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But I suppose it would be different if we looked down on people who haven't tried to get 1 trillion, or didn't play score attack or something.


Another important way this is different is because it's Mars Matrix we're talking about. I've said before that of all modern vertical shooters, Mars Matrix is one of the few that was rethought at all as a home game (when it actually came home), and in any case is far and away the best rethinking of an arcade game as a home game.



Neither of us played the game right after buying it with the intention of getting some particular score. The game motivated us to do that. (This is one reason why I don't think that genre fans are always the best people to judge a game. They're already planning to do something that a game SHOULD motivate them to do, and they overlook that the motivation comes from them and not the game) Now, in some sense the game doesn't really tell you to do anything, explictly. It's not like there's some R-Type Delta style note that says, "Earned an experience of 20 million".

It's more like the motivation of an RPG. When I play an RPG, I don't level up to level 99 and then plow through the game. I try to keep my level as low as is reasonably possible ("reasonably possible" meaning I might not explictily go for a lowest level possible clear, but at least will avoid dedicated level building whenever possible), usually. It's not because I'm trying to make the game harder for myself. I'm not self handicapping myself, in other words. It's more based on level building being time consuming and, often, tedious. While the game doesn't force you to keep your level low, it does provide some strong motivation.


Likewise, you'll get points for the shop in Mars Matrix no matter how badly you play. But eventually, the prices start to become far out of reach, and any reasonable person will realize it'd be a lot easier to just get better at the game and earn higher scores.

Another thing about Mars Matrix, in regard to limited credit finishes, it that it has a full default setting of three lives and three continues. Again, it's not like the ending of the game changes or anything else special happens if you beat the game like that. But it seems to be a way that the game is defining a "par" (aside from 1 crediting), which some other games don't have. But I think another argument could be made that the game might motivate you to beat it that way: If you ever lose your memory card, and want to play the game right away, that's how you'd have to play it!


I don't like games that are fun.