side and the high level gameplay when making this, usually top runs aren't even mentioned at all in these types of videos
I remember back in the day how big Nuclear Throne was, it's one of my absolute favourite games, it's a shame it hasn't gotten any further official support but mods are a thing and are pretty solid overall.
Frankly the greatest sin is that the developers didn't keep the development videos on their Twitch so as far as I'm aware it's media and that sucks because they were amazing.
Edit: The lore tidbits you wouldn't know otherwise are super fun and goofy and the game is full of them, many of them were brought up when asked during the development livestreams.
Edit 2: There is indeed a bricking point, not only do you fight tougher enemies but enemies all gain additional hp, sure in theory you could keep going but at some point there will be too many enemies and not enough ammo since your damage doesn't scale, it's well beyond loop 8 is all I can say for sure.
@SpelunkyGuy101 Good luck with achieving that though since GMS is capable of going to multiple minutes per frame without hindering your computer's performance all that much, so it's more likely the maximum loop is whatever your patience can withstand :b
@Kyryl yes They come in various sizes, some examples:
> Crystals originally did so much damage because they'd wrap your flesh all around themselves so the bigger the Crystal the more damage it did as it had surface to cover
> Eyes had no gender because he can't speak, this was changed but I do not know the reason, I assume it's because he clearly can hum out words almost like speech or at least knows how to write :b
> Big Bandit and Rebel are siblings
> Little Hunter and Rogue were close friends
> The Nuclear Throne is the source of the apocalypse but in game you'd only vaguely know this because of the floor tiles that occasionally show up in Crown Vaults
> Rad canisters are either gameplay exclusive or lore related depending on which half of Vlambeer you'd ask
> Guardians and Horror are mutated portals
> When the player dies and they restart or return to menu they are jumping to a parallel dimension, I am unsure if this is also true for YV since he just teleports away from frustration which is also something you wouldn't know
> IDPD are Finnish
There's various more but I don't recall them all given how many years it's been since watching the development streams but several you can find on the Nuclear Throne wiki but know that there's probably plenty that are also missing.
Sparky made it to L20
@@wettoaster. Sparky made it to L30
This video popped into my recommended, having never watched a single one of your videos before. I leave it with my enjoyment for this game re-kindled and burning brighter than ever. Nuclear Throne was a game I literally grew up with, a friend introduced it to me way back in the 7th grade, 2015, and I cannot even imagine how many hours I spent playing this game when I should have been studying. Everyday I'd ask him if there was an update, and when there was, he'd transfer the newest version of the game onto a USB stick and I'd go from there. The struggles I went through trying to get to my first L2, and the triumphant feeling of beating Throne II and entering the portal to 1-1 L2, only to die about 15 seconds in. Nuclear Throne was actually the reason I even created a steam account in the first place, my username is even a reference to something from the game, and while I don't rank anywhere near the top guys in the game's community, the 527+ hours I've spent in the base game (who knows how many more playing NTT with numerous mods) have been some of the best fun I've had in front of a computer screen. I've even had a nice placement on a weekly leaderboard one time (steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2647425766). To sum it up, thank you for making this video, I'm glad I saw it, and I hope that others who see it that haven't tried the game before do so as soon as possible, it's unbelievable fun all the way through.
Gotta agree that the high consistency in Nuclear Throne runs makes progress way more satisfying. When I finally beat the Captain with Rogue I was shaking from adrenaline.
One of my favorite games of all time, glad I came across this video.
Same
I am now 20 and am a game designer, going to school for the craft, and someone asked me what the most influential game was for me. Nuclear Throne was the fifth game I bought on PC. I must have been 10-13, and it gave me an adrenaline rush I’ve been chasing ever since. More importantly, when child me looked into the devs, the first thing on TH-cam is a GDC talk (think game dev TED talk). And I think that lecture sowed the seeds that brought me into this art form I love. So it’s a shame to me that this game goes forgotten, as I think it’s the most finely distilled an arcade shooter roguelike has ever been, and one of my main inspirations.
"Rougelikes and rougelites are the takeout of video games" hits so hard
It’s painful to see rogue like developers ignore Nuke Throne’s incredible formula. Gunplay feels smooth and has an endless armory. Enemies snap and shoot with no telegraphing besides some boss indication. Straight to the point with its difficulty, with loops being cutthroat and properly earned. Even spamming with characters that prioritize mindless shooting is addicting and fun. It’s barebones simplicity brought so much space for what is essentially a power-hungry rush as you navigate through the chaos.
