Last updated on September 12th, 2025 at 07:45 pm
Nucleus™
Step into the gaming world with Nucleus™, one of the top $0.99 games in the App Store! Crafted with creativity and innovation by Pangea Software, Inc., this captivating Action game is bound to grab your attention. With its content rating of 4+, it caters to a wide audience. Ever since its release on 7th January 2012, it has been constantly updated, with the latest version rolled out on 8th July 2022.
Whether you have a liking for Action, Entertainment, or Casual games, Nucleus™ is sure to keep you hooked!
User Ratings
Join the crowd of 7 gamers who have given their verdict on Nucleus™.
Ready to take on the adventure? Get Nucleus™ now from the APP STORE.
Dive into Nucleus™
Nucleus is an action packed arcade game with classic roots. You fly a spaceship around while blowing up space debris. There are tons of cool weapons powerups which give you lasers, heat seeking bullets, shields, etc. The goal of the game is to build Atoms by collecting Electrons and taking them to the Nucleus.
What’s Fresh in the Latest Update?
Discover what’s new in the recent update of Nucleus™ on 8th July 2022:
Now supports 120hz refresh rates on newer iPhones.
Hear from the Players – Nucleus™ Reviews
Find out what gamers are saying about Nucleus™:
We put about 4 hours in your game. Many things we do like about it… Good soundtrack, nice visuals and the explosions look out of this world but… The way the control is set up ( we are using a steelsires game pad ) and its way way to hard. So hard in fact that it kills the fun and we want to delete the game. There is no way Im alone in our opinion. If theres a change in difficulty or power ups to shoot faster perhaps… Your score will be higher by a large margin. This game needs to be more polished. Most of the 6 reviews are complaining of same issues… Control and difficulty. BRADBRO.
Really well done asteroids type game.
We love this one in HD on the new Apple TV!
Especially fun with our Stratus controller. Great sound effects, nice graphics, excellent pace.
Really fun game! Interesting take on Asteroids. Great graphics and sound effects, and the music is epic and atmospheric for such a simple game. Controls work well, but there is a learning curve with steering the ship. If you are a fan of Asteroids, try this game!
Not too hot not too cold but just right.
Good graphics, good controls, bad gameplay 4/10 stars. Has good potential. Should be a bit more, shoot phase.. Add phase so on.
Controls aren’t bad. The ship is supposed to float. You can’t stop on a dime in space.
Nucleus, it’s Asteroids meets the Periodic Table of Elements, and it’s a whole lot of fun.
This is an awesome game! You really should get it… IF you can get it! We can’t download the app! We mean, we know it’s an awesome game, because we’ve played it on a PC before. But we just want the app on our iPod! Still, it might be the issue with WiFi we’re having.
This really could be a great game, but as many have said, the controls are pretty difficult. We personally find the game also very very hard, and we can barely, if ever, make it past lithium. Some difficulty options would be nice!
Yet another great game from Pangea. Nucleus reminds us of a cross between the classic Asteroids and Sinistar arcade games. The controls feel tight (to me), though at times we wish we had smaller thumbs:-) The gameplay is classic Pangea, which means it’s pretty challenging. And the graphics are very good. Grab it — you’ll have fun!
Really fun, great graphics. Our only request is PLEASE add support for iCade and/or iControlPad! :)
Great game but we’re not liking the controls. Wish they had button like old asteroids game.
This is a good old-school retro-visitation skinned with new-world sensibilities. The game’s apocalyptic score is rounds out the entire gaming experience wonderfully. Our only complaint (and resultant docking of a single star for this review) is that even though we have maxed our iPad 2’s brightness, the smaller, remnant asteroids that spew forth after we clip its larger incarnation are harder to pick up against the dark, space background. In fact, each time our ship was destroyed, we were surprised because we didn’t see the smaller object either headed our way or hidden when we went to pick up a power-up/"score box". We hope the devs can fix this quickly in the game’s next iteration.
Pangea Software is a good developer, however this app although beautiful with great particle effects has issues with its controls. They are difficult to use and as a result do not provide enjoyable gameplay on an iPad. And on a minor note the first level is quite dark. As a result your ship and the asteroids are challenging to see. In contrast Meteor Blitz a game we’ve played on numerous iPhones over many years (which we and our kids still thoroughly enjoy) is along the same type of game play but much easier to control and see and as a result more fun to play A suggestion would be to have the ability to modify or change some of the control surfaces position and sensitivity. Over all we would like this game more if it were easier to control and to be able to see what we’re doing. We will most likely keep it on the shelf and hope for updates to refine the GUI. A solid 2.5 stars.
We LOVE this game on the desktop and have been waiting to see it for the iPad. Unfortunately, the controls on the iPad version are complete crap making the game nearly unplayable. You can do better Pangea. (Will gladly update to 5 stars when the controls are fixed!) One more request Can you PLEASE port your classic game, Apeiron, to the iPad. We miss this old friend.
Our title sums it up. But here’s the list: The controls here would be difficult for someone with child-sized fingers to master, but it’s almost impossible if you have adult-sized fingers which. This is a problem for us and we can imagine a large precentage of users experiencing the same problem. The devs need to take a look at some successful dual-stick shooters such as Meteor Blitz, Isotope, and Critical Wave. The controls here work but are just not enjoyable to play with. No options. Basically, you can change the volume of the action or turn of the music. There is no Music app music option, No way to customize the lackluster controls, and no way to customize the view. Why would you want to customize the view? Keep reading! Everything is too tiny. Maybe the graphics are great, maybe they are horrible. It’s difficult ot say because the camera is pulled back so far that your ship is practically the size of a pin-head. Letters in the HUD were flickering on our device. Death and explosions seemed a tad jerky. We’re not sure if these issues are both due to lag or not. The flickering letters may be a visual design choice. For reference, we’re using a 3rd Gen 32GB device with the latest firmware (as of 2/1/12). So in closing, the controls MUST be fixed before this game will be successful. An option to increase/decrease the zoom ingame would allow for less eyestrain without permanantly sacrificing the situational awareness of a wider view. Also, we think a game of this time would benefit greatly from in-game iPod music.
Very fun. Bet it’s great on iPad. But control are terrible. No ability to customize them. Fix that and 5 stars easy.
We know, how dare we criticize anything retro but enough is enough! We likes this game much better when it was called Space Miner with awesome graphics, good story and… Oh yea, FUN! We grew up playing Atari, Sega, NES, etc and those consoles and their games were a ton of fun back in the day but it’s 2012 people, shouldn’t we demand more from our developers?!? We want to enjoy our retina display with as little pixelation as possible and the best graphics someone can develop… This game does have a couple of redeeming qualities (hence the three stars) but we’re sick of seeing so many crap games (i.e. Super Crate Box)… It’s not so much about reminiscing about a more innocent time in our youths as it is about lazy developers cashing in on that nostalgia. Almost 5 stars?!? Really???
Or is it "Nintendo Hard"? It looks pretty, fun and simple concept, but the controls are infuriating!!! We hit an asteroid because it was hidden behind the HUD until right before we hit it!!! The controls require you to move slightly in the direction you want to shoot, meaning you can easily slam into you’re target if un careful. Why are the controls more threatening than the asteroids? This should really be either "dual stick" or more like the original asteroids, and have you rotate with keys. Very frustrating as it is now.
Decent. Controls are crappy and the fire button decides not to work sometimes which is just awesome…