Nuclear Throne is one of the all-time greats, and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. I’m sure a lot of you feel similarly, and I know you will all, therefore, be happy to hear that this action-roguelite classic just got a monstrous new content update.
The update is actually the 100th, and it’s the first in some time. The reason it’s happening today is that it’s Nuclear Throne’s 10th birthday. Congrats to Vlambeer and everyone connected to the game!
That includes “original band-members Jan Willem Nijman, Paul Veer, Jukio Kallio, Joonas Turner and Justin Chan,” who all got involved for this reunion, alongside modder-turned-developer YellowAfterlife.
“Never in my life I would think that something that started as a little mod would turn into one of my longest-running collaborations to date,” added YellowAfterLife, who started off as a modder and is who now works directly on the game, driving its technical development.
“My work on this update has been going slightly slower than usual due to ongoing war here in Ukraine, but still I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished and hope that folks have fun with all the new stuff.
I am looking forward to seeing what people do with Custom Mode as it makes it easy to do a handful of things that previously required a non-trivial amount of GameMaker knowledge to replicate in a mod.”
On top of a bunch of quality of life improvements (including widescreen support) there are some really interesting new bits in the game added via this new update, according to the presser that JW just sent over. There are new unlockable skins, a bunch of new localisations, and the game finally has the Steam Deck green tick.
However, despite all that fun stuff, the headline addition is a 13th playable character, Cuz, who can carry three weapons – making him very versatile.
I’m also eager to explore the aforementioned custom mode, which lets you tinker with the settings to create a more personalised experience, and the reworked co-op mechanics that support up to four players.
“I was curious if there would be a period of relearning how we used to work together on Nuclear Throne, but it was like riding a bike,” artist & animator Paul Veer said of the new update.
“Not only did we hit the ground running, but the trust and confidence that we had built up back in the day was as strong as ever. In that sense, Update 100 is not only a celebration of Nuclear Throne’s 10th anniversary as a game, but also a celebration of the game’s development and team.”
The full list of additions in the update is available over on Steam (where the game is currently 50% off). And to clarify, this is only out on PC for now, but as confirmed on socials, “other platforms will follow” the inevitable bug-squashing.
