User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 240 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 28 out of 240

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  1. Aug 11, 2023
    9
    Very good game. I enjoyed playing this game a lot. I strongly recommend this.
  2. Mar 10, 2022
    9
    Easily one of my favorite Roguelikes out there, an adrenaline rush of fast paced action and chaos, its fantastic.
  3. Jan 14, 2022
    9
    This **** is addictive. That's why it's so good. Play it. Play it. Just play iiiiiiiiit
  4. Oct 7, 2021
    9
    Muuuuuy adictivo, quizás el mejor rogue-lite de la historia, buenardo

    Reeeeally addictive, probably the best rogue-lite of all time, **** amazing
  5. Sep 17, 2021
    10
    Обычно прохожу игру на все ачивки и забываю, эта игра одно из двух исключений. Ооооочень реиграбельная при небольшом количестве контента. Багов практически нет. Наиграл 940 часов и пока что не собираюсь останавливаться.
  6. May 19, 2021
    10
    Una obra maestra atemporal de los juegos roguelike, con partidas que duran lo justo e ideal, una dificultad dura pero bien fundamentada en la habilidad, y un cast de personajes perfectamente balanceados, como debe ser.
    Nuclear Throne esta diseñado con mimo, y realmente poco se siente innecesario, de relleno, o fuera de lugar, hay armas para todos los gustos, y solo algunas contadas pueden
    Una obra maestra atemporal de los juegos roguelike, con partidas que duran lo justo e ideal, una dificultad dura pero bien fundamentada en la habilidad, y un cast de personajes perfectamente balanceados, como debe ser.
    Nuclear Throne esta diseñado con mimo, y realmente poco se siente innecesario, de relleno, o fuera de lugar, hay armas para todos los gustos, y solo algunas contadas pueden considerarse como intrínsecamente inútiles. Absolutamente cada personaje, cada arma y cada mutación, da para un abanico de estrategias locas y diversas.

    No dejen que el aspecto grafico de este juego los engañe, es una maestría en lo que al genero se refiere, y es uno de los pocos que logra enganchar hasta volverte un adicto. Derrotar al trono es simplemente el comienzo del juego y de las cosas que se pueden hacer dentro de el.
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  7. Sep 20, 2020
    8
    Un buen roguelike, no he llegado al final todavía, pero todos los jefes con los que me he encontrado (Lil Hunter, Big Dog, Hyper Crystal, etc.) no son muy fáciles de vencer. Con tiempo y dedicación lo pasas de taquito pero vas a tener que intentar mas de una vez para encontrarle el truco.
    Buena dificultad, buen diseño, no es malo en ningún aspecto, y eso que está hecho con Gamemaker
    Un buen roguelike, no he llegado al final todavía, pero todos los jefes con los que me he encontrado (Lil Hunter, Big Dog, Hyper Crystal, etc.) no son muy fáciles de vencer. Con tiempo y dedicación lo pasas de taquito pero vas a tener que intentar mas de una vez para encontrarle el truco.
    Buena dificultad, buen diseño, no es malo en ningún aspecto, y eso que está hecho con Gamemaker Studio.
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  8. Sep 9, 2020
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I write reviews honestly, so I'll be honest about this one. As old as this game is, and as many hours as I've clocked into it as I have, i have to say it's very 'meh'.

    First of all, this is a roguelike game. I.E meaning you have permadeath. When you die you start over from the beginning with any selection of characters for you to choose from. There's 15 in total, 3 of which are hidden characters. Now you might be thinking "OH! That sounds very diverse and interesting!" Wrong.

    Here's my biggest pet peeve with this game, and it probably resonates with a lot of other people as well. This game is a roguelike BULLET HELL. Every enemy in this game fires bullets at you nonstop. The enemies that don't fire bullets will charge at you and deal contact damage. Of course, each character will usually have an ability called a 'Throne Butt' which will give them that extra edge, unfortunately only a handful of characters actually have a USEFUL throne butt.

