Life can be exciting for a firefighter, especially when you are exploring a seemingly abandoned nuclear power plant to find the source of the current fire you are putting out, only to find out that it actually houses a terrible unknown creature….and little kittens!

Deepnight Games’ Nuclear Blaze is an old skool 8-bit pixel adventure game where you play as a cute little firefighter making your way through a nuclear power plant to figure out what caused this sudden forest fire, and also what the plant actually houses. As a firefighter, you will obviously be putting out the various fires around the plant and stopping them from spreading to further areas. You have nothing but a hose and your wits as you make your way around the various rooms in the creepy foreboding plant. 

It’s unclear at first why this power plant is abandoned but as you explore you start to find notes about a creature that is contained there (future boss fight??) As you find out more you learn that there are things other than fire here that you will have to battle. You are also accompanied by creepy alien type music throughout the whole game. The music gets more intense as the fire intensifies too.    

You start out basic with just a hose that can only shoot straight ahead, but eventually you can get upgrades for it that allow you to shoot at different angles and even when holding onto a ladder. If you are not quick enough, the fires will spread right back to where you just extinguished them. Also, some areas will have a timer counting down to a part exploding unless it is extinguished in time. Finding buttons and valves will allow you to open up sprinklers to help you keep the fires out so you can escape to the next room.

And Kittens! You have to save the kittens! Why are there kittens in this random creepy nuclear power plant no one knows, but who cares! Save them by collecting them and then bringing them to open pipes in the walls that are throughout the building. Most of the kittens are in hidden spots so you have to search for them! There are 14 altogether and you can find them in multiple playthroughs. And don’t worry! The kittens cannot be hurt or killed by the fire, they just escape back to their hiding place if you die.   

How difficult you want to make the game is up to you. You can make Nuclear Blaze insanely hard or stupidly easy by changing how many hits you can take before you die to things like how often water refills show up and how fast the fire spreads. There is also a “kid” version where your goal is to save the kittens! You  just have to move and hit shift because the water will not run out and the little dude will go where he is supposed to go! Nuclear Blaze is pretty quick, I beat it in only a couple hours, so you can try different playthroughs at different difficulties.

Overall I thought Nuclear Blaze was very fun and very challenging even on easy mode. The atmosphere and eerie music give the game a bit of a thriller feel, especially since there is so much unknown about the facility you are in! And kittens! Who doesn’t want to save kittens? I give it 4 ½ outta 5 baby dragons.  

If this game strikes a fire in you, you can get it today on Steam https://store.steampowered.com/app/1662480/Nuclear_Blaze/ for $9.99. Save those kitties!!