Overall 6.9 Graphics 6 Sound 6 Addictive 5 Story 1 Depth 4 Difficulty 5
6.9
Martian Panic: this is what its like when worlds collide! ThanatosUnraveld
When aliens come down from space and try to take over the world, what else is there to do but take up some Wii Remotes in defense! While there are a good amount of On-Rail shooters on the Wii, but not as many as I feel would be on a console basically about point and shooting. But they made enough, and honestly on the better end is Martian Panic. While that might be on level with saying that diarrhea might be better then puking as you can't taste it coming back out (I'm so sorry for that!) But really I feel like for what kind of games On-Rails are that Martian Panic is some good fun and is a bit of a unique game, with its comedic premise and 1950's atmosphere. But anywho Martian Panic was released on the Wii clear back on August 23rd 2010. And it must of been some kind of popular as it later got released on PS4 and Windows, and later even on the Switch. So is this game really worth the releases or is it just an easy cash grab? Grab your Laser blasters and fake plastic Wii holder gun thingies and lets find out.
In terms of how this game looks I'd say that I really enjoy the vibes of the game like previously stated, the game looks like its from that 1950's and tats cuz it takes place back then! But there is something about this game that I really like the cartoon vibes mixed with the 1950's vibes. It matches oh so well! I know it's more of the sound, but the way everyone talks and the way everything looks and the vibes, are just great. The game takes place in first person so you don't see who you're playing as for the level, but the NPCs look OK. The 8 different Martian designs are what takes the cake. The big ones that kiss your screen makes me have to contemplate what I'm doing with my time, but I definitely like their designs. And the little floating robot guys look OK as well, I just feel they get overused a lot, same with most enemies honestly. The guns also don't really have designs out of the models you pick up in the world but they are OK. The yellow explosion bubble design that's behind everything you pick up is nice. And picking stuff up like popcorn and 3D glasses for extra points is a pretty nice touch as well. There aren't very much int erms of bosses either mainly just Mini bosses I feel the best description like the War of the Worlds knock off tripod things. And for some reason a Simon Says final boss, probably an Independence Day reference. In terms of graphics in general, it's not going to win any rewards, but it's pretty solid. Nothing looks amazing, but it also doesn't look like a Gamecube game, it for sure is a Wii looking game. It just works with what it had i feel and popped out a decent looking game. When talking about the level design, i guess it has stuff like that even though the game literally routes you where you need to go. My favorite level easily has to be the Drive In theater eat and the cheesy super hero movie playing in the background just peak Martian Panic right there. And if it's not that, then Area 51 is also peak, when the Seriel Kissers aren't depleting your health through lovings! The Diner is also nice and easily one of the first areas that naturally pop up in my head as well. And that's the pretty simple explanation of the graphics of Martian Panic, pretty decent and the 1950's vibes are pretty great, i wish that more games took this 1950's alien invasions idea on the bigger high graphiced screens. I'll give the graphics an OK 6 out of 10. Decent but not great for even a Wii game.
Back at it again with the 1950's again i see! And yeah the sounds of the game is pretty old sounding, from the farmer guy to the electric gun they all give a goofy old fashioned sound. The people you all play as are wildly different from the last and are pretty fun to listen to when cutscenes are happening. The farmer guy being one of my favorite. Randomly as your playing they will say some random one liners that are OK at first and start to suck after the 235th time.The Aliens do have sound effects but I don't really think they are that memorable. Nor are they remotely terrifying or anything. I also cannot remember any of the music, nor did I ever feel the need to listen to it again to hear it. The sound effects in general are pretty nice I'll admit that, every area sounds different. And once again the Drive-Ins are one of the best areas for this as you go through the parking lot and can hear the wacky Super Hero movie going on in the background, that I'd for sure watch in real life! Really there isn't a whole lot of stuff going on in terms of sounds, but if you like the characters talking in the level then you can probably ride off those sounds while you play the game and zap stuff to death with the zapper gun, Ill give the sounds a 6 out of 10.