    Now on top of all of this, the level design is procedurally generated. Meaning everytime you restart and try again, the layout of each level you go through is different. It's all got the same theme, with it's own little secret areas, but the levels themselves are random. As far as I can tell, the enemy spawns are also randomly generated.

    So let me get to why this game is a pain in my rear end more than most. The fact that your SKILL has nothing to do with your success in this game. You can put over 100 hours into this game and still be just as newbie as you were when you started, and the REASON for this is because for the most part, due to the random enemy spawns and level layouts, you could spawn in, and immediately be thrusted into a corner with 5+ enemies, all of which shoot a ridiculous amount of bullets. And of course, if you chose the wrong character, it's going to mean you either die instantly, take massive damage, or just barely escape. This can be a problem on EVERY consecutive level you go through, as each level is randomized like the last. Therefore, it becomes this war of attrition, waiting for your luck to shine through so you can get a decent run and maybe make some progress.

    And before anyone tells me to "git gud". Consider this, I have over 150 hours in the game, I usually spend 2-3 hours playing at a time, and I have NEVER ONCE beaten the final boss. The reason? Bad luck. No, not because I didn't "find a golden gun" or "dodge the insane bullet-hell" the final boss spews out. NONE of that. It's because I get backed into a corner, through no fault of my own, due to the incessant lack of dps, luck, and bullet patterns.

    Now that I've gotten the rant out of the way, I'm gonna explain why I rated this a 5 instead of a 1. This game is cutesy, don't get me wrong. The art style is fun, (though the pixel art gets tiring after a while) the bosses are interesting in their own right, regardless of difficulty, and the overall level design, as far as theme, is pretty cool. The characters, the levelling up and progression system is also kind of cool, but some of the characters are borderline stupidly hard to unlock, and their throne butt abilities are just so mediocre, you don't even want to bother trying to unlock them. Despite all it's flaws yet cutesy details, I can't recommend this game. If you get it on sale for like $5 bucks, sure. It's a fun game to sink a few hours into without pulling your hair out. That being said, I am relatively disappointed in this website's user critiques, given that NONE of the positive reviews I overlooked seem to mention any flaws whatsoever.

