Life on Mars Remake
Oscar Kenneth Albero Ingles · 2017 · Action, Adventure, Indie, RPG, Metroidvania
PC
Positive89% · 35
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Screenshots
About Life on Mars Remake
Remake of the 8 bits MSX2 game of the same name, with a 16 bits look.
Genre: Metroidvania (2D Metroid/Castlevania style) with RPG elements.
Explore, investigate, find improvements for your suit, find weapons, upgrade your weapons in workshops, fight incredible mutants...
Discover what happened in the first martian colony.
Story:
Earth has lost contact with the only colony in mars; a scientific colony established to research the existence of life in the frozen waters of Mars.
You will be sent to the planet’s surface with the mission to restore contact with the colony and find out what happened.
Inspired in the 80’s and 90’s sci-fi horror movies, Life on Mars is an old-school game with old school graphics and very addictive playability which will make you feel again the things you only felt 2 or 3 decades ago.
Features:
-4 difficulty levels:
The easier modes can be enjoyed as a “run and gun” kind of game, while the normal and mostly, the hardest level, will make you play it as a real survival game, where every hit counts.
-Weapons and abilities:
You will start with a single rifle, but you will be able to find weapons such as a grenade launcher, a flame thrower, a machine gun and plastic explosives.
There are also abilities for your suit, such as the double jump and the run ability.
-Shield and energy improvements:
You will find modules to extend your maximum amount of shield or your maximum amount energy for your weapons and abilities.
-Energy system:
Instead of an ammunition system, the game uses an energy bar system which decreases with every weapon or ability you use, but it recharges automatically over time.
-Energy cells and workshops:
You will find energy cells around the map or after defeating enemies. You can use those energy cells in workshops scattered all over the colony to upgrade some weapons or your energy generator, so your energy bar reloads faster.
You can also farm for energy cells by revisiting previous areas for as long as you wish.
There is no limit on the upgrade system, so you can end up with incredibly powerful weapons, so no matter how difficult the game gets for you, you can farm and upgrade your weapons to the point where you have no rival.
-Map:
You have a basic map of the colony which shows your location. You can use it to find secret areas in the colony.
-Non linear game style:
You can re-visit any area of the colony and use your new weapons and abilities to access rooms or areas you could not before, so you might find power ups or weapons.
Also, further on the game you can do several objectives in any order you like.
-Explosions:
Who doesn’t like explosions? There are LOTS of explosions!
A big part of the addictive playability is due to the fact that there is a very elaborate combo system with the explosions, chain reactions, friendly fire, etc.
It is really advised for the player to master the explosions dynamics early in the game to make use of them efficiently and improve the game experience.
Welcome back to the past, when you really had fun with videogames.
Welcome to Mars…
Genre: Metroidvania (2D Metroid/Castlevania style) with RPG elements.
Explore, investigate, find improvements for your suit, find weapons, upgrade your weapons in workshops, fight incredible mutants...
Discover what happened in the first martian colony.
Story:
Earth has lost contact with the only colony in mars; a scientific colony established to research the existence of life in the frozen waters of Mars.
You will be sent to the planet’s surface with the mission to restore contact with the colony and find out what happened.
Inspired in the 80’s and 90’s sci-fi horror movies, Life on Mars is an old-school game with old school graphics and very addictive playability which will make you feel again the things you only felt 2 or 3 decades ago.
Features:
-4 difficulty levels:
The easier modes can be enjoyed as a “run and gun” kind of game, while the normal and mostly, the hardest level, will make you play it as a real survival game, where every hit counts.
-Weapons and abilities:
You will start with a single rifle, but you will be able to find weapons such as a grenade launcher, a flame thrower, a machine gun and plastic explosives.
There are also abilities for your suit, such as the double jump and the run ability.
-Shield and energy improvements:
You will find modules to extend your maximum amount of shield or your maximum amount energy for your weapons and abilities.
-Energy system:
Instead of an ammunition system, the game uses an energy bar system which decreases with every weapon or ability you use, but it recharges automatically over time.
