''Nex Machina'' is a

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

developed and published by

Housemarque Housemarque Oy is a Finnish video game developer based in Helsinki. The company was founded by Ilari Kuittinen and Harri Tikkanen in July 1995, through the merger of their previous video game companies, Bloodhouse and Terramarque, both of which ...

. The game was released in June 2017 for the

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

and

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

-based

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tech ...

s. Tentatively known as ''The Jarvis Project'' during development, veteran arcade game designer

Eugene Jarvis Eugene Peyton Jarvis is an American game designer and video game programmer, known for producing pinball machines for Atari and video games for Williams Electronics. Most notable among his works are the seminal arcade video games '' Defender'' a ...

served as a creative consultant on the project.

Gameplay

''Nex Machina'' is a twin-stick

played from a

top-down perspective A variety of computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games. The predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time, primarily due to hardware advances and restrictions ...

. Players move through rooms shooting waves of enemies while attempting to save humans.

Power-up In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chos ...

s and weapon upgrades are dispersed throughout levels.

Development

''Nex Machina'' was developed by Finnish video game studio

with designer

serving as a creative consultant. Jarvis is known for his role in designing arcade shoot 'em ups such as '' Defender'' (1981), ''

Robotron: 2084 ''Robotron: 2084'' (also referred to as ''Robotron'') is a multidirectional shooter developed by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar of Vid Kidz and released in arcades by Williams Electronics in 1982. The game is set in the year 2084 in a fictional wo ...

'' (1982), and ''

Smash TV ''Smash TV'' is a 1990 arcade video game created by Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell for Williams Electronics Games. It is a dual-stick shooter (one for moving and the other for firing) in the same vein as 1982's ''Robotron: 2084'' (co-created b ...

'' (1990). At the 2014 D.I.C.E. Awards, Housemarque's founders Ilari Kuittinen and Harri Tikkanen met with Jarvis and asked him if he would be interested in collaborating on a game. Jarvis' games, particularly ''Defender'', was a source of inspiration for Housemarque's 2013 game ''

Resogun ''Resogun'' is a voxel-based side-scrolling shoot 'em up video game developed by Finnish developer Housemarque and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The PlayStation 4 game wa ...

''. For the design of ''Nex Machina'', they combined elements from Jarvis' previous shoot 'em ups and ''Resogun''. The development team experimented with different setups for the game's firing mechanics. They followed a different design philosophy than their 2016 game ''

Alienation Alienation may refer to: * Alienation (property law), the legal transfer of title of ownership to another party * ''Alienation'' (video game), a 2016 PlayStation 4 video game * "Alienation" (speech), an inaugural address by Jimmy Reid as Rector ...

'' by choosing not to incorporate character progression systems in ''Nex Machina''. ''Nex Machina'' is powered by a significantly enhanced version of the

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term " software engine" used in the softwar ...

and

voxel In 3D computer graphics, a voxel represents a value on a regular grid in three-dimensional space. As with pixels in a 2D bitmap, voxels themselves do not typically have their position (i.e. coordinates) explicitly encoded with their values. ...

technology that was used for ''Resogun''. The inclusion of a volumetric rendering technique known as Signed Distance Fields allows for a smooth transition between complex 3D meshes and voxel particles to give them more flexibility in how objects appear on the screen. The studio dubbed their art style for the game as cablepunk—a darker take on

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian Futurism, futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of low-life, lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial in ...

Release

''Nex Machina'' was unveiled at the PlayStation Experience in December 2016. Housemarque signed a deal with

Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...

to bring the game to the

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...

. In March 2017, Housemarque announced that the game will also be released on

-based

s. ''Nex Machina'' was released on 20 June 2017; it is Housemarque's first self-published game. Housemarque is also considering creating a ''Nex Machina'' arcade cabinet with Jarvis' company

Raw Thrills Raw Thrills, Inc. is an arcade game entertainment company based in Skokie, Illinois. It is best known for developing arcade games based on films. History Raw Thrills was founded in 2001 by Eugene Jarvis, Deepak Deo, and Andrew Eloff. The staff ...

Reception

The game received generally positive reviews from critics.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

calculated an average score of 88 out of 100 for the PlayStation 4 version based on 45 reviews and 84 out of 100 for the Windows version based on 16 reviews. ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...

'' ranked the game eighth on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017".

Accolades

The game was nominated for "PlayStation Game of the Year" at the

Golden Joystick Awards The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public, but is now a global event that can be vot ...

, for "Best PC Game" in ''

Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. History ...

''s Game of the Year Awards 2017, and for "Best Action Game" in

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa dist ...

's Best of 2017 Awards. It won the award for "Best Indie Action Game" in ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 ...

''s 2017 Action Game of the Year Awards. It won "Big Screen Game of the Year 2017" and "Finnish Game of the Year 2017" in the Finnish Game Awards 2018, and was also nominated for "Visual Design" and "Music Design" at the 2018

Develop Awards ''Develop'' was a monthly UK trade magazine for the video game industry. Its online portal, complete with a digital version of the print publication, was active since July 2007. Develop 100 was an annual rating system for game developers produ ...

References

External links

* {{Housemarque 2017 video games Housemarque games PlayStation 4 games Multidirectional shooters Video games developed in Finland Video games scored by Ari Pulkkinen Windows games PlayStation 4 Pro enhanced games Multiplayer and single-player video games Dystopian video games