Nex Machina - Housemarque's latest arcade shooter (PC & PS4)

So, Nex Machina is out - the latest game from Housemarque, makers of Super Star Dust, Resogun, Dead Nation and such.

I actually didn’t know about this until I saw the launch trailer earlier today - and given the track record of the devs, I pulled the trigger and bought the Steam version (it’s also available on PS4) without looking up any reviews.

So far it’s been great fun. Doesn’t reinvent the genre, but the execution is superb. And as with Super Star Dust and Resogun, it’s very colorful and and features tons of explosions, projectiles and particle effects. Classic twin-stick shooter in the tradition of Smash TV and Robotron 2084 with small arenas through which you progress. Each arena features a few humans oughta be rescued for bonus points. Specific parts of the environment can be destroyed and reveal hidden power-ups or humans. I have yet to find one of the secret exists the score screen is taunting me with. The player character has a dash that works akin to the dodge roll in Enter the Gungeon. (Note: if you like EtG or Binding of Isaac, this one is for you as well - but it ain’t no roguelike with procedurally generated levels.)

Also has local coop, but I haven’t tried that one yet.

Worth noting for those who don’t watch the trailer: it’s by Housemarque and Robotron 2084 and Smash TV creator Eugene Jarvis. This isn’t just another twin-stick shooter to scroll past in the Steam list.

Yeah, I might have to own this.

I wish I had bought this instead of Enter the Gungeon, which I found to be rather boring.

I feel ya man, I barely played that one.

This one looks great though. VERY tempted right now.

Smash TV you say? I loved that game as a kid.

That’s what is likely gonna sell me on this one. Looooved Smash TV.

Is this the dev team that did Dead Nation?

If so then hell yes I am in!

Procedural generated rogue like anything is always disappointing to me, so I agree. No tweak to the formula has ever transcended the limitations of procedural generated… boredom.

This looks pretty good. It appears to be a bunch of little rooms you have to clear without getting hit, with shmup patterns and such.

If you need some inspiration, here’s a one credit clear on Veteran by Vanquish God Hard speedrunner Zaarock:

Spoilers in the video thumbnail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KSXY2ynNRw

Looks insane at that skill level

You should never, ever scroll past a Housemarque game.

This does look interesting.

I’m kind of split on Housemarque. I thought Super Stardust HD was ok, Dead Nation wasn’t good, and eventually I loved Resogun. So they have a mixed record with me.

Oh, and I finally played Smash TV in 2007. I didn’t care for it. Same with dual stick shooters like Assault Heroes 1 and 2 on XBLA, which this game kind of reminds me of.

Matterfall, their next game, looks really good. But this one, … is probably not for me. I miss the days of demos. Ever since they published that one article on Gamasutra showing that releasing a demo actually seems to hurt game sales, it seems like everyone in the games industry got the message.

I must be missing something, because I’m not getting the hook for this. It’s just an extended sequence of arcade rooms. Am I missing some cool scoring gimmick? Some way the powerups are supposed to work? Some sort of progression? Why does the default difficulty level have 99 continues? How long does Nex Machina think I’m going to be playing?

I love Resogun, especially as I learned more about how it worked. I can’t tell if there’s any of that depth here, so it just seems like a step backwards into rote traditional shmuppery.

-Tom

Sadly it won’t run for me. I keep getting something called an “assertion failure.” It’s so weird. I launched it, BOTH of my monitors blinked, and then the game crashed. Installed new drivers, rebooted, got to the main menu, but when I try to launch the into the game itself, another assertion failure. Not the best first impression.

Your computer isn’t assertive enough. :(

-Tom

You can watch the video I linked above to see that there’s scoring and an opportunity for a one credit clear, though if you consider that to be rote traditional shmuppery then maybe you won’t be interested.

I’m curious how the support weapons work.

Those are supposed to be selling points? That’s there scoring? And that you can try to beat it without using any continues? I’m not trying to be obtuse here, but how is that different from literally every shmup I’ve ever played?

Support weapons, though, are news to me. I didn’t see any when I was playing. And furthermore, there’s nothing on the controls to imply there’s anything other than a single weapon at any given time.

-Tom

Well, it’s shmup sensibilities in a twin-stick shooter package. The pre-defined patterns (rather than random globs of enemies) provide an opportunity to learn the arenas and work out a strategy as you continue to play. There are also bonus items to pick up and secret ones to find. This seems more interesting than scoring in a standard twin-stick shooter where it’s mostly just surviving endless waves. I would never bother with scoring in a game like that.

I also like how it incorporates the tiny punishment of instant reloads in short sequences, like Super Meat Boy or Hotline Miami. And it has a dash move with invincibility frames. Dodging through attacks is always fun.

I’m still excited about the audio-visual impact of a good shoot 'em up. This one looks pretty good.

If you watch the video he’s using some sort of cooldown power. I didn’t see this in a stream I was watching. One froze enemies, one was a melee weapon, one I saw on a stream just now was a rocket attack.

This review talks about secondary weapons.