Skip to main content

Nex Machina

Nex Machina Game Cover
89%Game Brain Score
music, gameplay
story, grinding
87% User Score Based on 1,241 reviews
Critic Score 100%Based on 1 reviews

Platforms

PCTabletPlaystation 5CloudPhonePlaystation 4NVIDIA GeForce NOWWindowsPlayStation
Buy Nowfrom $2.74
Buy NowGet on Steam €19.99
Nex Machina Game Cover

About

Nex Machina is a single player and multiplayer arcade shooter game with a science fiction theme. It was developed by Housemarque and was released on June 21, 2017. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and positive reviews from players.

Nex Machina is a modern, cablepunk-themed twin-stick shooter by Housemarque, where you must save humans from robot overlords through intense arcade-style action. With destruction powered by voxel technology and inspired by classics like Robotron, blast your way through waves of machines and compete for high scores. The fate of humanity rests in your shooter skills – can you rise to the challenge?

Genres & Tags
Play Modes
Nex Machina screenshot
Nex Machina screenshot
Nex Machina screenshot
Nex Machina screenshot
Nex Machina screenshot
Nex Machina screenshot
Nex Machina screenshot
Nex Machina screenshot
Nex Machina screenshot
Skip User Reviews

87%
Audience ScoreBased on 1,241 reviews
music183 positive mentions
story7 negative mentions
  • Fast-paced, intense gameplay that keeps players engaged and on their toes.
  • Stunning visuals and a vibrant soundtrack that enhance the overall experience.
  • High replayability with multiple difficulty levels and challenges to master.
  • Forced HDR mode that cannot be disabled, leading to visual issues on some monitors.
  • Short campaign length, with many players finishing the game in under two hours.
  • Mouse controls are poorly implemented, making aiming difficult for keyboard and mouse users.
  • music
    274 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in this game has received widespread acclaim, with many reviewers praising its energetic synthwave soundtrack that perfectly complements the fast-paced gameplay and vibrant visuals. Players describe the soundtrack as "phenomenal," "banging," and "electrifying," often noting that it enhances the overall gaming experience and keeps them engaged during intense action sequences. While some critiques mention a lack of emotional depth in the music, the consensus is that it significantly contributes to the game's appeal, making it a standout feature.

    • “The soundtrack is a fun pumping synthwave score that complements the classic arcade sound effects, a theme that permeates all of Nex Machina as the levels oscillate with a grid that ripples and warps the HD environment.”
    • “The music is absolutely fantastic, the eye candy on the screen is just a marvel and gameplay is superb.”
    • “Fast-paced, smooth controls, awesome soundtracks and just.... a blast from start to finish.”
    • “Music is pretty neat though, but terribly digital and heartless.”
    • “It seems like the developers spent all their time on graphics and music and forgot about all the rest.”
    • “The music is extremely hard trying to be the Furi soundtrack but lacks the atmospheric breathing space that Furi had.”
  • gameplay
    253 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of Nex Machina is characterized by its fast-paced, aggressive twin-stick shooting mechanics that deliver a thrilling arcade experience. Players appreciate the tight controls, addictive gameplay loop, and vibrant visuals, although some find the difficulty and repetitive nature of the gameplay to be challenging. Overall, it offers a satisfying blend of action, strategy, and high replayability, making it a standout title for fans of the genre.

    • “The gameplay has a very fast and aggressive style that will have you dashing around, blasting robots and saving humans before the harvester bots can get to them.”
    • “The gameplay captures that classical arcade feel as you unleash a constant stream of energy pellets into wave after wave of enemies spawning in geometric patterns, using your dash to reposition, collecting power-ups, and dropping smart bombs when you're cornered.”
    • “Nex Machina offers a very enjoyable experience for fans of shmups and twin-stick shooters thanks to its well put together design and frantically fun gameplay that provides a lot of close call moments.”
    • “The voxel did not strike me as all that attractive and the core gameplay felt repetitive and simplistic.”
    • “Ultimately, rookie and normal difficulties respectively offer infinite and 99 continues, meaning pretty much every player should be able to eventually beat the modes - it just remains a test of patience whether you'd like to endure heavily repetitive gameplay to get there.”
    • “The gameplay is just running around trying to make sense of something that appears to have less depth than an almost totally evaporated midget's teardrop, and it's not clicking with me at all.”
  • graphics
    231 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics in the game are widely praised for their stunning visuals, vibrant colors, and engaging art style, often described as a blend of explosive and imaginative aesthetics. While many players appreciate the eye-catching design and smooth animations, some note that the busy visuals can occasionally hinder gameplay clarity, leading to moments of confusion amidst the action. Overall, the combination of impressive graphics and a captivating soundtrack contributes to a highly immersive gaming experience.

