Mars 2120 - Switch Review

Steve Whiting -

The latest metroidvania to hit our virtual shelves, MARS 2120, is set in a dystopian future which is, checks watch, less than 100 years away! People laugh at Space Odyssey 2001 being nothing like how the year 2001 actually turned out to be, but will the developers of MARS 2120 succeed where Stanley Kubrick failed? I’ll be sure to provide you all with an update in 96 years!

The Good

Despite being a 2D metroidvania MARS 2120 has some really awesome 3D effects, being visually very similar to its main inspiration Metroid Dread. For example, enemies crawl into combat onto the 2D plane from the 3D background, and the game begins with a pretty epic sequence where you’re outrunning a rock avalanche over a surface that is crumbling beneath your feet. The story elements are sadly pretty sparse, but where MARS 2120 lacks in traditional storytelling, it more than makes up for it in environmental storytelling, making no mistake about the peril that your character, Sergeant Anna "Thirteen" Charlotte, finds herself in on planet Mars.

The general atmosphere in MARS 2120, assisted by the aforementioned 2D/3D visuals, is really cool and helps to immerse you in the experience. While for the most part there are the traditional 2D side-on camera angles, every now and then the camera will pivot into a new fixed position to give you a sense of scale. For example, when Sergeant Charlotte approaches the top of an open lift shaft, the camera will suddenly move behind and above your character as she peers down the void. Not only is this a really impressive technical feat, but it also adds some dynamism to the environment.

Lastly, as you’d expect from a game inspired by the Metroid series, the sound track is on-point, and you have those little background bloops and bleeps you get in Super Metroid, but over an ambient soundtrack that cranks up the suspense. With the enemies scuttling in from various angles and the noises you can hear off screen, it certainly puts you on edge!

TL;DR

  • The use of 3D backgrounds is clever
  • Dynamic camera angles add depth to the environment
  • Great ambient soundtrack

The Bad

Sadly, MARS 2120 feels pretty unpolished on the Nintendo Switch. I had upwards of 5+ crashes in my playthrough where the game closed down, and probably 2 or 3 occasions where the player character got stuck in the environment, normally after getting shot and falling to the ground. On each occasion, I had no option but to restart from the last checkpoint, meaning I lost unsaved progress.

There’s also oddly very little tutorialising in the early parts of MARS 2120, nor is there a way to look back on item-collection tutorials, leaving me thinking, “Oh wait, how do I use that new pick-up?” and I ended up pressing most buttons on the controller trying to work it out. There are also some yellow globes you can pick up that appear to be collectibles, but when you do, there’s no pop-up screen or explanation of what they are. Why? It’s just a shame that some of the basic tutorialising is quite opaque, which means the opening hours of MARS 2120 can leave you fumbling around as a result.

I mentioned the lack of story in MARS 2120 earlier on, and it’s a real shame because often a good story is what compels you to carry on in the face of technical issues. However, knowing there was probably a crash around the corner, and with a bare-bones story, I sometimes lost the impetus to carry on. There are some audio logs dotted around that provide some context, but again, like the tutorials, there’s no way to go back and listen to them subsequent times. The logs don’t provide details about secrets, keycodes, etc., nor are they a key part of the storytelling like they are in System Shock 2, for example. As it is, there are just some real missed opportunities here.

TL;DR

  • Nintendo Switch version has some technical issues and crashes
  • Opaque tutorialisation
  • Story is lacking

Final Score: 7/10

MARS 2120 has some great ideas and executes them well, but the lack of story and some technical issues on the Nintendo Switch sadly hold back the rest of the experience. That being said, the soundtrack is great, the combat works well and some of the visuals are stunning, so there will be a market for any metroidvania fans who enjoy these elements of the genre!

Thank you for checking out our MARS 2120 Switch review, thank you to QUByte for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support: