Mars Matrix - Hyper Solid Shooting (c) 04/2000 Capcom.
In the 25th century, Mars is home to millions of immigrants. This is because Earth was going to be overcrowded, and thus the colonization of a terraformed Mars was the only solution. The problem is, at some point, an unknown source of energy, located in the south pole, is discovered by the local goverment. All of a sudden, a declaration of independence arrives on Earth. What's going on? The Earth fleet goes to reveal it, with the new 'Mosquito fighters' acting as intruders...

>>> TECHNICAL DETAILS
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Capcom Play System II hardware (CPS II)
Game ID : CP-S II No. 32
Main CPU : 68000 (@ 11.8 Mhz), Z80 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Q-Sound (@ 4 Mhz)
Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 384 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 59.63 Hz
Palette colors : 4096
Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1

>>> TRIVIA
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Developed by Takumi (see Staff section for more info).
The original arcade version could actually be maxed out, score wise : this means that you could get 999,999,999,990 points, if you played in a flawless way. Note : This feature has been removed in the port, since they added two extra digits in the score.
Suleputer released a 2 CD limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Mars Matrix, Giga Wing 2 Original Soundtrack - CPCA-1050, 1051) on 11/01/2001.

>>> TRICKS AND TIPS
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* Mars Matrix weapons :
1) Normal rapid-fire : light-damage shooting is carried out by tapping the button.
2) Load (or beam) : By pausing between attacks, and then shooting, the beam-weapon will fire. This attack is relatively powerful, can hit multiple targets, but has a much shorter range.
3) Barrier : the absorption of enemy shots is performed by holding the attack button down. The player can choose the duration of absorption, and if they leave it pressed until the maximum, an explosion will result which destroys all enemies and shots displayed on the screen. On the other hand, absorbing only partially acts as a reflection attack: enemy projectiles are thrown back at the enemy.
* Experience system : in Mars Matrix, there is a system which makes it possible to improve the protagonist vessel(s) by collecting gold cubes. The cubes, which come from the destruction or damage to every object in the game, add to an 'experience bar' at near the top of the screen when collected in a continuous combo. A greater amount of these gold cubes will be unleashed if the player uses reflection attacks. Once the experience bar is filled, the player's weapons will become more powerful, and then the meter zeroes out for the next experience level. A small bar located in top of the screen indicates the amount of remaining time until the combo runs out; if this happens the meter zeroes out for the current level. The meter will also reset if the player's ship is destroyed while a combo is active.

>>> DESIGNERS / PROGRAMMERS / STAFF
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* Takumi :
Programmers : Takafumi Nishi, Kaju Ishii, Toshihiko Onodera, Naoto Sakurada
Object designers : Ken Taketoshi, Tatsuhiro Suzuki, Hiroki Akiyama, Yuki Ootou
Scroll designers : Kazumi Yogi, Tadahiro Mukaide, Akemi Ootaka
Music composer : Yasushi Kaminishi
Sound programmer : Masahiro Yuge
Concept mechanic designers : Choco, Shorp, Nadialove Kitty, Norihiro Takikawa
Planner : Ikuwo Satoh
Producer : Yukikazu ozaki
Executive producer : Tomoaki Fujimoto
* Capcom :
Producer : Tatuya Minami
Support from R&Dept. #3, Tomoshi Sadamoto

>>> GAME PORTS TO OTHER SYSTEMS
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* Consoles :
Sega Dreamcast (2001)

>>> OTHER GAME RESOURCES
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Game's rom.