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If you like twin stick shooters or retro arcade games please give Nex Machina a chance

Dr_Salt

Banned
nexmachinabanner.jpg

I'm a big fan of Smash TV and Total Carnage but somehow Nex Machina flew under my radar. When I found out Eugene Jarvis, the arcade game legend behind games like Defender, Robotron 2084 and Smash TV worked along Housemarque on Nex Machina I knew I had to play it.

I am pretty blown away on how good this game is. Its a true spiritual sequel to those oldschool arcade twin stick shooters. The shooting, bullethell and movement all feel incredibly fine tuned. The soundtrack is also incredible and it has some pretty cool particle effects.



Sadly the game did not sell well despite getting stellar reviews. It ultimately caused Housemarque to state that they were done with arcade style shooters which makes me even more sad.
Nex_Hero_Poster_small.png


Right now the game is 5 bucks on steam. If you enjoy the twin stick genre or bullet hell games you owe yourself to play this masterpiece.
 
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Kuranghi

Member
Yeah, great game, and a steal even at £14.99 in terms of tightness of gameplay and visual design.

I was also sad about that news but I also think Returnal looks like it could be great too! Its still kinda "twin stick"... in the same way all 3rd person games are twin stick lol
 

GHG

Member
Such an amazing game.

It's a shame it didn't do well enough for Housemarque to keep making games like this.
 
it's awesome. I really enjoyed past Housemarque arcade action. They're technical achievements in visual style, frantic action and tight controls. The studio reminded me of old Konami and Treasure.

Btw, Resogun is a modern take on Defender, by Jarvis too. It was my favorite game on Atari 2600 and this remake was the best thing of early PS4...
 

JSoup

Banned
I mentioned this in a different thread, but for the price it's an amazing OST and it even came with an equally amazing game as a free bonus.
 

Nixonomics

Member
Absolutely phenomenal game and entirely worth $5.00. Easily one of my favorite games of all time. As Dr_Salt Dr_Salt said, if you have any interest in arcade games you owe it to yourself to give it a try.
 
I liked it so much I actually gave it two chances, got the digital version when it came out and later on the limited physical edition from LRG so I can keep it forever :messenger_grinning:. Awesome fast paced game.
 

Quixz

Member
nexmachinabanner.jpg

I'm a big fan of Smash TV and Total Carnage but somehow Nex Machina flew under my radar. When I found out Eugene Jarvis, the arcade game legend behind games like Defender, Robotron 2084 and Smash TV worked along Housemarque on Nex Machina I knew I had to play it.

I am pretty blown away on how good this game is. Its a true spiritual sequel to those oldschool arcade twin stick shooters. The shooting, bullethell and movement all feel incredibly fine tuned. The soundtrack is also incredible and it has some pretty cool particle effects.



Sadly the game did not sell well despite getting stellar reviews. It ultimately caused Housemarque to state that they were done with arcade style shooters which makes me even more sad.
Nex_Hero_Poster_small.png


Right now the game is 5 bucks on steam. If you enjoy the twin stick genre or bullet hell games you owe yourself to play this masterpiece.


As per your recommendation, I've just bought it for the PS4 - £3.19
 

Dr_Salt

Banned
it's awesome. I really enjoyed past Housemarque arcade action. They're technical achievements in visual style, frantic action and tight controls. The studio reminded me of old Konami and Treasure.

Btw, Resogun is a modern take on Defender, by Jarvis too. It was my favorite game on Atari 2600 and this remake was the best thing of early PS4...

I wish I could play it but I only have a PC.

As per your recommendation, I've just bought it for the PS4 - £3.19

You won't regret it.
 
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Mobilemofo

Member
𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚢𝚘𝚞. 𝚒𝚖𝚖𝚊 𝚙𝚒𝚌𝚔 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚙 𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝. 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚘𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚒𝚌𝚔 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚙. 𝚋𝚒𝚐 𝚏𝚊𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚚𝚞𝚎 𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗. 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚘𝚐𝚞𝚗 𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚢 𝚏𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚐𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕.
 
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godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
I wish I could play this game, but I only have an Xbox and Switch. The lack of consideration of many indie devs with the X1 makes the PS5 more alluring.
 

Grinchy

Banned
It's really great but most players will have to put some time in to really learn the systems properly. Highly recommended.
 

Agent X

Member
Nex Machina is a fantastic game. It's one of the best pure action games of the last seven years, from a developer that has has repeatedly set a very high bar for these types of games.

I liked it so much on PS4 that I even bought a physical copy from Limited Run Games (still sealed).

Op you should add the PS4 version too.
It's actually cheaper than the Steam version for me right now.
3.99€ on the german store right now.

It's $4.99 on the PS Store in the US, for about another week.


Btw, Resogun is a modern take on Defender, by Jarvis too. It was my favorite game on Atari 2600 and this remake was the best thing of early PS4...

Resogun is also a superb game by Housemarque, but I don't believe Eugene Jarvis was involved with it. (Unless you're saying that Defender was by Jarvis.)

If you still have your Atari 2600, and you liked Defender, then dust it off and track down a copy of Stargate (also known as Defender II) for the 2600. It's a surprisingly faithful conversion of the arcade game.

I also mentioned in this post in another thread here recently that someone is currently developing an impressive version of Robotron 2084 for the 2600.
 
Totally recommended. As is all of Housemarque's portfolio.

I recall being excited to learn of a new Housemarque game, then even more excited that they were collaborating with Eugene Jarvis.

The end result exceeded all expectations. And it's also a masterclass in art design. The pace of the game and how well it communicates things to the player through colour usage, visual motifs and audio cues is second to none.
 

Agent X

Member
Totally recommended. As is all of Housemarque's portfolio.

I recall being excited to learn of a new Housemarque game, then even more excited that they were collaborating with Eugene Jarvis.

The end result exceeded all expectations. And it's also a masterclass in art design. The pace of the game and how well it communicates things to the player through colour usage, visual motifs and audio cues is second to none.

I completely agree. Housemarque games have exemplary audio work. It's not just the awesome music, but as you pointed out, the audio cues which are key to identifying off-screen events. A lot of Housemarque games use audio as an integral gameplay element. Come to think of it, Eugene Jarvis did that with many of his games, too. This tradition goes all the way back to the original Defender, where you would hear a humanoid's cry for help, glance at your scanner, and then take off to make the rescue.

Speaking of Housemarque's portfolio, it looks like everything that they've been involved with on PS4 is currently on sale right now. Aside from Nex Machina ($3.39), other games on sale include Resogun ($4.94; also cross-buy with PS3 & PS Vita), Super Stardust Ultra ($4.93), Dead Nation ($5.99), Alienation ($4.99), and Matterfall ($6.99).
 
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