Atari User


Nuclear Nick

Author: Bob Chappell
Publisher: Americana
Machine: Atari 400/800/600XL/800XL/130XE

 
Published in Atari User #16

Nuclear Nick

Surprise, surpise, Nuclear Nick is yet another platform game. Nothing wrong with that provided the game challenges and entertains - and this one certainly does.

You control Nick, the usual running, jumping bimbo, whose job it is to whizz around various platforms grabbing the goodies and blitzing the baddies.

The basic villains of the piece are patrolling roly-poly robots whose very touch spells lights out for our hero. Although Nick has no weapons, he can strike back by eating what appear to be - I hope you're ready for this - radioactive hamburgers!

Nuclear Nick

I say appear because US Gold sent no instructions with my review copy. But given the title, the flashing of said burgers, the fact that Nick immediately starts to pulsate and glow after feeding his face, and the dire consequences for the robots, it seems a fair deduction.

That being so, the game deserves to win the equivalent of the Jules Rimet trophy for daffy plots, not to mention the matter of questionable taste (no pun intended).

Gobbling down a jumboburger gives Nick several seconds worth of radioactive indigestion, enabling him to neutralise as many robots as he can reach before his digestive system returns to normal. Once victorious, Nick can progress to the next screen.

Nuclear Nick

Further points can be amassed by gathering up small suspended bricks (nuclear waste, antacid tablets?) along the way. Nick has five lives and 20 screens to cross, each tougher than the last.

While the robots and burgers are always the same in appearance if not quantity, each screen has a different configuration of platforms.

The graphics are crisp and attractive and, though there is no music, sound effects are generous and, I think, appropriate (have you ever swallowed a radioactive burger?).

The game is simple to get into, while the difficulty of the screens range from taking candy from a baby to expletive deleted.

Despite its dubious scenario and unsuitable content, Nuclear Nick is a pretty good platform game. And at the cheapo asking price, it's a genuine bargain.

Bob Chappell

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