''N2O'', subtitled as ''Nitrous Oxide'' in North America, is a 1998

tube shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charact ...

for the

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, featuring a soundtrack composed by the American

electronic music Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromech ...

duo

The Crystal Method The Crystal Method is an American electronic music act formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, by Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland in the early 1990s. They were pioneers of the big beat genre and their music has appeared in numerous TV shows, films, video ga ...

. The soundtrack was heavily used to promote the game, and the music is stored in Red Book format meaning the game disc can be played as a music CD on an ordinary

CD player A CD player is an electronic device that plays audio compact discs, which are a digital optical disc data storage format. CD players were first sold to consumers in 1982. CDs typically contain recordings of audio material such as music or au ...

Plot

In the deep future, the Galaxy is at war. On planet

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 time ...

, 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.

Gameplay

''N2O'' is a

in which the player shoots insects while collecting " E" coins,

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is ...

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 Split screen may refer to: * Split screen (computing), dividing graphics into adjacent parts * Split screen (video production), the visible division of the screen * ''Split Screen'' (TV series), 1997–2001 * Split-Screen Level, a bug in the vid ...

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 Fox Interactive was an American video game publisher based in Los Angeles, California. The company published games based on 20th Century Fox properties, yet also published several original titles, such as '' Croc: Legend of the Gobbos''. History ...

wanted to sign a high profile techno band for the game's music.

Reception

The game received average reviews according to the

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website

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. ''

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'' 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 ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' 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 The Crystal Method is an American electronic music act formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, by Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland in the early 1990s. They were pioneers of the big beat genre and their music has appeared in numerous TV shows, films, video gam ...

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

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

s (especially those attached to

home theater Home cinema, also called home theaters or theater rooms, are home entertainment audio-visual systems that seek to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood using consumer electronics-grade video and audio equipment that is set up in a room ...

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 A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-dete ...

. ''

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'' said, "In the end, ''N20'' is definitely worth the price of admission, and is a great shooter for your library." The game shipped more than 100,000 units worldwide.

Ports and re-releases

In October 2003,

Zoo Digital Publishing Zushi Games was a British video game publisher. Based in Sheffield, Zushi is the owner of the multi-million-selling Premier Manager (series), ''Premier Manager'' series and best known for Alien Hominid. Zushi published titles for the Nintendo ...

purchased the rights to the game alongside other Gremlin Interactive titles from Atari and reissued the game in PAL regions under their "Zoo Classics" budget label at the end of the year. The company then released the title on the

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smar ...

in PAL regions on January 10, 2008, and by

Sony Computer Entertainment America Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...

in North America on June 1, 2010; and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

on August 13, 2013. Console Classics released the game under license of Urbanscan for Microsoft Windows via

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizat ...

on June 29, 2015, emulated through PCSXR. It was re-added to the platform via Pixel Games UK on 6 December 2022.https://store.steampowered.com/app/2200560/NO

Notes

References

External links

*{{MobyGames, id=/10050/n2o-nitrous-oxide/ 1998 soundtrack albums 1998 video games Cooperative video games The Crystal Method albums Fixed shooters Fox Interactive games Gremlin Interactive games Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation Network games Rail shooters Sony Interactive Entertainment games Video game soundtracks Video games about insects Video games developed in the United Kingdom