The 2D firefighting platformer Nuclear Blaze is on its way to consoles thanks to a partnership between Dead Cells creator Sebastien Benard and Red Art Games, a French company specializing in porting PC titles to consoles. Fans of Dead Cells' signature colorful 2D pixel art style and fluid platformer movement system may enjoy the similarities in Nuclear Blaze.
Red Art Games has announced that its port of Nuclear Blaze will arrive digitally on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One in early 2023. Members of the press, content creators, and bloggers will have an opportunity to play an early build of Nuclear Blaze's console version during this year's Gamescom at Red Art Games' booth. Sebastien Benard, otherwise known as the solo studio Deepnight Games, has praised Red Art's efforts with the port, stating that "the team put in some meticulous and high-quality work, which made the console port of Nuclear Blaze possible."
Nuclear Blaze is a unique 2D firefighting game where the enemy is the environment. Taking on the role of a firefighter air-dropped into a blazing military base, the player is tasked with investigating the facility in search of survivors. The player must deal with dangerous backdrafts, exploding walls, and collapsing floors as they engage in firefighting by activating sprinklers and using their hose. The game's control scheme bears similarity to Dead Cells, the critically and publicly acclaimed roguelike platformer by the same one-man team. A dedicated "kid mode" has also been thoughtfully included which is aimed toward children of around three years of age, allowing them to tackle the game with special level designs and forgiving rules.
Red Art Games began as a publishing house for indie games that focused on shipping physical versions of games, something that has become a rarity when it comes to indie games. According to Red Art's co-founder Michael Binkowski, 20-25% of players are still attached to the physical market and it was the company's intention to cater to that interest. At the end of 2021, Red Art opened its own development studio that works on porting PC games to consoles with the eventual goal of developing original titles.
Nuclear Blaze has been available to play on PC since late 2021 and enjoys a Very Positive rating on Steam with players praising its fun mechanics, well-designed environments, and short-but-sweet runtime of just a few hours. As games continue to trend toward massive open-world environments demanding dozens of hours of playtime, it can be refreshing to pick up a quality title that doesn't overstay its welcome.
Nuclear Blaze is available on PC and will be launching in early 2023 for PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