Glad to see the love. We need more games like Nuke Throne. Games are afraid to just go fast and quite literally just “run around and shoot da guy”.
thanks for the video, this game is my childhood and always had a special place in my heart, its one of the games that started my love for roguelike/roguelites (the other one being tboi, that and nt were the only things i played/watched years ago) and im honestly really sad that no one really talks or knows about it anymore
NT can be really fun sometimes, it's easy to lose track of time during a good run and it's intense all the way through. I think NT and Spelunky (HD) are some of the best roguelites.
I've been playing this game for years and am so glad its getting more recognition. Hopefully there will be some new names on the weekly leaderboard
I've clocked over 300 hours in Nuclear Throne and have unlocked about three dozen crowns yet I still suck ass at it. One of my favorite games ever. It's a perfect combo of fast action, quick improvisation and strategy, occasional bullet hell-esque dodging and an extremely cromulent upgrading system that can get insane if you know what you're doing.
FISH CAN ROLL!
I only picked up this game a few months ago and was disappointed to see how such a well made and fun game had a small following. Thanks for making this video and possibly helping to change that.
Why I love most about this game is that it's specifically not a "lite". There is virtually no permanent vertical progression, which means you don't just throw yourself at the game until your stats let you overpower the content. Any progress you make is due entirely to yourself becoming better at the game. You start dying to bandits, but then you get farther and farther and eventually you're going completely insane things that you never thought you'd be able to do.
I played Nuclear Throne every morning before going to the university for about 2 years, awesome routine :D
Always playing muscle guy trying to go for dual crossbow runs, ending up with grenade rifle and shovel but doing great!
“Alligators that have a really powerful shotgun blast”
…I’m sorry, what? That is the most bizarre, cursed, and metal sentence I’ve heard in quite some time and you said it as though it’s just business as usual.
Making this after completing my first run in a haze of adrenaline. Thank you so much for introducing me to this beautiful game and I gotta say, it was calming hearing Kings and Queens of Wastland after 20 odd minutes of fear. Fear of losing and having to restart. Fear of never beating it, as was the case of Hotline Miami. But I overcame it.
Thank you Davy, from the bottom of my heart.
Followed this game through it's whole development & it was amazing to see what an absolutely solid product they managed to come out with. 1,500 hours in it & I still come back sometimes, it becomes like a second sense eventually
Aw hell yeah, looking forward to watching the Nuclear Throne Analysis Movie (unironically)!
This game looks cool
Yeah you should check it out some time, honestly don't know if you stream at Twitch Dot TV Slash Master Underscore Underscore Underscore Sparky but maybe it'd be a good game to check out sometime? I don't know.
nuclear throne does actually throw together rooms at least to some extentive seen parts of stages (mainly the desert) get repeated between runs, its just less noticeable because the parts are interconnected directly into one large area instead of being seperate rooms (also probably have entirely random tiles connecting them, making it even harder to tell)
Okay this whole video on this game is cool and all, but my biggest takeaway from it is the fact Aviators was refferencing this game in his RoR2 song with lyrics "Temples high in trails of pain for a Moonlit Throne"
5000 hours played. love it.
I absolutely love this game, it’s the only game I come back to every week
I don't play the game because I'm so bad at it I can barely beat a stage, but man, the music in this game is INSANELY good. Gun Locker is just a staple song in all of my playlists.
amazing video much like the previous one! i've been on the sidelines watching some nuclear throne stuff, but i didn't know it went this deep with loops or bosses and such, it was really cool to learn about!
super excited to see what other kind of videos you put out, so far you're on a streak!
about the section on portals, they do have a set location, it's the last thing in the level that has died (which can be anything with health, not just enemies, so the portal can open on a radiation canister or a prop if you broke it after killing the last enemy)
and the second-to-last enemy in the level makes a loud, washed out thud noise to let you know that the next enemy will spawn the portal
you can abuse this, for example, to negate the downside of present chests (they give you ammo that you don't have equipped if you open them regulary, but the portal breaking them will spawn regular mini ammo pickups which *do* give you ammo that you can use)
I've 100%'d this game TWICE (which, for the uninitiated, is of comparable difficulty to getting say, Dead God twice in Isaac) and commenting on the story, the reason I feel this game is so good is because it recognizes that it's a game first. The story is there, but it takes a complete backseat to game mechanics. Every location has some pretty interesting lore, there are character interactions, and some cool parallels that you can draw from the various locations in game that fill in the gaps, but absolutely none of it compromises the gameplay. You can take the time to observe these things over the course of your runs, or you can totally ignore it and 100% the game without knowing a single thing about the world.
