Nuka-Cola is a fictional brand of soft drink from the Fallout computer game series. In Fallout’s anachronistic, 1950s-inspired setting, Nuka-Cola is a clear parody of the Coca-Cola Company. The soda brand, much like its real-life counterpart, functions as a symbol of Western capitalism in the struggle between American ideals and Red Communism. In the post-nuclear apocalyptic environment of the Fallout franchise, Nuka-Cola products and advertisements scattered throughout the irradiated wasteland help illustrate the level of influence “Nuclear Mania” had on American society in the pre-war years. The player can occasionally see billboards displaying Rosie the Riveter enjoying an ice cold Nuka-Cola while she performs her patriotic duty assembling nuclear weapons for Uncle Sam.
Nuka-cola is a highly addictive product, and it’s possible for the player to develop an Addiction characteristic if they consume too much during the course of gameplay. Furthermore, most of the bottles that you scavenge from the wasteland are lightly irradiated, and consuming them will build up the PC’s radiation count for every tasty cola that he drinks. Fallout 3 introduced Nuka-Cola Quantum, a rare version of the classic soda that had been spliced with radioactive isotopes to give the product an attractive glow. In-game text reveals the negative side effects of Nuka-Cola Quantum, ranging from making the drinker’s urine glow to giving him cancer. Despite the health concerns, Nuka-Cola can be useful for the non-drinker since their bottle caps are used as currency among the survivors of the nuclear holocaust.
(BrevityQuest09 Word Count: 244 – the standard atomic weight of plutonium)