-Energy cells and workshops:
You will find energy cells around the map or after defeating enemies. You can use those energy cells in workshops scattered all over the colony to upgrade some weapons or your energy generator, so your energy bar reloads faster.You can also farm for energy cells by revisiting previous areas for as long as you wish.
There is no limit on the upgrade system, so you can end up with incredibly powerful weapons, so no matter how difficult the game gets for you, you can farm and upgrade your weapons to the point where you have no rival.
-Map:
You have a basic map of the colony which shows your location. You can use it to find secret areas in the colony.-Non linear game style:
You can re-visit any area of the colony and use your new weapons and abilities to access rooms or areas you could not before, so you might find power ups or weapons.
Also, further on the game you can do several objectives in any order you like.
-Explosions:
Who doesn’t like explosions? There are LOTS of explosions!A big part of the addictive playability is due to the fact that there is a very elaborate combo system with the explosions, chain reactions, friendly fire, etc.
It is really advised for the player to master the explosions dynamics early in the game to make use of them efficiently and improve the game experience.
Welcome back to the past, when you really had fun with videogames.
Welcome to Mars…
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
"Life on Mars" is a Metroidvania for Sega Genesis and turned into PC game. I like the mechanics, storyline, and I enjoy the mix of genres (ex. Metroid, Castlevania, Resident Evil, Faxanadu). The grinding is... very SEGA/NES, so treasure rooms and lockers rooms with upgrades would make more sense than making the game grinding by killing monsters. It only makes sense to get battery/cells/enery-packs from robots. I do like the background visual parallax. I would like more the voices to narrate what is going on and to repeat if necessary, because I missed the conversations at the bottom of the screen while killing monsters. I do like revive/teleport feature, making it feel like our hero is using supertech. Again. Treasures and using the Upgrade Centers would help reduce the grinding and encourage exploration. I still think they need to make the room designs bigger, ergonomic (ex. SEGA Castlevania Bloodlines allows Belmont to jump unto stairs; thus, making the platforming feel more real than "fake jumpy designs"), and more unique sprites per enemy. The robots make sense to copy and repeat. However, the human zombies all look the same, instead of given them more human variety. Addi…3 found this helpful
If you love old-school style games like me, you'll love this. The game really captures the feeling of an early 90's game (complete with grinding). It has a few rough edges, like the impossibility of changing the scanline effect or the controls once you start the game, but overall it is very fun.1 found this helpful
It's a solid metroidvania, worth grabbing. The difficulty of avoiding some hits may get you down at first. It gets better. Some of them can be pretty cheap. And the first time you blow yourself up with friendly fire you might do some yelling :) You can use the same effect to your advantage on enemies and get them to blow themselves/each other up as well. Early in some of the jumps are a bit annoying but that frustration disappears with your first upgrade item, and its better than most platformers about them after that despite the odd failure to detect a "1st jump" (as part of your double jump) if you jump to close to the edge of a ledge - fortunately, you can make said jumps without the extra distance from using the edge of the platform. It's not flawless (what game is?), but its good. Overall feels very Metroid NES+Aliens movie, and that's a good thing.1 found this helpful
Having never played the original I was curious as to what to expect when I got this game. After having played it for around two hours I can see where the inspiration for Metroid Fusion came from! They straight up just copied this game's map structure and big antagonist. The game is so good though and felt difficult, but fair. I'd die but even dying while exploring a new area didn't really feel like a setback because of the chip system. I will say I think it's a bit simplistic sometimes but I do really enjoy the gameplay and atmosphere. The remake's art direction is on point and I love their sprite work and new enemy designs. I also had the pleasure of meeting the creator at a gaming convention and the guy seemed VERY nice and I had a great time talking to him. The game got it's DNA carbon copied by nintendo, so you know it's good.
WHO SHOULD BUY THIS GAME: -Anyone that loved Super Metroid Im 32 and I loved all the metroid platformers. Its got that dark atmosphere that immersed me as a kid. The gameplay feels similar as well. The sound effects and music very good. For a lower priced game its totally worth it.
Quite interesting The easiest difficulty alone is really hard Overall pretty good
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