From the Armory: Nerf Vortex Nitron

ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL RIIIIII, ZOH MY GOD THAT THING IS HUGE!!!!!

That’s what I thought when I saw a mate of mine roll into Nerf with one ot those things in his arms. This is the biggest Nerf Vortex gun, one of the most intimidating things Nerf ever made. The Nitron. This is the Vortex answer to the darling of young Nerfers, the Stampede.

Now if you follow European car culture, you may be familiar with the new rivalry between McLaren with the MP4-12C and Ferrari with the 458 Italia. Mclaren claims, and seems to be right, that in almost every measurable way, the MC4-12C (really Mclaren? Will you just give the thing a NAME already!) It is superior to the 458. It would seem to be the same when you compare the Nitron with the Stampede. At least initially.

For a start, the stock Stampede makes use of an 18 round clip magazine, while the Nitron makes use of a 20 round clip magazine. The Nitron also follows the Vortex tradition of heavy construction and garish green paint. It also trounces the Stampede at range as well. The Nitron will launch the disks out to 40 ft. and beyond, while the Stampede is limited by a health and safety air restrictor to around 20-30 ft., on a good shot. So its sounding good right? Its better built than a Stampede, it shoots further than a Stampede, and has a larger magazine than the Stampede. So what’s there not to love.

Well, this is where I seem to branch off from the Nerfer community as a whole, because of the Nitron’s powerplant. Like the Barricade and Mech Tommies, it’s another flywheel gun. I have always had issues with flywheel guns because they eat batteries like Doritos and are about as loud as a rocket ship. I honestly feel like there are better ways to achieve fully automatic fire. Now if you are a Top Gear head, you might think I sound like one Jeremy Clarkson the first time he drove a car with a “flappy paddle gearbox,” he thought it was rubbish. That’s how I feel about flywheel systems.

“But aha!” I hear you cry, “Clarkson warmed up to those systems, particularly when Volkswagen released its double-clutch DSG gearbox, so we just have to wait for the technology to mature.” And I’ll go along with that. The modern systems that Nerf and Airzone are using are much more efficient, with greater launching power, than the flies in my first flywheel gun, the old Mech Tommy 20, but its still not the system for me. For one thing, I do indoor, urban Nerfing, where we are simulating various scenarios from hostage rescue to zombie apocalypse. So when I’m being chased down by brain hungry zombies, I really couldn’t give a care about how loud my gun is. But when I’m sneaking about with my squad trying a surprise attack on an entrenched position, I don’t need to give our position away when I’m about to engage by a big “Wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” sound. And if I keep it off until right when we’re about to attack, and we suddenly come under fire, I can’t lay down suppressive fire for a crucial several seconds, enough time for my entire squad to be mowed down while I’m waiting for my wheels to start turning. And considering that full auto weapons are choice for suppressive fire support, it kind of kills the point, rather than the enemy (rimshot).

Nerf has made an attempt to remedy this problem by adding a second trigger attached to a pressure switch which turns on the motor. Its attached to the rear grip, operated by the middle finger. So basically squeezing the trigger hand will cause the thing to start cycling. This is ergonomically a better system because it makes the motor easy to turn on when you need it quickly, so you don’t have to run the motor all the time which saves batteries and is quieter. But it still hasn’t solved the problem, as it still takes at least a second for the motors to spin up, so it really doesn’t have quick fire capabilities, essential when you need to cover and escape. It’s a minor tactical weakness, but not the gun’s biggest problem.

The problem is the rate of fire. Its not bad, but you would get more by cycling a Raider or Alpha-Trooper manually, or by using a Stampede. It manages, with the freshest of batteries about 120 rounds a minute, which sounds like a lot, but its not compared to a Stampede at 180 rounds a minute, or an old Rapid Fire 20 which will roll with 240 or more rounds a minute.

Now some will say that the immense range makes up for it, and I have been standing 40 or so feet away from one of these things being fired at me flat, and in about five seconds the hall was filled with a hail or disks coming at me, but if you want something accurate, why buy a massive fully automatic twenty round machine gun? A Protron or Praxis would serve the roll much better and are more versatile and mobile. I just don’t see the point of this gun as a stock weapon.

So to sum up, the Nitron is the BIG brother of the Vortex range, a massive rapid fire weapon which has good range and magazine size, but is let down by its rate of fire. Due to the rate of fire issues and its massive size, the Nitron rates 3 our of 5 disks.