Nex Machina Reviews
Despite its utterly insane difficulty curve, Nex Machina is a pure joy to play.
Housemarque has broken its own quality barrier with Nex Machina. This pulse-pounding twin-stick arcade shooter is the developer's finest work. Brutal, compelling, enthralling and layered with hidden depths, Nex Machina is awash with retrotastic glory, and serves as the new benchmark for twin-stick shooters.
Nex Machina is a bright and engrossing game with multiple difficulty modes, great weapons and various mechanics and enemies. But it is lacking online co-op and diversity in the presented modes.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Nex Machina manages to tribute arcade games of the past such as Robotron and Smash TV without relying on nostalgia alone, offering a deep experience that doesn't require sub-systems to please players with a strong competitive attitude. As the experience is mostly geared towards getting the highest possible score, however, some players might find the game too short, as the main Arcade mode takes very little time to complete. As such, Nex Machina is not a game for everybody. All those who enjoy the genre, however, should definitely give it a spin.
Nex Machina is everything that an arcade game should be: addictive and accessible yet bursting with hidden depth. Housemarque continues to be the master of the dual-joystick shooter with a sublime effort that harks back to the coin-op glory days of yesteryear. This is a near-perfect complement to the ridiculously good Resogun, and deserves to find a place among your PS4's hard drive space.
Nex Machina is exciting, addictive and challenging, a must have for all arcade shooter fans. We loved its level design and the perfect mix of gameplay mechanics combined with a clean presentation and vibrant soundtrack. It's without doubt one of the best Housemarque games.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Nex Machina is another fantastic arcade-inspired retro homage from the folks at Housemarque. I think it may be the most stressful of the trio of such releases from the studio so far, but that'll give more hardcore players an added push to get good and improve their scores. Lesser-skilled players, however, may feel even more lost among the madness.
Nex Machina is up there with Resogun as the best game Housemaque has ever released and is a great throwback to the arcade shooters of old. In terms of presentation and design, it is perfect and its smooth, brutal, and challenging gameplay makes it feel wonderful to play.
With Nex Machina, Housemarque masters the balancing act between retro and modernity thanks to precise controls and impressive effects.
Review in German | Read full review
Intense doesn't even cover it. Nex Machina is every bit as tough, exciting and absorbing as the eighties arcade classics that inspired it. There's something about its gameplay that seems perfectly honed and balanced, pulling you into ever-more-challenging scenarios and pushing you to make the grade.
Where Resogun may have been a spiritual successor to Defender in many ways, Nex Machina finds its roots in games like Smash TV and Robotron. Nex Machina is the sort of game that Housemarque does best. Accessible, hopelessly addictive arcade gaming. And they've nailed it – again.
Nex Machina is a pure mechanics game, one that pushes you harder and harder to shoot for that high score. People looking for just a campaign will be done after an hour, but everyone else should find plenty of reasons to play.
However, to call Jarvis's 1982 title Robotron: 2084 an inspiration is an understatement: Nex Machina is almost a duplicate, a modernization of a game that came out nearly three and a half decades ago. And while technology has significantly advanced in that period, so too have player expectations. Nex Machina doesn't deliver anything but a particle effect smorgasbord and little else.
Easily on of the best homages to old-school arcade gaming in quite some time. Easy to pick up, hard to master, but damn if you won't have fun along the way. With some fast-energy tunes, a gorgeous looking world and plenty of frantic action, Nex Machina has me wishing the days of arcade gaming weren't over. The only thing that would make this game even better is the addition of an online co-op mode.
Although Nex Machina lacks online multiplayer, the game's euphoric use of bright neon colors and impressive use of voxels is only surpassed by the tight gameplay mechanics. At its heart, Nex Machina is a modern day arcade shooter, with plenty of secrets and the addicting element that will have you challenging for a higher position on the leaderboards well into the wee hours of the night.
Nex Machina is another great game from Housemarque. The hybrid of all the ideas that the studio has so far displayed in previous games is engaging right from the start. The fans of the genre will feel like they are in heaven.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Nex Machina is an great twin-stick shooter that stays close to the roots it has inherited from designer Eugune Jarvis to bring a modernise, hyper speed take on this classic genre.
As a long time fan or a newcomer to the genre, Nex Machina is great addition to the SHMUP games list. It hits all the right notes and offers a satisfying experience. Available on both PC and PS4, this is a game I would recommend for lovers of the genre or those interested in trying out a reimagining of the classic genre.
Nex Machina is quite simply one of the best games of 2017. It offers simple yet incredibly fun, fast-paced gameplay and it has immense style. Do not sleep on this game.