Where to get it

Steam

1998 · Gremlin Interactive · Racing · Shooter

N2O: Nitrous Oxide

PlayStation console exclusive

Somewhere deep in the future our Galaxy is at war. On the nearby planet of Neptune, forces of evil have initiated their new plans to invade the Earth. By accelerating sub-atomic particles around a tubular shaped circuit known as The Torus, they are developing a race of Super Warriors. Together with advanced genetic engineering, this central birthing canal is capable of producing an army of lethal genetically mutated insects.

Released: 30 June 1998
Platforms: PlayStation Windows
Genres: Racing Shooter Tube shooter
Developers: Gremlin Interactive Urbanscan
Publishers: Gremlin Graphics Fox Interactive
Modes: Single-player
Themes: Action
Country: United Kingdom
Age ratings: ESRB T
Languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese

About

N2O, subtitled as Nitrous Oxide in North America, is a 1998 tube shooter video game developed and published by Gremlin Interactive for the PlayStation. Fox Interactive released the game in North America. The soundtrack, composed by the American electronic music duo The Crystal Method, was heavily used to promote the game; the music is stored in Red Book format, meaning the game disc can be played as a music CD on an ordinary CD player.

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

N2O is a tube shooter in which the player shoots insects while collecting "E" coins, mushroom shields, and other psychedelically-themed weapon power-ups. As more insects are shot, the game increases speed. Players can collect more points by killing enemies in certain ways (such as shooting centipedes in the head) and by shooting the coins which appear when an enemy is killed to increase its value. Coins can be used to purchase shields, firewall powerups, and points at the end of each level. Besides the single player mode, N2O features a cooperative multiplayer mode with a shared screen or a split screen.

Story

In the deep future, the Galaxy is at war. On planet Neptune, forces of evil in a tubular shaped circuit known as "The Torus" are creating gigantic mutated insects with the intent to invade and destroy Earth. Nitrous Oxide is a by-product of the insects incubation, and also serves as a high-octane fuel for the player's Tunnel Runner ship. The Tunnel Runner must eradicate the rapidly mutating insects before they become strong enough to invade Earth.

Development

Producer Peter Dalton said that "We set out to create a game where the gameplay was simple on one level but completely absorbing and addictive on another."

The soundtrack was not added until the end of development, since publisher Fox Interactive wanted to sign a high profile techno band for the game's music.

Reception

The game received average reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. Next Generation said, "shooter fans who thrive on the ability to top their last high score time and time again won't be disappointed by this high energy blast-a-thon." The New York Times praised N2O for its aesthetics and smoothly seamless but fast-paced gameplay. They said that the game is similar in presentation to a Crystal Method concert and that the game is best played at high volume and in total darkness to maximize the audiovisual experience, and further remarked that the superior audio capacities of televisions (especially those attached to home theater systems) over typical computer systems is one of the advantages to restricting the game to the console market and not releasing it as a PC game. GamePro said, "In the end, N20 [sic] is definitely worth the price of admission, and is a great shooter for your library."

The game shipped more than 100,000 units worldwide.