Nitro Kid review

Pastels, punching, and pistols converge in Nitro Kid’s 80’s-influenced deck-based battler. But you might wish the game’s balancing was as effective as the catchy synthwave soundtrack.

Wildboy Studios’ Nitro Kid doesn’t just flaunt the neon colors and synthesizer-driven rhythms routinely associated with eighties nostalgia. The PC game also captures the ambiance of the era’s hard “R” action films. The game’s premise is built around kidnapped children imprisoned across the floors of INFINITY megacorporation’s skyscraper. Each awaits experimentation with a synthetic component called “Nitro”, that might endow them with superhuman abilities.

You play as one of three heroes who will infiltrate the building, making their way through rooms of human and robotic guards in an attempt to rescue the eponymous Nitro Kids before they’re imperiled by depraved research.

“L33” is the game’s Bruce Lee clone, who uses kung fu as well as fire to attack enemies. “J4X” is your Balrog-style boxer, who tends to stand his ground with powerful melee strikes, automatic counters, and a wealth of health. Alternatively, “K31” is the game’s ranged protagonist; she’s adept with handguns and rifles and can move around as elegantly as Chow Yun Fat.

The gridded rooms and hallways inside the INFINITY Tower function as miniature chessboards. Wildboy Studios imagines these randomized arenas as excruciatingly small. Your selected protagonist will habitually be surrounded by multiple enemies and destroyable environmental objects, making navigation difficult. Much like Fights in Tight Spaces, confrontation is handled through a customizable deck of cards. Each turn you’ll be dealt a new hand, and you’ll choose cards to dispense damage, move around, as well as buff your character.

In execution, it’s like playing as a fight choreographer, directing the punches, kicks, pushes, and gunplay. When it’s your turn, you have a limited number of action points. In keeping with deckbuilding convention, each card carries a different point value, typically allowing up to three different behaviors.

Nitro Kid is most gratifying when you manage to shoot or punch a few foes, then dart over to the next space, as two goons inadvertently injure themselves. But since opponents can adjust the direction mid- turn, accomplishing this kind of showcase maneuver can be difficult. Too often, the title makes you decide between getting wedged on the borders of the battlefield or confronting opposition from multiple sides in the middle of things. Both situations are vexing.

The old random number generator means even the most meticulously curated deck won’t make you unassailable. Much like contemporaries like Slay the Spire, you are regularly dealt a crummy hand, forcing you to figure out how to minimize harm.

As you pursue the captive children and take down INFINITY’s henchmen, cautiousness becomes crucial since the health pools and damage output of opponents increases quickly. Likely, you’ll reach a point where a shortage of healing items and formidable antagonists will bring things to a discouraging and unceremonious halt. And yes, it’s frustrating to lose to math rather than a mistake.

My approach was to attempt to shield up as much as could at the beginning of each new room. But be aware that Nitro Kid’s punitive attitude outweighs the perks you’ll gradually earn.  Yes, you’ll gain patches after defeating elevated enemies that can contribute some helpful abilities. But the synergy of some patch combinations is woefully imbalanced. Some of my most successful runs could be attributed to upgraded patches rather than any type of battle tactic.

Across each run, you’ll be able to acquire plenty of new cards. Some like the zero-point ones can be especially helpful, providing a stat boost, or with K31- an ammo reload. On the upside, Nitro Kid supplies 250 of them, providing variety across subsequent replays. Pleasingly, these can be upgraded with currency earned by completing rooms quickly or randomly in the Choose Your Own Adventure-style dilemmas.

Thematically, Nitro Kid is uneven. The medium-res characters and environments as well as a stirring soundtrack undoubtedly channel 80s nostalgia. But two of the game’s characters are based on action heroes from different eras. Then there’s the issue of curse cards, which are built around different types of insects. Bugs are also present in some enemy attacks, but the game never explained their presence. Are they supposed to represent software “bugs”? I never knew.

Nitro Kid was engaging in short durations. But the more I played, the more I grew irked by balancing issues that occasionally brought sharp difficulty spikes or provided perks that made runs mundane. Nitro Kid isn’t a terrible playing experience, but the game could really use the assistance of a skilled hero from any era.

Nitro Kid was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.