Nuclear Gladiators 3000

I know my roguelites, and even though I'm only a couple of hours in, I know this game's an absolute banger. If you're reading this and are a fellow fan of the genre, then please - do yourself a favour and buy it. It's got so much personality and charm, and the Running Man vibes are so well executed! Thanks devs for creating such a fantastic game and at this price? Pffft - best investment you'll make.

If you were an 80s/90s kid you will love it. Vibes alone are epic. Not a super hard game at the beginning once you get some meta upgrades, it was a little chunky at first. No idea what mid/endgame looks like. The main thing I think they need to work on for balance, and over all game feel is getting the rewards right. Your runs can end with tons of stuff on the ground. I think this is by design, its a little frustrating. The wheel you spin will often land on losses, and this seems to be the main motivation for killing bosses, so I'd like to see changes to how that system works. Maybe first roll is free, then its starts the losses. But this is all nit picking. Once they nail that wheel system I think you got a fun game here.

Very nice game for it's price. Love the artstyle, soundtrack and gameplay is really smooth. Didn't experience any stuttering so far even with maxed out weapons filling the whole screen. Had just a single bug that happened twice (softlock in wheel of fortune). Gameplayloop is satisfying and the grind is rewarding. My single issue: Game is far too easy once you unlocked some meta-progression and charactertraits. Even with challenges as darkness, without skills, toxic puddles or no main weapon even in highest difficulty the game is just a cakewalk. I think this will impact the replayability since I will complete it on 100%. But these about 25 hrs will be a very nice experience and worth every cent spent on this fine little game.

TLDR: Got it on a sale, well worth the price. 6/10 Interconnected achievements presenting you with a basic range of options at first but unlocking new stuff the more you play which in turn extends your available content. Notable power-gain through meta-progression. Basically each run results in a certain amount of ingame currency that allows you to improve weapons, traits and other bonuses. Each class has its own "achievement tree" which unlocks flat boni after meeting specific requirements. The runs themselves start out pretty simple with enemies spawning and moving to your position in a straight line. Environmental props are destructable and part of a combo-system that allows you to rack up power-ups and temporary powers. Once you get a few weapons running things can go really crazy visually which is supported pretty well with audo tracks. The music, commentary and audience cheering and clapping is a great combination that sells the action well. Unfortunately this is also a weak point as you have no options to lower the fireworks. At some point you wont be able to see your character or enemies anymore and move blindly forcing you to stop shooting, stand still or take a chance and move around blind in order to avoid enemy fire and other dangers. The first couple of hours were really fun when you got your first unlocks and noticed a massive power increase through your meta picks. After that things go stale fast as things dont change a whole lot. There are no "builds" as in other games of this genre. You pick your class then add randomly rolled weapons and upgrades. You can certainly focus on certain stats (crit or crit chance) but if you play the combo system and manage to keep it going you ll end up with getting everything every time. So the only real difference is the class you chose which has a class-specific weapon. The achievement system had me going for a while but even that turned into a slog. The annoying part is that you ll do certain "jobs" over and over because there is no background tracking. So you gonna kill 5000 enemies for a certain unlock then kill 2000 enemies of a specific type and THEN kill 5000 enemies again. Every time you fullfill one requirement the counter resets to zero. In effect you ll do the same thing multiple times across several maps and different classes. And you gotta do it in order with specific picks. This forced me to use the same class for X hours straight in order to fullfill all its goals. After 27 hours I have a few remaining ingame goals to accomplish but reach 100% steam achievements so I cant be arsed to do the rest. I also dont see myself coming back to this title anytime soon. Its just too much of the same old same old in the end.

Fun game was worth the money, could use some QoL changes though such as indicators for supporter zones.

This gives me all of the Smash TV vibes I could ever want, and goes beyond with its delightfully tongue-in-cheek techno-dystopic humor. The Results music gives me feels of the "HOWDIDO" tune that the equally-cheeky Rise of the Triad blasted after each level and that, folks, is not a bad thing at all.

Game of the year 11/10