STGT 2010: Mars Matrix thoughts

[Aquas]

I didn't play the game that much this week, but I feel like I probably would've enjoyed it had I played more. Was playing some Futari instead, oops. Some crazy scores, good stuff. What you think?

[Aru-san]

Would've improved my score a little further if it weren't for Mr. Badnusty

[VorpalEdge]

Terrible-quality graphics, lame sound (not only is the music crappy but I really really hate the sfx when you pick up a gold cube worth more than 1), hitbox in the wrong place, cramped screen, and a terrible exponential scoring system topped off by a variable chain timer that exists only to make chaining less intuitive.

I don't ever want to play this game again.

[Rob]

hitbox in the wrong place,

It's inside of the ship.

Exponential scoring systems are great, just not if you're new to it and forcing yourself to play it for a week. It rewards you more as improvements get harder to make.

[njiska]

Loved:
- No enemy colisions
- Bullet reflection
- Adaptive patters
- Power of the Piercing shot

Torn on:
- Medal chaining. It's more fair than your normal chain game and less fair than your normal medal game.
- Leveling up. Neat concept, but I never get to take advantage of it because i never touch the main shot.
- Awkward hit box. It's not centered like you'd expect so it takes a lot of getting used to.

Hated:
- Too many gratuitously big numbers. scores skyrocket at insane rates
- One buttons controls. Nice in theory, but i couldn't get the piercing shot's timing right. I also really didn't care for the many, many accidental uses of the bullet reflector that i had
- Ugly graphics. Looks like a hacked together doujin.
- Rob. Mr. Xoxak massively over hyped this. You said "Go play Mars Matrix" one too many times

[Sasupoika]

Much better than Xexex or Cyvern.
MUCH BETTER.

Also, goddamnit Sikraiken.

[Rob]

You said "Go play Mars Matrix" one too many times

Never heard of it.

[SFKhoa]

Mars Matrix is my ♥

[spineshark]

This is the ugliest game of all time. I absolutely can't play more than 2-3 credits in a row.

[Bananamatic]

Not being a fan of chaining, gave up after 3 credits

decent if you don't play for score, unfortunately that is the goal of STGT

[Battletoad]

I first thought, not bad choice, but my chaining quite sucks (for having played it 50+ hours already before STGT). So I´m a little surprised that I´m almost in the top 10. Even more surprised that I reached the last boss, back then I was stuck on the stage 4 boss. Finding/getting easier strategies for some parts really helped. Anyway it´s a great game. The score system is hardcore, but somehow I like it even though it kicks my ass. The Mosquito is just brilliant. Getting used to all the finer controls (tap reflects etc.) takes some time, but sure is fun. Probably not the best choice for one week, but I personally was happy about it.

I know I did say the graphics suck, but having another look at the Dreamcast artwork gallery remembered me how much I like most of the boss and enemy designs as well as the look of your ship (and how it grows) and the cubes. But most of the backgrounds are just ugly. The soundtrack too.

It´s one of those games that´s far better on the home port. So I´ll never play the Arcade version again. Gallery, unlockable extras, Arrange Mode, awesome FMV intro... I don´t wanna miss that.

[BBH]

pig disgusting

[dpful]

I love this game. Beautiful graphics. EXELENT music. Amazing gameplay. INTENSE game. I've never had a game get me in a clench like this-- maybe chaining on dodo pachi doj.

Cons: really takes a long time to master the gameplay (shield).
Score really does jump around a lot.

Pros: it takes a long time to master the gameplay, and gets more fun the more you do. Trying to do a good job on this game is just a true rush every time.

[Kyper]

I feel like I wasted 19+ hours practicing optimal chains when I could've just played for survival and get to stage 5 for exp. I had fun doing it though.

[Battletoad]

It´s one of those games that´s far better on the home port. So I´ll never play the Arcade version again. Gallery, unlockable extras, Arrange Mode, awesome FMV intro... I don´t wanna miss that.

Forgot the most obvious and important thing: better controls.

[Jockel]

Couldn't practice very much, as i worked 60 hours this week D:

[Rob]

Forgot the most obvious and important thing: better controls.

Having a button for each command makes the game feel too normal.

[Skykid]

I loved it until I started playing for score.

Frustrated me so much in the first couple of hours I couldn't go back to it for the rest of the week.

[clp]

Yeh good game never really played it much but always enjoyed it , im just not a chain person infact if mars matrix had the giga wing scoring system it would probably be played alot more by me .

[shadowbringer]

another week where I don't score well, yay!

crossposting for laziness

ARGH. Mars Matrix is difficult to learn, even if you've played Giga Wing before. You're constantly at risk of losing your chain because the small cubes won't raise the chain meter more than a small limit, and must follow some difficult to memorize and learn routes, and also to memorize the enemy attacks and boss attacks. Either I died because of misremembering them, or restarted due to breaking my chain. Not to mention dying because I tried to keep my chain, or not getting the time to start a charge, or to release before it becomes a bomb, or not being able to send the bullets to an enemy which can turn them into cubes.. this game doesn't reward consistency (I mean, even if you do play well after breaking a large chain, you more likely won't compensate for that one mistake), or I didn't like the game. Why must the chains be so strict (even stricter than MoF, since the chain meter is smaller in MM, when not picking larger cubes)? Why must the first stages be so frustrating and unrewarding (I felt the same way with Eden's Aegis, in that putting much effort in stage 1 turned out to not be a good idea)? Why must the charge phase be so small, causing me to use bombs when I don't want to?

