mars matrix difficulty level

[sjewkestheloon]

ok i'm just curious as to what everyone thinks about this. i'd always played this as a multi credit maximum lives blastathon with a mate. going back to it now as a single-player with the factory settings is, however, giving me a hell of a lot of grief. in fact i'm having trouble getting to the level 2 boss. i think basically i've learnt all of the patterns on the left side of the screen and let whoever take care of the other, causing endless silly deaths etc.

so has anyone here ever managed to 1cc it? it seems a real challenge, and nigh-on impossible to be honest at this stage.

plus i get distracted by trying to collect too many shinny cubes.....

[Ex_Mosquito]

Mars Matrix is one of the best shooters on the DC, actually it's probably one of my all-time fav shooters ever, WAY under-rated on these boards. And was the shooter that got me back into playing games. and the first proper shooter I 1CC.

Learning how to chain is a must to power-up your firepower, otherwise things get pretty hard to manage. The beauty of mars is that theres no one way to chain, its totally down to the players creativity how they do it.

Remeber, bigger the Exp cube the more time you have to get the next.

Here's an old replay i did a few years ago, may be of help regarding chaining.

(Ignore the end, i fucked it up. There was no need to use the GHB at that point, but the TV-Card i was using used to crash every 5mins and freeze my comp and i didnt want to lose the replay with a silly mistake at the end)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.steve ... 3chain.avi

[TWITCHDOCTOR]

When I first got the game I would "adjust" the difficulty...shortly afterwards, I figured this was the "wussy/loser" way out. I play the game with default everything, except for button layout. Now, I even feel that using auto piercing cannon is cheating!!!
I've been to the last stage more than a few times, its just that the last boss has a few patterns that always seemed to get the best of me.
So yea, its possible with lots of dedicated playtime, and I've come very close to 1CCing it.

I always played a little better when using the blue ship.

[The Bullet Dodger]

going back to it now as a single-player with the factory settings is, however, giving me a hell of a lot of grief. in fact i'm having trouble getting to the level 2 boss. i think basically i've learnt all of the patterns on the left side of the screen and let whoever take care of the other, causing endless silly deaths etc.

plus i get distracted by trying to collect too many shinny cubes.....

Yeah, it's hard to survive in MM with everything going on at the same time. You shouldn't pay any attention to those golden cubes. Focus on dodging and you'll scoop them up without even knowing it. And always remember to hold down the single shot button to use your bullet absorbing bomb thingy. It really helps. I use it quite alot in that game, especially in really hairy situations.

[sjewkestheloon]

*watches replay*

and i was happy when i managed to chain a plus 270 lol

i think my problem has been not enough practise and not moving into the screen enough. i've got to master the timing of the invincibility after using the shield too. i tend to linger slightly too long and get killed when i shouldn't.

read your strat btw and it's very informative and interesting

[Diabollokus]

mars matrix is a tough gem of a game, Its hard to survive but I find the best way to get good is use of the black hole bomb.

tap the button for 1 second max to bring the shields up don't hold it down, you want the guage to refill as fast as possible if you keep that strategy of moving from left to right vice versa with 1 sec bursts of shield you should live alot longer let the bullets come to you, then dive through em into the safe side of screen, I really only use piercing cannon but watch the in game replays and you can learn alot from them, 1st 2 stages aren't that hard to 1 life 3rd boss is tough though!

[freddiebamboo]

Mars Matrix is just unbelievably hard

I played it solid for about 3 months a while back and only ever made it to the stage 4. You really need to get your route through the levels down and master that bloody shield thing.

I think there is a strat on the boards here (or maybe it's from the last board) that really opens your eyes to the mechanics of the game, but it is an absolute torrid time mastering the later levels.

[professor ganson]

OK, I REALLY suck at this game. So much so that I gave up on it for quite a time. I only just returned to it after picking up an arcade stick. Somehow this stick has helped a bit. I think it has to do with having one giant button to do all three actions: normal shot/pierce cannon/deflector-bomb-thingy. In fact, I would say I'm actually somewhat happy with this game which previously caused nothing but frustration.