    • “Nex Machina is an exhilarating twin-stick shooter with stunning visuals and intense action.”
    • “The graphical style is explosive, imaginative, and exciting eye-candy that never grows old; it's like painting with video game graphics every time you play.”
    • “Fast-paced twin-stick shooter with slick neon graphics and great techno music.”
    • “The game runs poorly even with 'proper' launch options and graphical settings set to low.”
    • “Graphics are pretty but lack clarity and distract and fatigue eyes trying to track the overly lush (and somewhat blurry) sea of enemies.”
    • “Some reviews raved about this at release, but I'm seeing now why it sold like total crap and bombed; beyond the oh so pretty graphics there's nothing, nada, zip, zilch, diddly squat.”
  • replayability
    56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Overall, the game exhibits a high level of replayability, driven by diverse weapon selections, multiple difficulty levels, and various challenge modes that encourage players to master their skills and chase high scores. While some reviews note a lack of variety in game modes, many players appreciate the secrets and collectibles that enhance the replay experience. However, a few critics mention that the game's short length may limit long-term engagement for those not interested in score chasing.

    • “Amazing arcade shooter, pure fun and highly replayable, with an amazing soundtrack.”
    • “Snappy controls, bombastic audiovisual presentation, downloadable in-game replays and tightly designed levels further add to the already high replay value, making it a rewarding experience.”
    • “The game also offers plenty of replay value with its multiple endings and multiple difficulty levels to choose from.”
    • “1.) Skimpy on modes to add variety and replayability.”
    • “The only replay value here is about score breaking and I'm just not into that.”
    • “Without online co-op, however, it is going to be limited in long-term replayability.”
  • story
    41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's story is minimal and serves primarily as a backdrop for the gameplay, with players taking on the role of a hero battling against a robot uprising. Most reviews highlight the lack of depth and narrative engagement, describing the plot as simplistic and largely absent, focusing instead on fast-paced action and arcade-style mechanics. While some appreciate the immersive experience, those seeking a meaningful story or character development are likely to be disappointed.

    • “The game's story is a simple cover for the gameplay: you're a rebel with a gun, looking to take down swarms of robots that a dystopian cybernetic corporate/government overlord is sending to stop you.”
    • “Nex Machina is one of those rare games, which keeps a sliver of background story to give some context to the world, but throws out pretty much everything video games have borrowed from the movies.”
    • “The plot is super simple: you are a hero sent to destroy machines and save humans that are scattered through levels.”
    • “No story.”
    • “It is definitely lacking in bells and whistles, doesn't have much of any story and is way too short.”
    • “If you're looking at this expecting some sort of story, cutscenes and an open world, move along, this isn't for you.”
  • optimization
    12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Overall, optimization for the game is mixed; while some users report excellent performance with smooth gameplay and high frame rates on capable hardware, others note significant issues on platforms like the Steam Deck, requiring overclocking for better performance. The game engine is praised for its efficiency, delivering a stutter-free experience on higher-end systems.

    • “Performance is without a stutter, game engine is extremely optimized.”
    • “Fantastic buttery performance with a near locked 165fps at 1440p on a 1080ti/4790k.”
    • “Performance wise, it runs easily at a solid 60 on my decent i7 and a 1060, and goes much higher if you unlock it.”
    • “Optimization on Steam Deck, for example, is simply nonexistent.”
    • “Overclocked just for smoother performance.”
    • “Performance-wise, it runs easily at a solid 60 on my decent i7 and a 1060, and goes much higher if you unlock it.”
  • stability
    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Overall, the game's stability is generally positive, with many users reporting smooth performance across various hardware configurations. However, some players have experienced overheating issues and crashes, particularly on the Steam Deck, as well as bugs in the online and customization features. Despite these concerns, the majority find the game runs well with minimal performance problems.

