MAME ROW #112- Mars Matrix: Hyper Solid Shooting

thelostsoul

You can't argue or discuss with me, I vote for Mars Matrix!
This game can be seen as an indirect successor to Giga Wing, one of the best modern bullet hell shmups with a complex scoring system. So hopefully I can participate this time. Bionic Commando on the other hand is a more well known and older title. I never played a BC game before and this could be a good opportunity. Watching the videos, I don't think this game will be fun for highscore plays, plus the NES version seems to be superior game mechanics wise, so I can skip this one. Argus looks (and sounds) like typical old shmups from this era. Can't talk about its qualities, I would prefer Mars Matrix in this case. ;-)

celly

I have to agree with @thelostsoul, Mars Matrix hands down.

pjft

I can't argue with Mars Matrix, it's a great game! Bionic Command is a classic but the NES version is indeed the (much) superior game.

VictimRLSH

@pjft Agree. After playing the NES version, the arcade one becomes pretty pointless and boring.

IanDaemon

@celly Mars Matrix is quite good. It's actually not as hard as other danmaku games, but somehow lacks some of the charm of those games too with its rather "blah" space backgrounds. (In my limited experience, maybe it gets better background-wise.)

Lyle_JP

Wow. Three really solid games to choose from this week!

obsidianspider

This week's winner is Mars Matrix: Hyper Solid Shooting

0_1542801105761_Screen Shot 2018-11-21 at 6.46.13 AM.png

thelostsoul

The stage is set, the green flag.
Let the carnage begin!

AndersHP

This is an excellent game! ...but it's not because of the music XD

pjft

First shots fired. Not a great score at all, I believe - I think I had passed the first level in the past - but it will hopefully motivate others to share more. :)

15,145,900 it is. First level, I believe I lost at the first level boss.

Best of luck everyone!

pjft

Actually, another addenda, as I had been struggling with the mosquito and bomb mechanics, coming from DoDonPachi and even Giga Wing. I just read this in a FAQ (just the basics, didn't read more as I find it kind of defeats the joy of discovering the actual game) and wanted to share:

NORMAL SHOT VS. PIERCING CANNON

Typical of the sober and purely functional outer set up of the game, it
has assigned all weapons to just one button. So here you have it, the
chief among shooters, and all you need is one joystick and one fire
button. Tapping the A-button will enable normal shooting. Normal shot has
an unlimited range and for this reason is the main weapon to use in
attack. As you gain levels the shot will get more powerful and spreads
out a little.

Interrupted tapping (with minimal a one-second interval) will enable the
piercing cannon. It works sort of the other way around as in DonPachi.
The piercing cannon is a powerful short-range attack that equals about 10
single shots, depending on how close you are to the enemy. The closer you
are, the more damage it will do. Use it for big crafts to save time on
the kill. It is absolutely essential to know when to use which type of
weapon, especially when dealing with gold mines. More about that later.

CAPTURE BULLETS

Pushing the A-button and holding it for at least a quarter to half a
second, will bring out the 'Mosquito'. It is sort of a black hole that
surrounds your ship and sucks in bullets. It is very useful if you want
to pass through a wall of enemy fire, because you will be invulnerable
when it is activated. The GHB meter will slowly drain and the Mosquito
ends when the meter is finished, or when you release the A-button. An
essential aspect of this function is that you will be invulnerable for
exactly one second after you have released the A-button. So you can
release the Mosquito even if you are only half way through a curtain of
bullets, and do the rest on invulnerability, while the meter is
reloading. When the meter is reloading you will be vulnerable, without a
last means of saving yourself, for at least another 1 second or more
until the GHB meter is full again. The reaction time of the Mosquito is
not good enough for a split second rescue, because the Mosquito just
takes more than a split second to activate. It requires anticipation if
you want to rely on it. A good way to get a feel of the Mosquito and the
refill time is to try to pass a few stages without shooting. You do not
get points for sucking in bullets.

