Matterfall

A clever side-scrolling shoot 'em up that's got style and flair, whose blistering action should make you forgive its short length.

It does not take long for Matterfall to remind you it was created by the same team behind Resogun (not to mention the recent Nex Machina), the Finnish studio Housemarque. While the first few levels are an excellent introduction, the game soon shifts into high gear as the screen fills with enemies, particles and chaos. It's great fun.

Matterfall is a great shooter and will give you many hours of entertainment if you like chasing high scores and challenging gameplay. However, it does feel like a slight let down after Nex Machina and is the least essential of all the Housemarque games on PlayStation 4. That said, the least essential Housemarque game is still better than most games you will find on the console, so it’s still recommended.

Housemarque has made its named developing fast-paced arcade shooters like Super Stardust, Resogun, and Nex Machina. These games delight in colorful explosions, velocity, and thumping soundtracks. The developer’s latest, Matterfall, has all those qualities, but also stands apart from the pack with its interesting combination of twin-stick shooting and platforming.

Housemarque could have gone a bit farther with Matterfall, because while the general theme is on point, several elements, the protagonist design included, failed to make their mark on me. While it remains stylish throughout there were a few sections where I felt like I was just going through the motions, doing things I had done many times before, just with a nice HDR sheen to it. It’s not quite Outland (which Housemarque also created), but it’ll do.

Matterfall succeeds in adapting Housemarque’s trademark style of fast, action-packed, arcadey action to the 2D platformer genre, but it feels like a puzzle half solved. There’s virtually no content here after you finish its exceptionally short campaign, outside of some harder difficulty modes and a global leaderboard to climb, and its level design isn’t well-suited for replay value. It’s a ton of fun while it lasts, but once it’s over it’s hard to not be left with a feeling of “Is that it?”

Matterfall is perhaps the least essential Housemarque title in the PlayStation 4’s catalogue, but it’s still a cut above the majority of the competition. Had there been more variety to its levels, some additional features and a tweak or two to the gameplay it could have stood toe-to-to with the like of Nex Machina, but as it is, it just doesn’t feel like the well-rounded package that we’ve become used to. If you’re a fan of Housemarque’s work then by all means pick it up, you’re bound to enjoy it. But those who are yet to sample the delights of their back catalogue would be wise to pick up one...

In a weird kind of way, Matterfall is what Mighty No. 9 was supposed to be. Artistically, the Housemarque developed side-scroller couldn’t be different to Keiji Inafune’s cartoon Kickstarter, but the gameplay – which is designed around a dash mechanic, just like Mega Man’s ill-fated spiritual successor – has many similarities. The question is: a couple of months on from the outstanding Nex Machina, can the Finnish firm deliver arcade gold yet again?

Identity crisis.

Nowhere close to the arcade perfection of Resogun or Nex Machina, this undercooked action platformer lacks the precise controls and instant appeal of its stablemates.

What do you get when you combine the side scrolling action of Mighty No. 9 and Metroid’s sci-fi alien action, adding a dash of electro-funk rock music? You get Matterfall. Developers Housemarque have made some rather memorable games in the past like Resogun and Dead Nation, so while I was going in to this review blind, I had high hopes. My verdict is a mixed bag of pros and cons that has me battling with the gamer inside me. I wanted to enjoy it but there was just a lot of niggling issues I...