Anyways, congratulations for your efforts, and I can understand that there may be reasons why people like this game. I'm really disappointed with myself, as there were three games in a row (all of them, so far) where I didn't score well, and all of them involved intense memorization (with Cyvern being an exception, where the most difficult parts were the boss milking)

Torn on:
- Medal chaining. It's more fair than your normal chain game and less fair than your normal medal game.

agreed on both cases, I also agree that the game may become fun once you get used to it, but it has a painful barrier to entry before that.. it made such a notable difference in the score table. Also, the more things to memorize, the greater the distractions, and the more strict the gameplay feels

[cul]

Hard to get into, but once you start to get used to the mosquito thing, holy potatoes yes yes yes. It's now in my "gotta one credit it" list.

Overall this STGT made me discover shmups I wouldn't have played before.

[Kollision]

With the exception of the few frames of lag, Mars Matrix was an excellent choice. Yeah, graphics ain't the coolest around, nor is the music (albeit it grows on you - I hated it before and now I love it), but oh boy....... It is an intense, steep and rewarding shooting experience.

For all the haters, all I have to say is that forcefully playing a game for a week isn't the best way to get to know it. And this is especially true with Mars Matrix.

I wish Takumi was still active these days.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Because i sucked so bad at playing in the beginning I didnt like it but once i started to get used to how it plays it grew on me. I didnt get to play it last week nearlly as much as i of liked, so im gonna continue playing it. Will be playng more for suvival instead of trying for stage perfect chaining.

worse thing i hated is trying to get timing right of the cannon, making the DC version the best version to play in my book

I liked / hated the fact that the game is vertizontal and that quickly destroyed enemies are replaced making the tactic of quickly moving from the left to the right of the screen destroying baddies quickly before they get a chance to spam the screen full of bullets so much harder. Plus collecting cubes makes it much easyer to get swamped with bullets which is a good ballance of risk and reward.

[Matsunaga]

I loved every second of it, I'm surprised this game isn't more popular. I'm going to keep playing, a week wasn't enough time.

[CptRansom]

I was happy that the one STG I'm even remotely decent at was picked. ^_^

Also,

goddamnit Sikraiken.

[Herr Schatten]

At first I wasn't particularly happy that Mars Matrix got chosen. I had always dismissed it as a more complicated take on the Giga Wing formula, which I'm not too fond of either. To my own surprise, I soon found myself reluctantly enjoying it. Turned out that making the reflecting and the medaling more strict actually added to the fun rather than subtracted from it. Who'd have guessed that?

However, knowing that one little mistake early on could trash your whole run led to countless frustrated restarts. The input lag didn't help either. I often died or overused the shield because of it. I think i don't even have to mention that visuals and audio are pure garbage.

I'm actually thinking of getting the Dreamcast version now. Playing this game with good controls sounds like fun.

[Acid King]

I liked it though I couldn't get my stage 2 magic back so I had to settle for shorter chains in stage 2 and 3 but I improved on my old stage 1 chain. I liked playing it with one button. It's not as precise as having dedicated buttons but it does force you to think about how you're firing instead of just letting you hold down a fire button the whole time.

[Shatterhand]

What really kills Mars Matrix to me is its chaining, which manages to ask more precision from the player than the likes of Dodonpachi... I find it very frustrating and annoying.

And like RSG, you can't ignore chaining because if affects your firepower.

To be quite honest, the score system with the level design makes for lots of genious moments in every level, and the game is very adrenalin indulcing... like Rob said, maybe if you dedicate a large amount of time with the game, it will feel more enjoyable, but for a week play, it's too damn frustrating.

So, I can see why people would love MM.. I am not a fan of chaining score, but I can see how well the game is made around its score system.

I also think the 1 button system is brilliant, and indeed makes it feel diferent.

Gigawing looks pretty good and have some nice music... why Mars Matrix has to look and sound so horrible?

Night Raid, at least on the PS1, also looks like shit, and it's also an awesome game (Which seems to be very underrated).

After playing Mars Matrix a little bit more this week, I came to respect Takumi a little more. It seems all their shmups are pretty good.

[BulletMagnet]

A neat game in several ways that others have already expounded on, but the initial learning curve is HUGELY steep - figuring out how to chain while weaving between bullets and learning where you most need the barrier is tough enough, but adding "Silvergun syndrome" to the equation and tying weapon strength to score makes that initial hump absolutely brutal.

In the game's defense I honestly didn't mind the graphics or sound all that much - I was just happy that I was able to see the bullets so easily.

[ROBOTRON]

I'm not a huge fan of bullet hell games but MM is ona of my exceptions...I enjoy it quite a bit. Trizeal I don't like as much and Chaos is another one. The gundemonium collection has some nice aspects to it...like I said there are exceptions.