M.A.U.S Review

M.A.U.S enters a crowded marketplace of indie-style retro platformers, hoping to stand out with formulaic nostalgia, pixel-art, and a cyber-sci-fi settings revolving around a lone machinal defender. The title’s protagonist, Mechanized Assault Unity Series Unit 19 or M.A.U.S for short, is a rodent shaped android with a built-in blaster arm and a mission that boils down to shoot everything and guarantee planetary defence against an impending robotic invasion in the fictional town of Victoria.

Stylistically, M.A.U.S has the throwback feel of late 90s cartridge era platformers think Mega Man and various other Gameboy Advance styled platformers. It is purposefully simple, structurally linear, and designed around bite sized combat sequences, straightforward level progression, and instant progression. M.A.U.S has a premise, not a plot. There is no emotional driven arc, no character interaction beyond mission briefings with your creator and hardly any text other than ESCAPE at the end of certain levels. This is a mission-loop action tape of you are built to fight, kill the bad guys and get to the end of the level.

There are 18 levels in total and 3 biomes to explore each with their own charming and charismatic themes that introduce different types of mechanical bad guys and their behaviour gets a bit more tricker the further you progress. Plenty corridors filled with enemies and projectile spam which prove to be tricky in the latter stages.

As well as bad guys there’s a lot of platform puzzlers in terms of backtracking and being faced with colour switches that block your path ways. By destroying colour switches you remove colour lasers that may hinder your path to carry on with the level. Some of these rooms are tight knit and you have to act fast to remove everything without taking damage.

When shooting enemies, you gain currency as well as blowing up explosive crates that store currency and weapons also. It is very similar to that of Metal Slug with the square box with a letter in it providing an insight to what weapon you have picked up. Plenty variety and sometimes you avoid picking up everything because there are a handful of different weapon types and projectile spread that help you in certain situations better than others. For example, I much preferred the weapons that do less damage but hone in on things.

What works in its favour is pacing, levels are brisk, enemy design is readable when facing them for the first time and dying rarely feels unfair although there are cheap tactics like being unable to see where you are falling in some levels as well as projectiles can travel through items and walls.

Boss battles are challenging but again once you have learned simple patterns and behaviour they are bested in a couple of attempts.

There are a handful of water sections that mix things up and change the pace and the way that your character interacts and adds a different element of platforming as well as the type of enemies you face.

Currency you collect can be used at the upgrade stations often found in most levels that allow you to make M.A.U.S a better mech. Simple in structure with only 3 upgrades available in: Better Aim, Higher Jump and Extra Lives. Currency carries over even after death and they aren’t that expensive and can be fully upgraded by the end of the game after a few deaths in-between.

I did find the jump upgrade was needed in the middle of the game as some of the platforms was tricky to reach without having to spam wall jumps to progress upwards.

The soundtrack and art style really hit the spot for me and really leans into a retro platformer feel and just by looking at the art style of the biomes and attention to detail in the all the different types of enemies and weapons you come across it’s fantastic.

The soundtrack is great as well, with its chiptune-inspired style, and it does a good job of leaning into the types of areas you’re in. Little attentions to detail stand out too—such as when you dive underwater and the music suddenly follows you below the surface. Not to mention the sounds of projectiles flying about and the flashes of colour across the screen it really does tickle that itch of old school platforming.