Also Y.V. for life
This game actually goes so hard it's unreal
43:35 the portal will always spawn on the last corpse of a level, can also be on broken items like rad cans and cacti if they're destroyed after you kill the last enemy
I remember finding chubbyemu when i was hyper fixated into NT, and I came to his channel after a break and was surprised at the content.
Now I watch his old stuff and new stuff lol
I like how the title says this is a brief retrospective, but the video is literally one of the longest Nuclear Throne videos ever made lmao
Glad to see someone talk about this game again love this game !
I’m absolutely dog shit at this game and I still love it.
That shows you how great it is.
i really happy right now
roguelike/lite is one of my favourite genres in videogames and nuclear throne is definitely one of my all time favourites in the genre and im really happy to see a more indeep analysis from one of the youtubers i love
It's crazy, I have beaten Nuclear Throne exactly once and can't unlock Chicken for the life of me, yet still is one my favorite Roguelites ever
Amazing game, started playing it again recently. This is one of those games you can pick up and play, and put down for a few years and come back to it and still enjoy it. Simple, difficult and very fast. Great video.
Unless my game has been glitched for years, you can play Weekly challenges as many times as you want - they’re only called Weekly because each week there’s a set map, character, and crown you have to play with in the challenge. It’s great for unlocking crowns
The thing about beeing addicted to summoner/necromancer characters, I get that, if there's such an option I go for that instantly
Oh man. I used to watch this dude called sleep cycles when this game was getting updates and i got to watch the game from almost the start of development to the last update .
This video reminded me of how much i loved this game and how much i enjoyed seeing and playing it while it was in development
Thanks for the reminder that i have this game and how fun it is. Ill go play it again
I have played this game religiously for years now. I usually don’t get mad when I die because of the sheer number of foes dancing on my grave
I downloaded this game a while back and only know I've gotten into it for real, absolute masterpiece of a roguelite.
god the cubbyemu clip brought back so many memories, miss the nt content but glad hes succeding
Admittedly he may have done it already, but I would definitely love to see him stream the game again at some point. Plus I'm admittedly really happy that he didn't take the old videos down (like you would kinda expect him to?)
Rougelites are amazing
i love rougelites too
An important note to make about eyes pulling events towards yourself, how this is a BENEFIT vs a "why would you wanna do this"is the fact it hinders events moving erratically around your aim or waiting behind cover. If you've a powerful piercing/precision weapon or even shotgun, limiting the enemy movement in a more predictable state makes them easier to kill. You're also in FULL CONTROL of how much or little you desire to use the ability. No resources, cooldown, or timer gauge. You affect everything's movement again, including deadly attacks going towards you.
Godamn this game is so based, I’ve gotten nt back on ps4 and used to watch sleepcycles (if anyone know or remembers him) but holy shit is it a shame that it’s such a niche game that not a lot of people talk about. Also the ost is so fucking badass
techies isn't in dota either any more. it's the greatest tragedy of the year
About time this game got some more love! Thank you so much for making this video, it's so needed
Casually checking out this video without ever having played the game, as you do. Let's see if this video convinces me to pick it up!
just picked up a copy of nuclear throne because of this video, figured if i was going to watch over an hour of content then i should at least give it a try. anyway another great video davey love you king
I love nuclear throne. Thank you for keeping this game alive.
I used to play this game with a friend all the time some time back, it was a game we both shared a deep appreciation for and had a bunch of fun playing together, spending long summer nights talking to one another while playing different characters and trying to unlock everything the game had to offer. We eventually lost touch with one another but I still play the game till this day and I still think it’s one of the best rogue likes ever hands down, having a tight gameplay loop and addicting unlock system, very few games can pale in comparison to that of Nuclear Throne, love this game sm :-)
Congrats again on your 27 subs!!! It's going to be 30 before you know it
i used to play this game SO MUCH! i totally want more people to play it!
haven't thought about this game in ages, thanks for the reminder :)
I purchased this game 3/4 of the way through the video and I thank you. Would absolutely recomend.
43:40 The portal opens up wherever the last enemy was. And it also helps that when there's only one enemy remaining on the level, you hear a deep bassy sound (reducing music volume makes it easier to hear it). So you can definitely predict when and where the portal will open up.
fun fact: if you want to challenge yourself, and play a character with "no downsides or perks", then play chicken, and just don't ever interact with any of her abilities. No throwing or using her passive (ok maybe throwing is ok).