    No game is without flaws, guys. Sometimes it's helpful to be critical, and save people time & money.
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  9. Jun 21, 2020
    8
    Live classic in the form of a "Beat them all" roguelike in a post-apocalyptic setting. You just need a fast reaction. Works fine on notebook (Intel video) with Ubuntu 16.04.
  10. May 23, 2020
    7
    pretty hardcore but its still the same level layout and weapons not enough content.
  11. Apr 7, 2020
    8
    No es mi roguelike favorito pero creo que es bastante decente. Nuclear throne nos ofrece una experiencia frenética y algo complicada, en algunos momentos repetitiva, pero se mantiene entretenido. Puedes echarte partidas rápidamente, y si mueres en nada de tiempo ya estas echándote otra partida en nada de tiempo.
    El sistema de armas es simple pero funciona y es divertido, además las
    No es mi roguelike favorito pero creo que es bastante decente. Nuclear throne nos ofrece una experiencia frenética y algo complicada, en algunos momentos repetitiva, pero se mantiene entretenido. Puedes echarte partidas rápidamente, y si mueres en nada de tiempo ya estas echándote otra partida en nada de tiempo.
    El sistema de armas es simple pero funciona y es divertido, además las destrucciones que se generan son muy entretenidas y espectaculares.
    Es cierto que el juego te atrapa y es un poco injusto algunas veces.
    Le pongo un 8, ya que no noto que tenga un gameplay muy entretenido como otros juegos como enter the gungeon, aunque me gusta lo frenético que es.
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  12. Nov 17, 2019
    8
    Normally I don't really play rogue likes but this one has me! Really fun and focuses on the core features of a rogue like. It's nothing new, but well executed. Good job!
  13. Jul 14, 2019
    10
    Heavy crossbow pa ti!!! Valmbeer consigue hacer uno de los mejores gamefell de la historia Goty de los gotys.
  14. Apr 3, 2019
    9
    Wonderful roguelike thats very fast paced and has a great amount of content. Gunplay is some of the best I've played in a game.
  15. Jun 7, 2018
    9
    Nuclear Throne is a brilliant example of everything and anything that a top-down rogue-like shooter should strive to be and have. It's a game in which you play as one of many unique and different characters, each with their own special attributes and abilities and fight through all the enemies on any given floor. On each floor, you find new guns ammo and sometimes secrets.
    Your objective
    Nuclear Throne is a brilliant example of everything and anything that a top-down rogue-like shooter should strive to be and have. It's a game in which you play as one of many unique and different characters, each with their own special attributes and abilities and fight through all the enemies on any given floor. On each floor, you find new guns ammo and sometimes secrets.
    Your objective is to get as far as you can floor after floor, kill after kill, bullet after bullet. It's a very simple concept a mite more simple than other games that try and do this like Enter the Gungeon or Risk of Rain as they are a little more mechanically intensive than nuclear throne while this causes a slight lack of mechanical depth this is more than made up for in the simplistic fun the game offers. Everything from just shooting a new gun to destroying the nuclear throne itself feels good. out of the massive library of guns, you'll find not one doesn't feel good to shoot with and use. That's not to say that there aren't any bad guns as there are certainly some that are worse than others and others which are better. Which brings me to the next point of game balance.
    All of the game balance is done very well in terms of the player's arsenal as the way the game handles it is by giving the player some of the worse guns early on and holding the good stuff till later on, and when I say good stuff I mean Gatling rocket launchers and cluster nuke guns. While this is done very fairly, the game is a rogue-like and relies on replay-ability, while the guns early on are for the most part bad if you are lucky you could just come across a heavy crossbow and other weapons a cut above the cloth from the first level standard.
    In terms of the game's aesthetics, the pixel art is both wacky cool and imaginative with funny and unique art for the enemies and bosses. On the other hand due to the simplistic gameplay and the simple geometry of the rooms gameplay can get repetitive for some but I find that to be a factor more dependant on the player than it is the game.
    Overall I think nuclear throne is a fantastic example of what a good roguelike shooter should be like, fun gameplay fantastic replayability and an encouragement to keep playing to experience all the content.
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  16. May 29, 2018
    10
    Great game and an excellent innovative mechanics, the best and most addictive of the last years
  17. Feb 16, 2018
    7
    The issue with games like Nuclear Throne, Crypt of The Necrodancer, Enter the Gungeon, et cetera, is that it's one of those games where you get crazy good at the first handful of levels. With rather unforgiving gameplay, the sheer amount of **** it'll throw at you at random times, and lack of any form of retaining progress means you'll end up really liking seeing Desert and Sewer over andThe issue with games like Nuclear Throne, Crypt of The Necrodancer, Enter the Gungeon, et cetera, is that it's one of those games where you get crazy good at the first handful of levels. With rather unforgiving gameplay, the sheer amount of **** it'll throw at you at random times, and lack of any form of retaining progress means you'll end up really liking seeing Desert and Sewer over and over again, or make the time commit to become psychotically good.

    Case in point, I was having a awesome run, encountered a whole crap ton of enemies huddled around something I couldn't identify. I open fire, suddenly the unknown diamond thing explodes, lights up, and cut to the Nuclear police (???) beaming in and murdering me dead regardless of Halo. All of that took place over the course of about 2 seconds. Maybe the Rogue-like genre isn't for me? Though I don't quite grasp the mindset that enjoys potentially having a amazing run ended by the slightest mistake, which can very easily happen as early as level 2-1 with frogs things that explode and ninjas that can and will take out all of your health in 1 hit with practically no warning.

