With both games being available, we spoke to Mikael Haveri, Head of Publishing at Housemarque about their thoughts on the development process.

"We settled on Robotron as a fundamental influence quite early, but it wasn’t where we started off."

Nex Machina has garnered a huge amount of critical acclaim since release. What are your thoughts on the game’s success thus far?

Great reviews are always letting you know that you did do things right and all is not for naught. It does warm the heart. We are seeing a lot of good players enjoy the game everyday, maybe next we need to think if we can reach wider audiences also.

What was it like having Eugene Jarvis as creative consultant? How did he help shape the overall game?

He is an insane genius of a man, just a pleasure to be around. He has had a huge impact on our titles over the years, so now that we got to just work with him felt like the circle was closing. It was more about us showing him the things we’ve learned and how we took things forward, rather than us as a tag team trying to take on the world.

Was there any concern that Nex Machina would be too much like Robotron 2084 and not have its own identity?

Never. We settled on Robotron as a fundamental influence quite early, but it wasn’t where we started off. There was a lot of deliberation about different genres even, but this just felt the most natural.

How has progress been from players when it comes to discovering the secrets? Are there any particular secrets they’ve yet to discover?

There are so many secrets in the game that it’s hard to say if all have been discovered. Likely yes, by a group of gamer, but maybe not by a single player. The reason being that our secrets are actually very essential to getting better in the game, so they are meant to be found. No use in making it almost impossible to unlock a path to a level as then who would use it on their highscore runs, right?

"We are glad to have the luxury of working on a title until it is done, but rarely do we extend that luxury to wait until the market is ready for it."

What can you tell us about the boss design, especially with how each boss operates differently?

All the bosses have clear inspirations from either the classics or some of our of catalogue. In the end, variety in design is what makes a boss fight, it gives them personality and makes the player want to conquer them with new tactics. We tried to put our best effort forward and there will be some pretty awesome moments for those who will have the patience to learn all of them.

How does Matterfall differ in comparison to some of your other titles?

It’s somewhat closest to Outland due to the camera perspective and in other ways closest to Nex Machina. It’s a lot of fun. If you liked Gunstar Heroes, Turrican and even Mega Man, then you’ll appreciate what we did with Matterfall.

Is there a reason you released two of your biggest games so close to each other? Nex Machina came out recently and was a critical success. Why not wait a bit for Matterfall?

There really isn’t a magic formula for releasing titles for a company that’s our size. We are glad to have the luxury of working on a title until it is done, but rarely do we extend that luxury to wait until the market is ready for it.

What post-launch updates can we expect for the game? Will you consider paid DLC in the future?

We have nothing to announce at this point.

"We’ve done two pretty big Snowboarding games and many others, so I’m sure we’ve thought of all kinds of things."

Will there be online co-op at some point in the future?

We have nothing to announce at this point.

Housemarque has been renowned for its shooters for years now. Have you ever thought about branching off into other genres?

We’ve done two pretty big Snowboarding games and many others, so I’m sure we’ve thought of all kinds of things.

Is Matterfall running at native 4K and 60fps at all times on the PS4 Pro?

It’s running at 1080p and ~60fps.

What is the resolution and fps on the base PS4?

It’s running at 900p and ~60fps.

If you’re looking for a story in Matterfall, that’s about all you’re going to find. Like most of Housemarque’s games, Matterfall’s plot is just an excuse for some fast-paced action. As a presentation, Matterfall delivers: its techno-infused soundtrack sounds like a throwback to the best stuff from Terminator, and thumps along to intense action and the thrill of chasing multipliers and a high score.

That level of polish, unfortunately, doesn’t extend to the gameplay. Like many of Housemarque’s games, Matterfall is a side-scrolling action platformer that operates on a 2D plane. As you advance through Matterfall’s world, which consists of a cityscape, hydroponics facility, and a matter mine, you’ll kill robots, build-up and lose multipliers, score points, and save civilians. Most of Matterfall is pretty standard, and by and large these parts work pretty well.