REFLECTING

There is another aspect to the Mosquito that makes it very valuable as
well. If you release the Mosquito before the meter is empty, the bullets
inside the Gravity Barrier will spin off and form gold cubes wherever
they hit steel. The direction in which the bullets fly off is a resultant
of the centrifugal force of the rotation of the barrier and that caused
by the movement of your ship. You can actually see the bullets trace
along the barrier when you move your ship. To reflect bullets to your
right, you have to move to the left first, before you release the
Mosquito. The move to the left will make the bullets trail to the right
of the barrier, from which point they will shoot off once they are
released. This function feels very natural and responds well. Always try
to reflect bullets in a direction where they will encounter some
artillery or other objects, and to a place where the cubes can be
gathered without too much difficulty. Reflecting does not give any points
other than the damage done to the enemies that are hit by the reflected
bullets.

GRINDER

The grinder is a term for a weapon functionality that is related to the
Mosquito bullet capture. The gravity barrier will do damage to any
opponent it touches. In most cases it is not strong enough for an
immediate kill, but slowly grinds down your opponent. However, small
enemies can be taken down by it almost immediately, which can help a lot
in keeping an xp chain alive while you are in Mosquito-mode. Big enemies
can't be destroyed by it, but since you can't use normal shot or the
cannon in Mosquito-mode, you can use it to do some modest damage in the
meanwhile.

GRAVITY HOLE BOMB

Holding down the A-button for 3 seconds until the GHB meter is completely
drained will result in a gravitational explosion which will destroy
pretty much every visible enemy and all bullets, giving you some space to
breathe again. Experienced players will hardly use the GHB. Instead they
reflect just a fraction before the GHB kicks in. If you have captured
enough bullets this will do even more damage, and more importantly, yield
a lot of gold.

thelostsoul

@pjft Thanks for this how to play, it will come in handy when i play more. What I am most impressed is, that it needs only a single button. Some may not like the overloading buttons and want a single purpose button. It is weekend now. :-)

obsidianspider

The "one button for everything" definitely takes some getting used to, and I'm still not able to get past the first boss, but it's been fun figuring things out. One thing I noticed is that it seems like you don't die/take damage from touching enemies themselves, only their projectiles. Once I figured that out it helped quite a bit as I didn't have to avoid as much.

22,696,500 for now

pjft

@obsidianspider Well done, great to see you picking it up as well :)

I took some more stabs at it today and the scoring system still baffles me a bit, as well as the mosquito power. It’s not natural to me that killing bad guys does not add to the score but only what you pick up, as well as the fact that the power cannot be immediately triggered when you’re in a bind.

I still lost the same place where I died the other day (beginning of level 2), but this time around I got 68,317,120. I think those very large golden cubes are the ones that make the difference.

obsidianspider

MAME ROW #113 is now live

thelostsoul

I hope there is still time. Had to solve some problems here and wasn't very motivated to play anything.
Got 2'9109'2310
If someone still want play it, then lets do.

Use the shield to collect bullets and try to hit enemy with it. If they die from this counter attack, they split into many of those gold collectibles.
Second advice, try to collect as many of those gold. I think they will raise the score multiplier for killing enemies.

pjft

@thelostsoul Oh, wow, congratulations!

I'm off this week, traveling for work, but I'll try to submit a new score next week if I have the chance :)

Well played! :)

thelostsoul

@pjft Thanks, I was a bit surprised myself imagine a Pikachu suprise meme here.
Good idea, we still can play after the "official" competition is over. I think this wouldn't hurt anyone.

pjft

@thelostsoul Deal!

Hope all is well with you. :) I'll get back to you next week. For context, what stage did you make it to?

thelostsoul

@pjft The score is from stage 2 early phase. I make progress, 3'5... now. ;-)

I think the key is to counter enemies with that block thing (release the block early, before it explodes). If you hold the button and collect bullets, then you can release it to shoot enemies. It will shoot in opposite direction of where you fly. That creates a lot of collectible gold. This is highly risky, but rewarding too. Edit: And thank you, everything fine here now.