Fun fact: Chubbyemu started his TH-cam channel as a Nuclear Throne LP channel
As someone that poured hundreds of hours and enjoyed the crap out of NT, I'm so happy you made a video that the game really deserves. So much love and craftsmanship went into making Nuclear Throne and I'm admittedly somewhat disappointed in how the game finished, with bugs on the console versions and distant developers, but the journey towards the game that we have was an amazing experience.
FINALLY NEW AND FRESH CONTENT ABOUT THIS GAME IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT FOR SO LONG
43:35 the portal opens on the last enemy corpse. It is entirely predictable.
oh hey an actually relevant ad for me for once lol. been going keto again and my usual water flavor packets have just a bit too many carbs that add up. next paycheck I'll probably grab one to try and hopefully remember to use your code
I hate how it's not more popular
robot is my favorite character too
and summoners/necromancers are the best, I love just sitting back and letting my autonomous allies do all the work for me while I sip my wine
I especially enjoy ones where you can turn enemies into allies
I'll be real this is the first sponsor that got me to (beg my partner to) buy something.
I’m so happy that vlambeer came back again
I forgot Chubbyemu used to make NT content! Same with STAR_! this game has some names you wouldn't expect associated with it
I’m glad that other people appreciate the struggle and reward this game has to offer. One of the reason I love this game so much is the reply ability, design, and the soundtrack. One of the best soundtracks I have heard. I just wish it had a bigger fan base
As a person that went really deep into this game and had several WRs at the time (i hit skeleton and rebel distance world records), thank you for this video Davey
This game is something that i never experienced in my life before, over 1k hours spent trying and learning, and the game never stopped to bring up new ways to flip me over. Thats one of the reasons why i enjoyed skeleton, his is the lowest of the low, but being so behind on everything told me a lot about the game, and i hit L15 some time after. Also just spamming SPC every 3 frames for free before its loop 9 is something to have fun with (and mutation shenanigans, i was the guy to figure out that redemption melting can get 7 hp maximum).
Nuclear throne did replayability better then any other game of the genre, and, unintentionally, endless difficulty raise as well.
NT is my favorite rogue like game by far, I have 250 hours and I'm only 2 achievements away from ultra mutant! I wish there was more content being created for this awesome game
I 100%'d this game, still my proudest 100% but man was it a little tedious, especially with getting every crown for every character. That being said, god I fucking LOVE this game, Y.V is still my profile pic on steam, honestly a work of video game art just how fun and gripping this game is.
god i'm so brainwashed. my jaw literally dropped when he took weeping fungus as engi in the risk of rain 2 section
Great video man, this game definitely deserves way more attention than it gets.
58:25 hey look its me in the chat by the name of "definitelynotash69420"
now im even more glad that i randomly decided to show up for that stream
watching you pick up that weeping fungus hurt
Best roguelite ever in my opinion. I have almost 500 hours in this game and it still feels fresh and new and the art style and aesthetics are super fun. Thank you so much for making this video, I'm glad I'm not the only one that truly loves this game lmao
A nuclear throne: For when your ass doesn't glow in the dark quite enough.
Ultra shovel? *moderately enthusiastic gas mask noises*
I mean, "Nuclear Throne" as a name fits the Death Korps of Krieg absurdly well.
I love this game. I have been playing it since 2017 but still have not reached the Nuclear Throne yet :( Still trying though. Great video! Good to know that there are others who like this game too.
3:16 How to say "I have no idea what I'm talking about" without outright saying it.
I am so happy that you talked about this game
I'm avoiding spoilers so I'm not sure if you mentioned it in the video but this game runs at 60 fps in the steam beta, which is awesome. Not sure why it isn't in the base game though
For me Nuclear Throne is part of the trinity of the best roguelikes ever, wich is The Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon and Nuclear Throne
I would replace Gungeon with Dead Cells (after the arboretum/morass/nest DLC but before the Fatal Falls DLC). Throne might be my favorite of all time.
Agree to disagree on the Dead Cells part
I just brought this game because of your video and have been loving it
melting
amazing nuke potencial
can become immune to most explosions if you get boiling veins and do not take rhino skin
actually, the flame attack from the salamanders in Level 3 and beyond deals only 1 damage per hit. it just usually hits you multiple times/you have boiling veins
Yay, very glad to see what someone still remember this game. I really love NT, maybe this is my favourite game. It's always nice to come back and play it again
Holy hell it's Earth Defense Force, I never thought I'd see that game again