Overview – developed and published by Andrew Connelly under the Intimidation Crab brand, Nuclear Lizard Island Rampage is a first person Kaiju destruction adventure. As the big bad Nuclear Lizard, take on the evil company that has been destroying the beauty of your islands, destroying their buildings, bases and eating their workers caught in the destruction. This title is exclusively available on PC through the Steam service, with a link to the game at the bottom of this review.
Disclaimer: before I get into the review, I would like to thank Intimidation Crab for providing the copy of Nuclear Lizard Island Rampage that was used for this piece. The provision of this software has not influenced the contents of this review, all thoughts and opinions contained within are my own. Please note, images used are from the official steam page and may not match the final product.
Now with the introductions out of the way, let’s get into the review. There is no detailed story to the game, so I will be skipping this segment and go straight into the gameplay, with some plot details mixed into the breakdown.
Gameplay – This title is a first person destruction adventure, with the player taking control of the titular Nuclear Lizard. As the force of nature, you have discovered that the islands you call home have been industrialised. Enraged by this, the Kaiju will go on a rampage across the islands, destroying all they have built. The goal of this adventure is to wipe out the unwelcomed presence on the islands, destroying everything and squashing or eating the personnel.
At the start of the game, the island is rather small, with a few buildings and people on the island. Emerging from the ocean, the player will be able to start the rampage immediately. The Kaiju has a few simple to use abilities to help destroy the interlopers. The main one is the punch, which will deal damage to the structures, vehicles and crush the people wandering around. Then there is the grab, which will let players pick up objects and people.
When picking up items, like explosive barrels, boxes and more, the player can throw them at structures and military vehicles. The damage that is caused by the object used varies, with items like barrels doing more damage, compared to boxes and broken vehicles. Players can also pick up the workers and wandering sheep on the island, which can be thrown to turn them into a red mist. But they can also be eaten will be very useful during each of the islands.
As the Kaiju is on its rampage, the defense force of the islands will try to take the Nuclear Lizard. There will be soldiers with guns, mounted cannons and military vehicles that will attack when the player gets near them. The attacks will do various amounts of damage, with the smaller weapons taking a little away but cannons will take away a lot. To recover lost health, the Kaiju can eat the people and sheep that are picked up, recovering lost health to keep them alive.
All of the islands have a main objective and a side objective, with the primary mission needing to be completed to progress. The big objective is to destroy all of the buildings on each island, with the target number in the top left corner of the screen. On the opposite side of the screen is the workers eaten counter, which will start off low and increase as each target is met. When the main challenge is cleared, the player will be able to go to the next island.
Between islands, the player will be able to increase their abilities using upgrade points. These points are earned by completing the goals for eating the workers, with each goal achieved providing a point. The areas that can be included are health, damage, speed and health recovery. As the player makes their way through the chain of islands, the dangers will increase. These include bigger military vehicles, electrified fences and even bun boats.
The further the player gets, the more challenging the different areas will become. The Scale of the islands will also increase. They start off small with a single island per stage, becoming larger and more complex with some of them consisting of multiple islands. There is a total of 9 areas for players to cause chaos on, with may make the game feel rather short, but there is a lot of replay potential. It needs some polish, but there is plenty of fun to be had.
Now with the gameplay covered, it is time to move onto the other aspects of this release, starting with the controls.
Controls – as this title is in a first person perspective, this game uses the standard FPS controls with mouse and keyboard support. The general movement and action is solid, flowing well while rampaging through the islands and destroying structures. All of the inputs are reactive, with no issues with lag or input delay when using the standard controls. There are optional controller inputs, but sadly their use cause some unintended side effects at this moment.
Difficulty – when starting the game, there is little in terms of difficulty as the first island eases the player into the chaos. However, as the player gets further into the game, the challenge will increase as the opposition forces on the islands increase. This is where the upgrade system will come in handy, as making sure to get enough points early can ease the some challenges. If the player does struggle on some stages, they can replay earlier stages to earn additional upgrade points.
Presentation – there is a low poly style to this game, with the vibrant color of the environments giving a retro feel to the overall experience. The game also features a pretty good physics engine, which is used for the destruction of buildings and vehicles. The sound for this release has a minimalist feel to it, working well in tandem with the graphical presentation. All of these elements come together perfectly creating an experience that feels like it is straight from the PlayStation era. (Update – The music has been fixed with a fast paced soundtrack)
Final Thoughts – when the developer for this reached out to me, I was excited to jump into it and cause some chaos. After getting to grips with the first version of the game, I was happy with the overall experience. But during my time with it, many improvements have been made, adding new features and mechanics. The changes made with each new update improved the game further, introducing additional features and refining the gameplay.
There are some minor flaws to the experience that need to be ironed out, but this is a fun and chaotic time for a low cost of admission. I am more than happy to recommend this release, as it is perfect for those looking for a chaotic and destructive time. The overall experience has a look and feel right out of the 90s, with low poly visuals that would have been right at home on the original PlayStation. A little refinement and this will be perfect Kaiju destruction title.
In the end, I give Nuclear Lizard Island Adventure a final score of 4/5. This is a fun Kaiju action title, with a fun gameplay loop, chaotic destruction mechanics and a retro visual style that gives the game a classic feel, it is easy to pick up but can be hard to put down. If you want to check this title out for yourself, a link to the game will be below.
Link to Steam version (HERE)
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