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Nex Machina

Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 4
Genre: Action
Developer: Housemarque
Release Date: June 20, 2017

About Rainier

PC gamer, WorthPlaying EIC, globe-trotting couch potato, patriot, '80s headbanger, movie watcher, music lover, foodie and man in black -- squirrel!

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Housemarque Shying Away From Developing Arcade Shooters

by Rainier on Nov. 1, 2017 @ 8:22 a.m. PDT

Taking hints from both Robotron and Smash TV, Nex Machina is an intense arcade style twin-stick shooter that focuses on pure action, voxel destruction and competition in the distant, cablepunk themed future.

Housemarque (Resogun, Alienation, Matterfall) teamed up legendary Eugene Jarvis (Robotron, Smash TV) to develop Nex Machina, a new type of an arcade experience.

In a world where humans have become more and more addicted to technology, machines have evolved from simple helpers to replacements for unwanted jobs — conscious entities with their own feelings. Robots surpassed mankind’s abilities, becoming the superior being, and started to refuse to serve us.

No reasons to be servants now – robots are clearly the superior life-form. And to make their point, they start eradicating all human life.

After the singularity, the rise of the machines was inevitable — and unstoppable. But nobody even noticed. Mankind’s best and brightest were too busy updating their status on social media. When all seems lost, out of the blue a mysterious hero appears: you. Who sent you? Will you save humanity from itself once again? And last but not least, are your skills sharp enough to confront an army of fiendish robots out for blood?

For more than 20 years we’ve been carrying the torch for arcade, bringing arcade coin-op inspired games to the market with a Housemarque twist, and I think it’s fair to say we’ve gotten pretty good at it by now! Our games have received great critical reception over the years, perhaps the best example being Nex Machina, which we published in June to great critical acclaim, garnering a metacritic score of 88. Nex Machina was a dream project, as we got to work with our hero and arcade gaming legend Eugene Jarvis, who is responsible for some of the most revered arcade games of all time such as Defender, Robotron 2084 and Smash TV. He has had a tremendous impact on our games, including Resogun and Dead Nation.

However despite critical success and numerous awards, our games just haven’t sold in significant numbers. While some of them have reached a massive audience due to free game offerings across various digital sales channels, this unfortunately doesn’t help pay for development, which gets costly for high production quality. We are extremely grateful to our fans and partners, who have enabled us to work on awesome games like Super Stardust HD and Outland. For your unfailing love and support we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

But now it’s time to move on to new genres. Lackluster sales of Nex Machina have led us to the thinking that it is time to bring our longstanding commitment to the arcade genre to an end. While this genre will always hold a special place in our hearts, the industry is moving more toward multiplayer experiences with strong, robust communities, and it’s time for Housemarque to move forward with the industry. Hence Nex Machina and Matterfall will be the last of their kind coming out of our studio. Our purpose as a company remains the same, however - to create enjoyable and memorable gaming experiences for players while simultaneously creating a great workplace that allows people to flourish both professionally and personally.

Looking ahead to our next projects, we are exploring something totally different than what you might expect of us, but we believe this will lead to the creation of even more engaging gaming experiences. Our core values remain the same - gameplay first with first class execution. We are really excited about our new projects and look forward to unveiling our first game from the new era of Housemarque.

Whether you have been a fan of Housemarque for years or have just played a few of our first games, we invite you to join us in discovering new gaming frontiers! Stay tuned!

Ilari Kuittinen

CEO

Can you survive the mechanical onslaught of hundreds of evil robots trying to obliterate any threat? Can you stop them from harvesting oblivious humans? In the vein of cult classics such Resogun and Robotron, Nex Machina is the ultimate top-down voxel shooter where everything can be blown up to pieces. Enter “the zone”, become one with the game and pull off the most incredible feats. Packed with opportunities to create your own playstyle, face tough challenges and engage in a ruthlessly competitive environment, Nex Machina is what arcade games deserve to be in the 21th century.

Key Features:

  • Explosive twin-stick arcade shooter gaming at its finest
  • Over 100+ challenging levels in 5+ different intense worlds
  • Secret paths, levels and humans
  • Deep scoring system, rich metagame and replayability
  • Specially tailored feats and achievements
  • Community and friend leaderboards
  • Unlockables and player profiles
  • Next gen signed distance field (SDF) ray-tracing and morphing tech
  • Voxel driven, significantly reworked version of the Housemarque engine

Be kind to your electronics. You never know what can happen…


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