    It's good, it's fun, but like other games like it, the lack of literally any form of progress retention breaks it a bit for me, and at the time of writing, I'm really getting sick of seeing the desert because I didn't notice the one ninja in the cloud of enemies and bullets that took me from 12 HP to 0 in 1 hit.
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  18. Nov 16, 2017
    9
    This game is an amazing, responsive, and merciless roguelike ; the characters are very differents, and the mutations bring you so much differents gameplays, you could play this game for hours and hours without getting bored, I really think it deserves a 9/10, (no game is perfect)
  19. Feb 16, 2017
    6
    Seems like a fun game but can't really play it at 30fps, gives headache after 10 minutes. No dlc and loads of content, if you have no problem with 30fps I really recommend it.
  20. Sep 25, 2016
    6
    My first review was excessively harsh relative to the amount of time I spent on the game.
    It does not mean the game is accessible and will stay a source of frustration put aside and forgotten by most.
    And the ZERO support and communication from Vlambeer post release still puts me off to buy any more of their products in the future. When you express yourself so obnoxiously, don't expect
    My first review was excessively harsh relative to the amount of time I spent on the game.
    It does not mean the game is accessible and will stay a source of frustration put aside and forgotten by most.

    And the ZERO support and communication from Vlambeer post release still puts me off to buy any more of their products in the future. When you express yourself so obnoxiously, don't expect people to be nice with you afterwards and go pout in the corner because people were mean to you.
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  21. Sep 19, 2016
    10
    It's vury gewd sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good
  22. Jul 16, 2016
    7
    Vlambeer is one of my favorite indie developers for several reasons. I've seen the devs quite a bit in various videogame documentaries and so to some small extent I feel like I know them. A consist level of quality, along with their unique retro-style, can be found across their various titles. Its in the aesthetics that there games really shine, from the beautiful art to the superbVlambeer is one of my favorite indie developers for several reasons. I've seen the devs quite a bit in various videogame documentaries and so to some small extent I feel like I know them. A consist level of quality, along with their unique retro-style, can be found across their various titles. Its in the aesthetics that there games really shine, from the beautiful art to the superb sound design. Yet, as much as I like the studio for some reason I have yet to really fall in love with any of their games. This is not to say Nuclear Throne is bad by any means but there just isn't quite enough there to keep me coming back.

    So from what I understand this game takes place after a nuclear fallout and the mutated creatures that spawned from the event are competing with each other to be the best in order to eventually reach the illustrious heights of the Nuclear Throne. That is all the story you're getting because this game is clearly focused on gameplay. In Nuclear Throne you're simply dropped into a room where you have to kill all the enemies. Once thats done you're sucked into a warp hole where you'll teleport to the next level where you'll do the exact same thing. As you progress you'll be rewarded experience and every time you level up you'll get to choose between four random upgrades to aid you in the increasing challenging battles.

    As you can imagine, with such a simple concept there must be a variety in the means of which you clear these rooms. There is a handful playable characters each with a unique special power and passive trait. Thankfully, you'll find a good selection of weapons as you fighting for your life. There are five different ammo types including bullets, shells, bolts, etc which leads you find different kinds of machine guns, crossbows, shotguns, and so on. For the most part they all feel quite good and its easy to quickly find your preferences. This is an intense, fast-paced game, and you'll need to be able to adapt quickly as the enemies will be shooting right back at you. With the cross-hairs a fair distance from your character aiming can be quite a challenge in itself.

    Its the visuals and sound effects that really make this game worthwhile. The guns in this game sound like they really got some nice kick to them. All the playable characters and enemies look great. There is a lot of charm in the theme of this game. This is really important because the gameplay can get quite repetitive. Even though the maps are procedurally generated you're basically always stuck fighting in fairly cramped arenas. Every two or three levels you will face a different group of enemies but after you've played several times the battles tend to all feel pretty similar. That being said you'll always being on the edge of your seat trying to make every shot count while at the same time trying to avoid the onslaught of enemy fire.

    The fact is this is a simple shoot-em up. There is nothing wrong with that if thats what you're in to just don't expect much more. Since this is such a though game the hope is that you'll keep learning as play and just get a little bit farther after each attempt. Since this is a rogue-like once you die thats it, you have to start right at the beginning and there is nothing to carry over from one run to the next. This is a game the requires a lot of dedication for mastery. Although I personally don't have the patience to get really good I did have fun while playing this game. I would only recommend it to those who really think they're up for a challenge.
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  23. Jun 5, 2016
    7
    Nice Soundtrack.
    Nice Gameplay
    Difficult.
    A really big weapon chart.
    Bullet Hell.