"The Strike is dash attack that creates a shockwave allowing you to stun enemies (who provide more points if killed while stunned) and destroy, or pass through, most harmful projectiles without taking damage."

One area where Matterfall changes it up is the Strike ability. The Strike is dash attack that creates a shockwave allowing you to stun enemies (who provide more points if killed while stunned) and destroy, or pass through, most harmful projectiles without taking damage. Strike can also be combined with Avalon’s double jump to get to hard-to-reach places, which provide access to score bonuses. Saving the civilians is crucial; they hold augmentations, which range from weapons like grenade launchers and seeker missiles to passive benefits like greater Strike radius and damage upgrades for your core weapon.

The upgrades you choose to equip (you get three) can significantly change the way you play, so it’s in your best interest to seek them out. You might equip Avalon with a number of weapons, or make your Strike act like a bomb if you Strike through certain objects. It’s a compelling level of freedom, and it’s fun to play with the augments between missions, or try something new if you’re having trouble with a specific section.

Simultaneously, Striking through enemies is satisfying and makes Avalon feel powerful, even though you’re often severely outnumbered. There’s nothing quite like striking through an unavoidable wave of bullets or stunning an entire group of incoming enemies and then blowing them up for a huge score and multiplier increase. The problem is that the ability never feels quite as reliable as it should, which is a problem because the game can’t be completed without it.

"It’s impossible to know exactly when Strike is available as there’s no visual or auditory indication of when the ability is coming off its cooldown. Because of this, it’s easy to wind up in situations where there are enemies that you can’t avoid and a number of projectiles coming at you that you have no way to dodge. "

The main problem is that it’s impossible to know exactly when Strike is available as there’s no visual or auditory indication of when the ability is coming off its cooldown. Because of this, it’s easy to wind up in situations where there are enemies that you can’t avoid and a number of projectiles coming at you that you have no way to dodge. These situations often end in death, or at the very least will cost you a large percentage of your health bar. This isn’t a problem for other parts of the interface – auditory and visual cues will inform you when your score multiplier changes, and your secondary weapons have an icon that refills as the weapon cools down – which makes the lack of one for the game’s most important ability seem like a rather large oversight.

Similarly, Avalon’s jump ability seems stiff. It isn’t very good for horizontal distance, so you have to use Strike to propel yourself forward. Since Strike’s cooldown is difficult to determine… well, you can see the issue. I can’t tell you how much damage I’ve taken from falling into pits of harmful matter after misreading Strike’s cooldown time. Because of this, controlling Avalon’s movement can be extremely frustrating.

This is compounded by the fact that you can only Strike in four directions – up, down, left, and right. Matterfall understands 8-way directional inputs – Avalon’s gun features three hundred and sixty degrees of movement – but that doesn’t carry over for Striking. It’s an especially limiting design decision given the game’s focus on avoidance and large combo strings, and can be especially irritating when inputs fail to properly register.

"Matterfall’s boss battles embody the term “bullet-hell” as your fight against enormous big bads who take very little damage and wave after wave of supplementary enemies."

These problems come to a head in Matterfall’s boss battles, which embody the term “bullet-hell” as your fight against enormous big bads who take very little damage and wave after wave of supplementary enemies. The lack of precision granted by Matterfall’s control scheme means that these fights are exercises in trial and error and less a test of skill. You’re going to die, and you’re going to die repeatedly, and after you die, you’ll be treated to long load times so you can go back and die again.

It’s a shame, really. There’s a lot of good in Matterfall. The zero-gravity segments that dot many of the levels are genuinely fun to play around in, and evoke the best moments of RESOGUN, and Avalon’s Overcharge ability, which slows time and significantly upgrades her weapon for screen-clearing moments of destruction, is a neon-colored joy. Even the weapons, and Strike itself, are enjoyable to use – when the latter works properly.

