Mars Matrix Difficulty

[jpolz]

Am I the only one who finds Mars Matrix stupid hard?

I usually pretty decent at manic shmups, but for some reason this one just makes me its bitch.....everytime.

[Arvandor]

It's got an odd learning curve. It starts out totally overwhelming, but once you start to figure out how/when to use your shield, the game becomes easier and easier. Once you start REALLY learning where to shield, some of the bosses become jokes that you don't have to even really fight at all. You'll find yourself going from "how is this even possible" to "how is this even challenging" with little grey area inbetween =P Or at least that's what happened to me. Something just "clicked" I guess and the game became my bitch.

[Rob]

The challenge is in the score system. And that part in the middle of stage 4 with all of the bullets.

[shoe-sama]

Large emphasis on memorization. Once that's taken care of, it isn't too bad.

[Arvandor]

The hardest part about the scoring system is chaining chapter 3 properly. The rest isn't too bad, really.

That part in stage 4 also isn't so bad once you get it down. You just have to dodge along the bottom, then up along the side before shielding through (using a VERY small amount of shield), and making your way back, all the way back along the bottom, and up the other side. After one or two of those, you can just use up all of your shield, and then the big lines will spawn in, and you can just touhou move a little to the side dodge until they thin out (which is cake), and then the boss is here! =P

[JBC]

I didn't find it terribly hard on DC. The only thing i did find pretty irking was how much it costs to unlock everything. Still, that was when i could pick up a new shmup and blaze through a 1cc in less than a week. Takes me months now for some reason

[Arvandor]

You're getting old, Circuitface -_^

If I devoted myself to one shooter for enough during a week, I could probably 1cc it. Hell, just playing an hour or so of Mushi maniac mode each day, after a week I can 1cc up to chapter 5 on a mediocre run. It still takes me a month or two to 1cc anything in the long run though =/ Dunno what it is. I guess as I get close to 1ccing something, any good run gets my blood pumping enough that I usually have to take a break and play something easy and mindless like a hack 'n' slash or something, so I end up not putting as much time into any given shooter as I get closer to the 1cc, which kills progress.

[BulletMagnet]

Another thing that's been mentioned from time to time before is the fact that you pretty much must learn to score (which is hard, since a small mess-up can set you back a ways) just in order to survive, since your weapon strength depends on how well you can chain. Granted, it's a bit more forgiving in this regard than RSG, since you'll always have the mosquito barrier and piercing gun as backups, but regardless, weak weapons make things a good deal more difficult, and the game is overall pretty tough as it is.

[Arvandor]

*shrugs* You can half-assedly play for score, and if you have a level 7 gun by the time you get to the final chapter (which is really easy to do), you'll be fine =/ RSG is truly brutal when it comes to needing to play for score to survive.

[Rob]

The hardest part about the scoring system is chaining chapter 3 properly. The rest isn't too bad, really.

Chapter 3 is the freebie* stage! Of course a minor screwup can ruin the game because of it, but the real hard ones are stage 2 and stage 4 (and probably 6, pattern?).

*meaning the amount of effort/skill required for exp is much lower.

[louisg]

I dunno, stage 3 kind of helps you catch up in exp. Then again, I can't get past the st4 phoenix boss anymore!

[HeLGeN-X]

I agree that Mars Matrix is probably one of the hardest shmup games, but since I don't give it enough play as most newer shooters like Mushi and Espgaluda, I maybe can do pretty good it. I can get to stage 3 without dying, but pretty much from there on it gets much too insane, and not on some curtain shit, but on some next level shit.

[FRO]

Am I the only one who finds Mars Matrix stupid hard?.

Nope, I'm with you on this one all the way.

[Hilden]

I found it difficult until I really learned how the relect shot/shield system worked. Once I got the reflect thing working, the game really opened up and getting the ship up to level 4 on the first board wasn't that tough at all.

I also found that learning how to use the A button only, while seemingly a tougher thing to do, actually made things easier. Once I got used to it, it made encorporating the shield into play much more intuitive.

[99pence]

Brilliant game, I love that there's no ridiculous rank.

While I'm not that great at it I would say that the only really unfair bit in the game is the final boss, the 1st bit but especially the flower bit where you have to reflect bullets and then weave up from the bottom. The bullets are waaaay too fast and it is waaaay too hard. Why, do they make these games so unnecessarily difficult.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Brilliant game, I love that there's no ridiculous rank.

While I'm not that great at it I would say that the only really unfair bit in the game is the final boss, the 1st bit but especially the flower bit where you have to reflect bullets and then weave up from the bottom. The bullets are waaaay too fast and it is waaaay too hard. Why, do they make these games so unnecessarily difficult.

For 99pence,

We have to thank Takumi for their trademarked "scatter-bullet" spray patterns -- they're masters at crafting their bullet patterns... ^_~

Ever try to 1CC a Taito G-Card or PSX shmup session of Night Raid? Me neither...and yet, Night Raid still has that cool scatter-fire bullet patterns to play around with besides Mars Matrix..... ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[professor ganson]

I believe I made it to stage 3 on one credit once. This game kicks my ass.