    Well, I really love this game, It's addictive, and really fun, something I noticed about enemies is that they love to rise the game difficulty, that's something I really like about.
    -Fish Can Roll-
  24. Apr 10, 2016
    9
    Nuclear Throne is a super fun game in which I've sunk a wild, fast-paced, 12 hours ... but it's also super hard. Anyone that doesn't enjoy difficult games should turn away right now, but those of you (us) who enjoy a punishing rogue-like with massive explosions, and a variety of guns BUY NOW. Controls are super tight, though occasionally when trying to shoot in tight spaces you shootNuclear Throne is a super fun game in which I've sunk a wild, fast-paced, 12 hours ... but it's also super hard. Anyone that doesn't enjoy difficult games should turn away right now, but those of you (us) who enjoy a punishing rogue-like with massive explosions, and a variety of guns BUY NOW. Controls are super tight, though occasionally when trying to shoot in tight spaces you shoot the wall for a while (which can be kind of annoying). That's my only real gripe, and that occasionally the game lags when there is a lot happening on screen, but that's being very nit-picky. Blowing away/up a multitude of mutants is a pretty enjoyable endeavor. Expand
  25. Mar 7, 2016
    10
    Pretty damn great 8 - bit game that I really enjoyed.
    At first I didn't want to play it,it seemed boring and repetitive but than I actually played and HOLY CHICKEN was it good. It is super addictive and hell of a lot of fun , especially when you unlock a crazy gun blazing jacked scientist STEROIDS.
    So this game is just great I don't know what to add, you have to play this, it is amazing.
  26. Feb 25, 2016
    9
    Gran juego
    Es un juego muy rápido y muy entretenido al que echaras horas y horas sin darte cuenta y cada vez te engancharás más a el mismo ya que iras aprendiendo cosas,desbloqueando personajes,etc. E de decir que si encuentras este juego en rebajas deberías de comprarlo e incluso me atrevería a decir que merece bastante la pena comprarlo por su precio sin rebaja. A pesar de que los
    Gran juego
    Es un juego muy rápido y muy entretenido al que echaras horas y horas sin darte cuenta y cada vez te engancharás más a el mismo ya que iras aprendiendo cosas,desbloqueando personajes,etc. E de decir que si encuentras este juego en rebajas deberías de comprarlo e incluso me atrevería a decir que merece bastante la pena comprarlo por su precio sin rebaja. A pesar de que los gráficos no son gran cosa el juego no pretende tenerlos, es algo así como don't starve o borderlands,son juegos que tienes gráficos que ellos buscan tener,no buscan tener mejores gráficos ya que su juego se caracteriza por esos gráficos. La música es la bomba,no es una música que vaya a marcar un antes y un después en los videojuegos pero esta bastante bien. innovación tiene 4 estrellas ya que no es un juego como fue en su momento minecraft que ese juego es muy digno de tener las 5 estrellas pero este no lo considero ya que como diria mi profesor las 5 sería la perfección. A y se me olvidaba la jugabilidad tiene 4 estrellas ya que el juego es muy frenético y muy muy entretenido pero como dije las 5 son lo más perfecto posible. Espero que no moleste pero tengo algunos vídeos en mi canal que quizas te interesen a pesar de no ser análisis como el que he realizado aquí.
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  27. Feb 13, 2016
    10
    Claro, conciso y directo. Asi es uno de los mejores rogue-like que he jugado nunca, partidas cortas y un diseño bien medido con una curva de dificultad muy adictiva. Lo recomiendo totalmente.
  28. Jan 25, 2016
    10
    A Cathartic, Fast-Paced, Weighty, and Polished shooter, Bombarding the player with absolute anarchy, and yet, a strange meditative bliss, felt as one becomes lost in the anarchic rhythm of war, fingers jumping between keys as one bobs, weaves, and shoots, trying hard as they might to live for just one more level. The Sound design is incredible, every gun has its own distinct noise whichA Cathartic, Fast-Paced, Weighty, and Polished shooter, Bombarding the player with absolute anarchy, and yet, a strange meditative bliss, felt as one becomes lost in the anarchic rhythm of war, fingers jumping between keys as one bobs, weaves, and shoots, trying hard as they might to live for just one more level. The Sound design is incredible, every gun has its own distinct noise which feels natural and cathartic, aided by the screenshake which makes sure every gun feels powerful, and the combat