    • “It controls perfectly, looks great, runs great, has a nice soundtrack, and it's incredibly well paced.”
    • “It runs great on my Ryzen 2400G with Vega 11.”
    • “The game also runs great on low-mid configurations (I'm playing on a 1050 Ti laptop).”
    • “As far as the bad, the online portion and profile customization parts of the game are sloppy and buggy and feel thrown together.”
    • “There is still no way to disable the forced HDR. Altogether, I invested about two hours in troubleshooting, but it seems that it cannot be done.”
    • “Buggy.”
  • atmosphere
    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its stunning visuals, immersive sound design, and dynamic music that enhances the experience, particularly within its dystopian cyberpunk theme. However, some players feel that the overall atmosphere is undermined by repetitive gameplay and poor controls, which detract from the potential of its beautiful setting. While the game captures a vibrant arcade feel, it struggles to achieve the atmospheric depth found in similar titles.

    • “I haven't played so much with it yet, but in the first minutes it becomes obvious that this shooter is beautiful in visuals, great in sounds, ultra-great music, and is a very dynamic and atmospheric shooter!”
    • “Amazing atmosphere; the game is pretty and the soundtrack really sets the mood.”
    • “The dystopian robotic cyberpunk theme - the game is dripping with atmosphere.”
    • “Dystopian robotic cyberpunk theme - the game is dripping with atmosphere.”
    • “Huge focus on the arcade atmosphere.”
  • grinding
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious and unfulfilling, as the linear maps limit replayability and the lack of difficulty scaling makes it feel like a chore to achieve higher scores. The requirement to restart entire levels after mistakes adds to the frustration, while the old-school player-profile system offers minimal rewards for grinding without significant accomplishments. Overall, the grinding experience is seen as a lackluster and repetitive endeavor.

    • “Even with my brain set to 'off', and my trigger finger set to 'mindlessly kill', this is a vapid, tedious game.”
    • “Sadly, there's no way to up the difficulty to get more points, so you end up grinding for that few thousand additional points to overcome your last high score, which feels not good as one mistake means you have to restart not only a level, but the whole world or otherwise it's wasted time anyway.”
    • “On top of this, you have a player profile with a level and associated currency: old-school style, this isn't some free-to-play currency that you can top up with cash, and the only way to make significant gains is through significant accomplishments: you don't get much for just grinding without any improvement.”
  • monetization
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Monetization in the game has received mixed reviews, with some praising its alignment with player interests, while others criticize the presence of microtransactions that may artificially inflate grind and detract from gameplay. Concerns about pay-to-win mechanics and technical issues further highlight a perceived disrespect for both the game's legacy and its players.

    • “In special cases, a game plot/progression can be docked if it's a paid game with microtransactions; grind is probably artificially inflated to incentivize players to buy into the microtransactions, especially if cosmetic.”
    • “Pay-to-win cash grabs, missing executables, game doesn't start and it's confirmed widespread; a total disrespect for the integrity of the game's series and customers.”
  • humor
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is characterized by its fast-paced and amusing gameplay, complemented by a cool original soundtrack. Players particularly enjoy the hilarious fanboy responses, adding to the overall comedic experience.

    • “Fast-paced and funny gameplay with a cool soundtrack.”
    • “Wow, the fanboy response is hilarious.”
Skip Critic Reviews

100%Critics’ scoreBased on 1 critic reviews
Skip Game Offers

Buy Nex Machina

72h Median play time
72h Average play time
72-72h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs
Skip Videos

Videos

Skip Games Like Nex Machina

Games Like Nex Machina

Assault Android Cactus Image
92%1.5kreviews

Assault Android Cactus

2015Arcade Shooter
Nintendo SwitchPlaystation 5Playstation 4+10
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved Image
90%1.9kreviews

Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved

2014Arcade Shooter
Playstation 3Xbox 360Playstation 4+13
Jamestown ImageJamestown ImageJamestown Image
94%1.9kreviews

Jamestown

2011Action
PCMac OSSteam Deck+1
Waves Image
94%1.3kreviews

Waves

2011Casual Shooter
PCXboxSteam Deck+1
Crimzon Clover WORLD IGNITION Image
94%1.4kreviews

Crimzon Clover WORLD IGNITION

2014Arcade Shooter
PCWindows
More games like Nex Machina
Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Nex Machina is a arcade shooter game with science fiction theme.

Nex Machina is available on PC, PlayStation 5, Phone, PlayStation 4 and others.

On average players spend around 72 hours playing Nex Machina.

Nex Machina was released on June 21, 2017.

Nex Machina was developed by Housemarque.

Nex Machina has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players and overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its music but disliked it for its story.

Nex Machina is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.

Similar games include Assault Android Cactus, Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved, Jamestown, Waves, Crimzon Clover WORLD IGNITION and others.