Levels are linear, checkpointed efforts with a beginning and end, with three normal levels per world followed by a climactic boss battle. It’s your job to investigate the factories, mines and research labs, then restore order.Īs far as the action goes, however, it’s no Metroidvania. Even the plot – greedy industrialists exploit mysterious alien substance, resulting in robot revolt – could be right out of a Metroid game. In terms of visual style, it’s a love letter to Metroid, with a sci-fi super soldier heroine who might be Samus Arun’s long-lost sister and nods to Metroid in the checkpoint chambers, enemy design and, well, just about everywhere you look. With those two games it was easy to spot the primary influences – Defender and Robotron/Smash TV, but MatterFall is a trickier beast to categorise. Like Resogun and Nex Machina, it’s a game in thrall to old classics but unafraid to mix the formula with new ideas. Whether it’s the concept, the execution or the extreme difficulty, MatterFall is the first Housemarque game that’s left me in any way underwhelmed.

This is as true of MatterFall as it was of its glorious predecessors, but it’s not quite at the same level. If you’re looking for fast-paced arcade action with exuberant visuals and lavish voxel effects, you can be pretty sure that the Finnish studio will deliver the goods. With Super Stardust, Resogun and Nex Machina, Housemarque has established itself as the leading studio of high-concept retro games.

Resogun vs nex machina