feels satisfying and weighty. The Weapons start off slightly mundane, but later in the game, Weapons such as the “Grenade Shotgun” “Double Minigun” and “Ultra Plasma Cannon” reveal Vlambeer’s inner child. Each of the characters are adorably fun and have their own personality and identity provided in a simple character select screen rather than a professionally rendered, 30 minute long cutscene filled with droning exposition, as some AAA developers would do instead if they got their hands on Nuclear Throne. One character, the triangular, gangster-rapping prince of venus, YV, is an import from Vlambeer’s freeware spiritual successor to Doom, Gun Godz. Another, Aptly named Steroids, is a brawny man who can dual wield miniguns, is immediately given a softer side, when, in the select screen, is seen with spectacles reading a book.
    Though this is a new game, and it brings new tricks, it has old sensibilities, mainly, a focus on something many games have attempted to abandon to appear more professional, Fun. Vlambeer has created a raucous, roaring, rip-rollingly fun shooter that is not afraid to put on its party hat, raise its comically large ultra grenade minigun into the air, and have a goddamn party.
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  29. Jan 24, 2016
    9
    Nuclear Throne is an awesome game. It's fun, has a lot of content to unlock and is very challenging. The game is very challenging. It took me 20+ hours to make it to the end, so this game probably isn’t for you if you don’t like brutally hard games. Almost everything about this game is solid, the tight and responsive controls, the many unique enemies and guns, the awesome visuals (if youNuclear Throne is an awesome game. It's fun, has a lot of content to unlock and is very challenging. The game is very challenging. It took me 20+ hours to make it to the end, so this game probably isn’t for you if you don’t like brutally hard games. Almost everything about this game is solid, the tight and responsive controls, the many unique enemies and guns, the awesome visuals (if you like pixel art). There’s a lot of play-ability in this game and even a two player mode, making twelve dollars a great price for this on steam. Throw your money at Vlambeer and play this game! The game does have some weak aspects though, such it’s lack of character and mutation variety.
    The game has twelve different character to play with, each with their own abilities and perks. But your play style doesn’t usually change from character to character. You'll find yourself taking the same mutations, the same guns and ultimately playing games which don't differ to much from your past play through’s. Two characters are an exception to this, Melting and Rouge who change which perks you take and how the game operates, making playing with these two characters a unique experience. While the other characters are unique and well designed, you’ll fight enemies in more or less the same way, take the same guns and take the same mutations. The mutations (or perks) in this game are cool, but have a clear order in how you take them. Some mutations are always better than others.
    This lack of variety is the game’s main downfall in my eyes, but it’ll still keep you playing for a long time and is one of my favorite rouge-likes out there.I give this a 9/10. :D
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  30. Dec 31, 2015
    5
    Is fine but nothing exceptional. Is like The binding of isaac but more simple and more difficult, the characters are boring and the feel is similar. The secrets are impossible to discover by yourself, the game depend the internet to see more 50% of the game.
Metascore
89

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Dec 15, 2019
    100
    While Nuclear Throne might at first appear to be another difficult bullet-hell or punishing roguelike, a little practice quickly reveals a system that is meant to make the game accessible by a broad range of players. Thanks to the procedurally generated levels, weapon drops, and opponents, the game has virtually endless replay value and is an outstanding free game from Epic Games this week.
  2. Apr 8, 2016
    90
    It’s wonderful, evil, gorgeous, horrible, satisfying and merciless. You might hate its lack of checkpoints, or bad levels spawns that almost instantly kill you. It doesn’t care. Screw you. It hates you. But you’ll love it.
  3. CD-Action
    Mar 4, 2016
    80
    Vlambeer’s game is difficult, repetitive and ugly but it doesn’t stop it from being unbelievably addictive. [02/2016, p.64]