Metroidvania’s aren’t the most common game genre you see developed for retro systems, which makes Kai Software’s Life on Mars: Genesis quite an interesting one to check out. As a Mega Drive/Genesis port of an MSX2 game, find out if it truly takes advantage of Sega’s 16-bit beast here!
Want to buy Life on Mars?
● Order LoM: Genesis on cart at (or download the demo): https://kai-magazine-software.fwscart.com/SEGA_GENESIS___MEGADRIVE/cat4398490_555342.aspx
● Or check the PC version out at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/677910/Life_on_Mars_Remake/
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Oof, that bit in the PC trailer where they proudly announce that you can "FARM RESOURCES". Not a selling point for me!
That aside, this looks like a nicely presented game. The spritework is really nice and the "horror" animations are nicely done. The digital music gives me quite an Amiga game vibe, which fits nicely with the overall style they seem to be going for. Shame there's not a bit more variety in the visuals, though — having landmarks, even simple ones, can be really helpful in keeping you moving in a title like this, as constantly pulling up the map every few seconds can really kill pacing.
You're right about supporting indie developers, though. It's great to see small teams and individuals making stuff like this, and that should always be encouraged. Even if some projects have janky edges, enjoying some success and support from the community encourages the people behind these games to maybe have another go, perhaps incorporating the lessons learned from the first project.
Hi Rob, what an interesting review. I had a similar experience with Axiom Verge 2 recently, after enjoying the first game quite a bit. It’s hard to pin it right down, but despite the really solid movement, combat and general feel, the boss battles, story and map design kind of left me feeling a little underwhelmed.
This looks great, visually. These visuals make me think that the platform itself is quite ideal for this style of game, and honestly this looks more appealing to me than some of the big name Mega Drive games of old that people champion as high points of the console. Shame it couldn’t quite bring it all together into something that worked for you.
That being said, there IS something quite satisfying in general about completing a metroidvania style game that I don’t always get from other genres, even if it’s not the best example of said genre. So it’s good to see that people are bringing them to other platforms, and hopefully these folks will manage to refine their design again in another instalment. Cheers for the review mate!
I also like to support this kind of releases and also was convinced with the demo alone. I'm totally with you on most of the points you presented, it has the potential but not totally exploited. Can't say I had a bad time with it, for the contrary it was a fun game I finished the same day I got it. Maybe a sequel can fix and expands the concepts. I can imagine it in the Barcelona ship, with a better map design, more weapons and such. I hope the development team take the criticisms and suggestions for their next game, being a sequel or a new title.
Excellent video as always! Homebrew is endlessly fascinating. Good point that the upgrade to more capable platforms would give an opportunity to restructure the game a bit, but that is of course also always more work for the developer. In any case, this looks interesting enough of a game for me even with the criticisms given here, I will wishlist on Steam now!
It's fine but yeah not much use for those of us who quit physical media a while ago especially for vintage systems. The tilesets kinda bug me. They all look fine on their own but they kinda clash being in the same game. Different environments is nice but they seem to have different aesthetics, some looking gritty Mega Drive style and some looking smooth GBA Metroid style and some looking kinda rough and not up to the standards of the better tilesets. That make sense? I dunno. But overall a decent game for the MD/Gen.
One of those enemies looks so much like the player mech from Cybernator on SNES, even animating a similar way. Might be deliberate homage.
This is a great review. The game looks nice, but the one thing you mentioned that turns me off is having to shoot enemies multiple times, even after a number of upgrades. I think this would be a skip for me, or maybe a buy-the-pc-version-on-sale.
Solid review mate. Such a hard thing to deal with these days: there's so much coming out both in terms of hardware and software that choosing where to spend your money is genuinely quite hard. Seems like it's got a good atmopshere around it, but even from your footage the repetiiveness of the background art is quite apparent.