Unfortunately, Matterfall never quite comes together, despite its short runtime; the game only has twelve levels, and they don’t take very long to beat. Of course, you’re meant to go back through them and obtain a higher score, but I can’t imagine many braving the game’s myriad frustrations for that. It’s not a total wash; Housemarque’s visual flair and core gameplay are genuinely solid, but Matterfall often feels like less than the sum of its parts. If the game had a tagline, it would be “for completionists only.” Like its done-to-death story, you’ve seen much of what Matterfall has before, and done better. RESOGUN this ain’t.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

From the developer of Alienation, RESOGUN and the recent Nex Machina comes another shooter with bright colours and plenty of particle effects. Matterfall is now officially available on PS4 and a new trailer showcases the kind of crazed action you can expect.

Unlike Nex Machina, Matterfall is a side-scrolling 2.5D shooter where players navigate a world infected by Red Matter. With the power of Blue Matter, one navigates the world by constructing platforms to cross gaps and shields to block enemy fire. As with past Housemarque games, the goal is to shoot through stages, chain points together and earn yourself a spot on the leaderboards.

If Matterfall isn’t up your alley or you don’t known a PS4, then consider picking up Nex Machina. It’s an overhead twin-stick shooter developed with Eugene Jarvis of Smash TV and Robotron: 2084 fame as the creative consultant, plus it’s currently available on PC along with PS4.

Housemarque has already impressed the heck out of us with its latest arcade shooter Nex Machina, created with Eugene Jarvis (the man behind Smash TV and Robotron 2084) as creative consultant. Nex Machina was lauded for its striking visual design and old-school gameplay mechanics updated for a new generation.

Of course, Housemarque isn’t done yet  – it’s next major release Matterfall will be taking side-scrolling platforming/shooting to a new level when it releases on August 15th. However, it will only be on PS4 along with supporting PS4 Pro. So after seeing how well Nex Machina turned out, what does the developer have planned for the resolution and frame rate of Matterfall?

GamingBolt spoke Housemarque head of publishing Mikael Haveri about the same and asked if Matterfall would run at 4K/60 FPS at all times on the PS4 Pro. Haveri noted that it’s running at 1080p resolution and ~60 FPS. As for the base PS4 version, you can look forward to a 900p resolution and ~60 FPS gameplay. It’s not hard to see that the focus is on a stable 60 FPS above all.

What are your thoughts on Matterfall and are you looking forward to playing it? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Housemarque may have Nex Machina coming on June 20th for PS4 and PC but it’s next big PS4 exclusive Matterfall also has a release date. It will arrive on August 15th as per the latest trailer.

From the developer behind Outland, Resogun and Alienation, Matterfall seems to combine some of the mechanics of Resogun with platforming and shooting that’s not all that dissimilar from Mega Man.

The one difference is the ability to collapse and build platforms to jump on as players attempt to escape the world that’s been infected by Smart Matter. Needless to say, you’ll be doing a lot of shooting, dodging and jumping throughout.

Interestingly enough, Matterfall wasn’t mentioned at Sony’s press conference despite releasing this August. What are your thoughts on the newest trailer and the upcoming release date? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information from E3 2017 as the days progress.

After skipping Gamescom this fall, Sony came out swinging today at its Paris Games Week press conference. The amount of games the company showed off was quite impressive and standing out among those was one game with a truly inventive looking approach in Matterfall and a heavy focus on the upcoming VR games lineup.

Especially when it comes to Sony VR, this is really the first long look Sony has given anyone at what it is developing out in the open. Closed door demos were the predominant way the company had been showing off what it had been working on until now. The among the games it showed off for the VR setup was a game called RIGS Mechanized League. This appears to be kind of a cross between Drive Club and Titanfall and all packed into an extreme first person perspective thanks to the VR tech. Set in 2065, the game touts the sport of the future as players take control of RIGS and both race and battle in out in arenas around the world.

Other VR games showed off for Sony VR were titles like The London Heist, which appears to be a taken on Payday or Grand Theft Auto 5 in virtual reality, as well as The Walk which is a game uniquely designed to give you Vertigo if the trailer can be relied on. Finally, Rush of Blood was unveiled, which is essentially a game geared towards giving you the experience of riding a rather scary rollercoaster. Just when any of these games is expected out is anyone’s guess but 2016 should be interesting for Sony and it’s Virtual Reality device. Check out the trailers below for your first look.