As for the addictiveness of the game I'd give it 2 different scores and ill explain as I go on but in a few words I'll just say : Multiplayer. But to get into details of all the rerplayability of this game. I feel like its not super deep, if you know anything about Light Gun games or On-Rail games, then you should get why you would replay this game. Super simple gameplay, with pretty fun but similar Multiplayer. There really aren't any separate paths to choose during levels or anything, and it's not like picking a different person for a level does anything. Especially on the Wii unless you have Sin and Punishment then i dunno what other On-Rail game is better to play then maybe this. OK House of the Dead Overkill but still this is a pretty decent choice as well. Sometimes it's just nice to have the game guide you around while you just shoot aliens up, and listen to cheesy voice acting. But if you don't have any kind of interest in games like this, then you'd probably never even pick this game up. maybe if your the other person playing the Multiplayer for a friend. And if you do have a good buddy to play this game with, then it gets a lot better. As it's a good time with friends as more shooting is happening and whatever other fun can happen, you just gotta have a friend who wants to play an On-Rail Martian Wii game! I really don't come back to this game often to replay, as I never have anyone to play with and you can only play this game solo too much. So id be surprised if most people play this game more than once. If you have friends to play this with id give it a 6 out of 10 in terms of addictivness. And a 5 out of 10 for solo instead. Better with friends but OK by yourself i suppose.
THERE IS NO STORY! If there is any kind of story to this game, its literally what you could put together from this review up to here. You play as a group of 1950's civilians who go up against a group of Martians who are trying to take over earth in their Simon Says ship. And then you outplay it in Simon Says and boom end of game! Id try to overplay this section for words but there is none! I ended up giving the story a 1 out of 10 as there really isn't one, but if I add in all the goofiness of the game into the story then I feel like that should give it a 1 pointer for it.
So really just take everything I said for the addictiveness earlier and put it here. As there's only playing the story solo or with a friend, and the story doesn't change playing it in multiplayer, you know cuz there isn't one. The game itself is fairly short only being like one full game session if you really pushed it out, even less with friends. And if you don't have friends then you can play this game even faster then normal solo play. As you can duel wield Wii remotes! It's honestly one of the greatest ideas ever! For real, being able to use 2 remotes and fire twice the amount of ammo should be in more of these games. I dunno if they thought of it from the get-go or if someone was like, why multiplayer when you can just duel wield? So hypothetically you can play this game 3 different times, solo, solo with dual guns and multiplayer. But really no one is going to do all that, unless they are a weirdo like me! The amount of different weapons you can use are pretty nice though. There's a good amount of them in the game, and they all are completely different and act different. There are also 5 different Power-Up pick ups, that obviously give you a nice boost in combat from infinite ammo to one-shot kills. There are enough of them (6 of em) in different levels to keep things fresh when you're playing the game so I can't complain too much. But that's about it honestly, Martian Panic gives you what every other On-Rails shooter has, just you know with that classic ecstastic. Ill give the depth a 4 out of 10, maybe around a 4.7 out of 10.
Once again, if your into these games, you'll know what kind of difficulty your getting into, actually I feel this game is way easier then most of the real quarter-snatching arcade versions of these games. Since you don't do the moving then you don't have to worry about that. And since you don't move I feel the biggest difficulty thing is grabbing stuff on the screen before your character moves onto the next screen. And once again this game doesn't have it as much of a problem like some games (Dead Space Extraction!) And the enemies don't cause too much of a problem, when they throw like 6 of the same kind at you at once in multiple waves, then it's a bit too much at points. So really all the problems that normal Light-Gun games have aren't as much of an issue here, even the finite weapons last a good amount of shots. With there only being 8 levels there isn't to much to really press you for difficulty. I feel like the hardest mission is the Area 51 mission, like the part when your trying to shoot of the rocket at the end, but that's about it really. And you add a friend or another gun in your other hand and watch the difficulty drop! So if you play this with two guns or one friend, then its like a 3 out of 10. And for the solo version I'd give it a average 5 out of 10.
After the attack of the planet of the Martians, I'd say that Martian Panic is an OK game, maybe a bit 'better' when it first came out but not as interesting as the years went on. I might as well mention the cool alien blaster light-gun that came with the Switch version that I guess doesn't work too well? So maybe stay away from that version possibly and get the Wii version that only really calls for you to have the game to play normally. Martian Panic was made by ZOO Games, and this is probably the best game they made, sadly to say, so if for whatever reason you always wanted to play the game, then play it. You'll have it done by the end of the game. I'll give it a kinda low 6.9 out of 10.
Graphics 6 Sound 6 Addictive 5 Story 1 Depth 4 Difficulty 5
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 04-30-25
Review Replies: 0
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