A Capcom vertical shooter homage to danmaku, with vertiginous scoring and tight patterns. Bosses fire profusely, multipliers explode and joy turns instant.
Your verdict
Category
Shooter1 player7+
Description
Combat ships face bullet rain in this Takumi and Capcom complex-pattern vertical shoot'em up. Published by Capcom, released in the United States in April 2001. Vertical shoot'em up with magnetic gravity system absorbing enemy bullets, combo chains, impressive bosses. American version.
North American edition of Mars Matrix, distributed at the console's end of life and markedly less common than its shooter cousins. The NTSC audience had here a rare chance to taste Takumi's dizzying scoring in a local box. Its interest rests on the growing difficulty of finding a complete copy and on the sustained demand of a scoring community that ranks this title very high in the genre.
An underrated gem
Intimidating at first glance behind its wall of bullets, this vertical shooter hides a clever system: a magnetic field that sucks in enemy fire and hurls it back in a devastating burst. Too austere and too hard to break through, it stayed the connoisseurs' affair. Scoring fiends and lovers of technical bullet hell will find an exhilarating challenge.
Is Mars Matrix still worth playing in 2026?
Again developed by Takumi, this vertical shooter pushes its mechanics to the extreme with an absorbing shot that swallows enemy bullets and fires them back in a devastating burst. Scoring reaches dizzying heights and shapes the whole appeal, set against dense yet readable mechanical backdrops. Demanding and sometimes harsh for newcomers, it rewards patience and pattern learning. The Dreamcast port is complete and polished, making it one of the machine's most admired and most valuable shmups.
