Soooooooo....Nex Machina or Matterfall? Which one's better?
Nex Machina
This game was built for fast paced gameplay. You have these bite sized levels, one after the other. Each level takes a few seconds to about a minute to complete. Not only that, but there are secret levels as well.
You go around collecting humans to keep your Human Chain going. The higher the combo, the more points you'll score. The catch is, there's a timer from the moment you save the first human. This timer will constantly tick down and if it expires, you lose your combo and have to start over. Each time you save a human, the timer goes back to 100% and drains once again. If you pick up a secret human, the timer fills up to 100% BUT you have the added bonus of a few extra seconds before it starts to deplete.
There are 6 sub weapons to choose from. They are all different enough to have their own playstyle. Want long range? Choose the Powershot. Want up close and personal? Use Smartbomb.
You raise your multiplier by killing enemies or by finding MP tokens. The max lives you can have is 5 so after that, any other extra live tokens will turn into MP tokens. Another way to gain MP tokens is by having all 5 powerups because after that, each time you fill up a bar from killing enemies, they present you with a token.
You might finish a level with one score but someone might have a much higher score than you. Various things contribute to that, including the order of how you kill enemies or destroying some of the environment.
Scoring is deep and comparable to Resogun. Maybe even deeper.
There's also Arena mode. A set of challenges with different modifiers. You may have to play a level for 4 minutes and see how high of a score you can get. Or you can play a world with super speed. Housemarque has said they will be switching up Arena every season. We are currently in Season 1, but I feel 2 months since release is too long for a season.
There's also customization options from avatars, weapon bullet color, armor and helmet. You purchase thewe things from the coins you get from Arena.
There are also Feats aka in game achievements. They range from killing x number of enemies to beating a level on the highest difficulty.
4 difficulty levels. 5 if you want to count Hero which isn't playable unless you 1CC Master.
Matterfall
Side-scroller. Slower placed gameplay. I see alot of comparisons to Mighty No. 9.
Your most important move is the Dash. When you dash, you release a small burst that freezes enemies. Dashing also destroys enemy bullets. You also have your double jump.
You go around each level, killing enemies, finding caches aka purple matter, and finding humans, all which contribute to score. There are checkpoints which refill your health.
When it comes to scoring, you want to dash into enemies first to freeze them THEN kill 'em. This gives you more points. Raising your multiplier is a matter of just killing enemies. There are no MP tokens to find. When you find purple matter, it's best to kill all enemies before the checkpoint THEN go back to the matter to get more points from them.
Other things that contribute to scoring is how fast you beat a level. There are 3 medals you can get after a game: bronze, silver and gold. Good means you went the fastest and you'll get the most points from that. Another contributing factor is saving all humams.
There's also your Overcharge. When you kill enemies, they have a chance to drop health and blue orbs. These blue orbs fill up your Overcharge. When it's full, press the button and you'll get many points when killing as well as become invincible. It slows things down, too. This is best used when your multiplier is high.
Each difficulty has a max in terms of multiplier. I don't remember the max off the top of my head but for example, if you're playing on Veteran, the highest you might get is 15x. If you were to fill up the MP bar once more time, it will go into overdrive and you'll have 30x for a few moments. This is key for score chasing. Each time you get hit, it'll bring the MP down.
After 3 stages, you'll fight a boss. These bosses are tough and if you're going for the platinum, you'll have to beat them on Master difficulty, which only gives you 1 HP.
4 difficulty levels.
You have Augmentations and can equip 3 of them. They range from subweapons to passive abilities. You can equip a Seeker, which is a homing shot or you can have the ability to start with more health. 12 of these in total and they are unlocked by saving humans.
Because you can equip 3, you can mix and match to whatever suits you.
Nex Machina:
Fast paced
4 difficulty levels. 5 with Hero
6 Worlds with a boss fight after each. Bite sized levels means you're looking at more than 70+ rooms
Arena mode that introduces modifiers
Deep scoring system
200+ feats
Customization
Matterfall:
Slow paced
4 difficulty levels.
3 worlds. 3 main levels + boss fight. 12 levels in total
Augmentations to play how you want
Simple scoring, especially compared to Nex
Overall, Nex is the better package. Matterfall is fun but somewhat of a disappointment.
I wanted to get into the high score chase in Matterfall but there's nothing deep about it. There are no secret levels. Barely any humans to save AND they don't contribute to your multiplier. No MP tokens.
The movement isn't as smooth either. I've died countless times trying to double jump and dash. It hurts not having diagonal dashing.
Master difficulty is a disappointment as well. There are revenge bullets but only for certain enemies? Master is supposed to be a pain in the ass..and it is, don't get me wrong, but not on the same level as their past games.
Leaderboards are weird. Why does everyone have the same score on a boss fight? That doesn't help me want to score chase.
Do I regret my purchase? Of course not. I enjoyed it enough to get the platinum, lol. I love supporting them. There is fun to be had but once it's over, there's not much. If you want to go after the platinum, you'll have a tough time but if you beat the game and don't have any interest in high scores, you'll be disappointed.
I've heard people who disliked Nex but love Matterfall. It all depends on what type of gameplay you enjoy: fast or slow. If I had to give it some sort of review, Matterfall would get a 7/10.
