izigame.me

Nuclear Blaze is ... alright. It doesn't knock it out of the park, but what it does do is give you a neat firefighting platformer with a spooky, supernatural atmosphere, something that is wholly unique to it and ultimately gives it too much charm for me to hate.
I'll get the big negative out of the way: it is way too short. About 2 hours. Now, both of those hours are packed with gameplay density and it moves at a brisk pace, but especially in your first playthrough, you barely get to explore the mechanics that you just started getting used to. In the first playthrough, there are maybe 2 or 3 stages that are remotely challenging. The game isn't allowed to breathe, and feels very rushed. I'm not someone who hates short games, I love them actually, but only if they give you a complete and full view of the game design. That's not the case here, and I can't imagine a player who doesn't finish this game feeling really underwhelmed. Thankfully, there is a New Game+ (titled "Hold my Beer") that's a second playthrough that's much harder and has new content added. It's not a whole new campaign unfortunately, but rather a reworking of the original playthrough with just enough new stuff to be worth it. This padded my game time to roughly 5 hrs (minus idle time), but I don't love this approach. I kind of wish the New Game+ was the one and only playthrough I played. Or, better yet. I wish this game was 4 times as long.
Now, part of why I feel that way is that the core of what's delivered here is so damn good. You play as a cool firefighter! What other game can you do that! The controls are great, and though there is a fair bit of frustration being insta-killed every time you touch a wee bit of fire, it's never unfair. Well, except for one bug I encountered (which made me have to re-do a level) .. other than that, you may be a bit annoyed here and there, but still fully and completely engaged in the action. Coming up with strategies to contain fires from spreading and panicking as it all falls apart is truly fun and most importantly: completely unique. The core gameplay is super good, and deserves way more levels, enemies (there's only one boss fight!), and scenarios to be fully fleshed out.
As for the story, it hooks you in, but because of the runtime, it isn't really much of a mystery. The devs didn't have much time to breadcrumb you so you basically figure out what's going on within an hour of playing the game. It ends up being more cute than deadly (the cat poop being the culprit all along, and the final boss being a chair were certainly choices. I love using SCP as a foundation but did it have to be so whimsical?), which I personally don't love. I think there was a real opportunity for a dark and winding mystery in this one and instead the game makes a joke of its very well-made setup and atmosphere.
Music is great, as is the art style. Love the HD 2D look; the fire and smoke all work so well here.
So yeah, I don't know. You should play this game. It's one of a kind. The gameplay is really good. I hate that they had everything they needed to make this a legendary indie hit, but left the game so unfinished. Regardless, it's still an awesome time. Well made and well worth your time.