Sheffield_DG
3 reviews liked by Sheffield_DG
Mars Matrix
2000
Go play Mars Matrix
A game for circus clowns with good music taste. While some of the characters / concepts explored don’t always stick the landing, the ones that do deserve 10’s across the board.
The music sends the character writing over the top- and the main character’s spunk is shockingly charming. No story beats come off as time-wasters, which is important as it’s going to be the driving force that makes you want to overcome a bit of jumbled platforming.
The backtracking can feel a bit tedious, but the music and atmosphere never make retreading those steps feel too daunting, as clunky as those steps can feel.
Themes like setting personal boundaries and sticking up for yourself and others, ‘belonging’, how to comfort those you love- simple themes become wrapped in a fantastical lens and served to the player to navigate without feeling like an overly-patronizing Saturday morning cartoon.
More impressive than fun, but exploding with character.
S/O to the English translation team.
The music sends the character writing over the top- and the main character’s spunk is shockingly charming. No story beats come off as time-wasters, which is important as it’s going to be the driving force that makes you want to overcome a bit of jumbled platforming.
The backtracking can feel a bit tedious, but the music and atmosphere never make retreading those steps feel too daunting, as clunky as those steps can feel.
Themes like setting personal boundaries and sticking up for yourself and others, ‘belonging’, how to comfort those you love- simple themes become wrapped in a fantastical lens and served to the player to navigate without feeling like an overly-patronizing Saturday morning cartoon.
More impressive than fun, but exploding with character.
S/O to the English translation team.
One of the most misunderstood Saturn racers. The drifting mechanic is difficult to master- but pulling off the perfect line feels incredible.
There’s a modded version of this game which adds the Eurobeat OST, but loops a single song per stage about each minute. Luckily, there’s a volume mixer that allows you to turn the in-game volume down. I’ll usually grind out courses to the full OST on YouTube.
The balancing act of acceleration, hand brake, and e-brake buttons give you such a deep level of control over your car that it can be understandable why the game gets labeled as ‘jank’- but sticking with the challenge and learning to feel the drift gives a racing experience like no other. The point system adds replayability beyond grinding down your course time- challenging the player to release the drift king that exists within their hearts.
The downsides of the game are largely downsides of the platform the game is built on- limited disc space makes it so that the baked-in OST’s loops are short and can become annoying. Additionally- there are only 4 separate courses to choose from which can feel underwhelming at first glance. That being said our main character Takumi only raced the same road for 4 years… you should feel lucky.
Another issue is the nature of practicing drifting/turns. Because each course is modeled after a real-world road, and each of these roads don’t loop around, practicing specific turns can be difficult as you’ll only encounter each turn once for each time you load up the course.
The flip side of this is that progression is locked behind improving your driving technique, rather than memorizing the course. Experimenting and getting a ‘feel’ for the driving and drifting mechanics is much more important since it’s take you 2/3x as long if you rely on memorisation since you’ll be encountering the same corner 2/3x less during a play session.
Overall, I haven’t played a racing game that’s captured my attention like this one. The dark atmosphere is unmatched, the controls feel fantastic, and the level of replay value is out of this world.
PROS:
- Deep control scheme
- Robust point system
- Audio mixing options
CONS
- Limited in-game OST
- Limited course selection
There’s a modded version of this game which adds the Eurobeat OST, but loops a single song per stage about each minute. Luckily, there’s a volume mixer that allows you to turn the in-game volume down. I’ll usually grind out courses to the full OST on YouTube.
The balancing act of acceleration, hand brake, and e-brake buttons give you such a deep level of control over your car that it can be understandable why the game gets labeled as ‘jank’- but sticking with the challenge and learning to feel the drift gives a racing experience like no other. The point system adds replayability beyond grinding down your course time- challenging the player to release the drift king that exists within their hearts.
The downsides of the game are largely downsides of the platform the game is built on- limited disc space makes it so that the baked-in OST’s loops are short and can become annoying. Additionally- there are only 4 separate courses to choose from which can feel underwhelming at first glance. That being said our main character Takumi only raced the same road for 4 years… you should feel lucky.
Another issue is the nature of practicing drifting/turns. Because each course is modeled after a real-world road, and each of these roads don’t loop around, practicing specific turns can be difficult as you’ll only encounter each turn once for each time you load up the course.
The flip side of this is that progression is locked behind improving your driving technique, rather than memorizing the course. Experimenting and getting a ‘feel’ for the driving and drifting mechanics is much more important since it’s take you 2/3x as long if you rely on memorisation since you’ll be encountering the same corner 2/3x less during a play session.
Overall, I haven’t played a racing game that’s captured my attention like this one. The dark atmosphere is unmatched, the controls feel fantastic, and the level of replay value is out of this world.
PROS:
- Deep control scheme
- Robust point system
- Audio mixing options
CONS
- Limited in-game OST
- Limited course selection
