Virtual on Marz

by Sega Of America, Inc.

Product Features

• As a member of the MARZ Special Investigation Unit, you'll unleash grenades, air mines, lasers, and missiles against super-high-tech enemies
• Intense VR combat at the speed of light -- with unique Virual Twin Stick controls for arcade-style control
• Collect Virtuaroids, giant battle robots, as you unravel a complex and entertaining storyline
• More than 35 playable characters -- unlock Virtuaroids as you play
• Discover the true identity of the mysterious forces that have infiltrated Mars

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00009M98C
• Item Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: September 8, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,096 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #36 in Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Action > Shooter
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Corporate crime has plunged the Planet Mars into an explosive war zone overrun with towering mech warriors known as Virtuaroids. As a member of the MARZ Special Investigation Unit, you'll pilot your war machine into the heart of intense battles unleashing a hail of grenades, air mines, lasers, and missiles on the aggressive enemies. These enormous sword and mace-wielding robots stand 49-feet tall and are surprisingly fast. Headquarters will constantly update your position with information and warnings as you stalk and defeat enemy Virtuaroids and gigantic bosses throughout your missions. You'll also be called upon to attack enemy locations and convoys, defend allied bases and convoys, and fight alongside other Virtuaroids in battle. Ultimately, you must restore peace on the planet by discovering the true identity of the mysterious forces that have infiltrated Mars. Good luck!

• Intense VR combat at lightning fast speeds.
• "Virtual Twin Stick" controls bring the feel of the arcade home.
• Exciting and varied missions include assisted combat, boss battles, exploration, destruction of placement turrets, and more.
• Collect Virtuaroids in the new solo player Dramatic Mode.
• Over 35 playable characters, unlocking new Virtuaroids at key points in the story.
• Beginning level players and Ace pilots alike get the challenge they're looking for.

Product Description

Virtual-On Marz makes you the pilot of a deadly war machine, to clean up a world where crime and corruption rule!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the virtual on we knew back in the day, October 20, 2003

By 

P. Ugale "edit808" (Under a coconut tree) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Virtual on Marz (Video Game)

For all of you fans that have played, and followed the virtual on series... This third installment will leave you going what happened? Remember that quick fighting style where you just pick your VR and go fight those other VRs? Well guess what that isnt here anymore, instead sega decided to replace it with a mission type base of action, granted it is fun pummeling more then one VR into the ground, and they also added an artificial AI to help you on your missions. It seems a tad bit boring after awhile repeating the same thing over and over. IE destroy enemy target(s) Destroy enemy CARGO(S) well you get the point. On a light note you do get graded on these missions based on your performance and other factors. Not to mention you DO get rewarded when you do very well on a mission new mechs new colors "OH JOY" aside from all this virtual on mars is an okay game on its own just dont think of it as old school virtual on or you will be disappointed such as i was. so the actual rating is 3 and a half stars not 3 okay? Reason being cause 2 player action is still there and they added some new 2 player VS options.( had more fun playing VS mode then the actual dramatic mode) For all you die hard virtual on fans pick this game up, and for all of you new to the game take a shot, it aignt armored core, but at LEAST it moves much better!

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Way to change the formula - In Depth Analysis, March 5, 2006

By 

Sestren NK - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Virtual on Marz (Video Game)

Virtual-On Marz is the fourth game in the Virtual-On series, the first one that is exclusive to a home console. For those who are unfamiliar with the series, Virtual-On is a Sega arcade fighter that lets you duke it out with giant mechanical robots. It's not in the same fashion as 2D fighters like Virtua Fighter, King of Fighters, DOA, etc, but instead you have an overhead view and full control in a 360 environment. To control your mech, or as the series calls them, "Virtuaroids" or "VR" for short, you would use two sticks with two buttons on each. A turbo button and an attack button. You would have a left attack, a right attack, and center attack if both attack buttons on both sticks are pressed. Pushing both sticks in one direction would move your VR in that direction, pulling them apart would make it jump, and pushing them together would crouch, but only when attacking. Pushing one stick up and the other down would allow you to rotate.

The VRs were heavily varied. Some were focused on armor, some on speed, and some for attacks. Some were long range, some were short range. You could find at least one to fit your needs in combat. The environment also played a strategic role, as you could hide behind a hill or huge crate for cover. Close range combat was also available.

The first of this series, Cyber Troopers Virtual-On (also referred to as "Operation Moongate" or VOOM) was released back in 1995. A PC port and a Sega Saturn port was released shortly after with Twin Stick peripherals available for the SS. The sequel, "Virtual-On: Oratorio Tangram" (Oratan or VOOT for short) was released in 1998 and was considered to be near perfection. A Dreamcast port was released in 2000 (thanks to Activision in the US). The game not only had more VRs to choose from with enhanced graphics, but the game moved at a phenomenal speed. The moves that you could also perform with your twin sticks were massively increased, as several combinations such as doing a CC attack while running, a crouch attack while running, special moves and double jumping were introduced. Also, your attack would change depending on whether you press left or right turbo as you attacked. Each VR also had armor that made it stronger or weaker. It added serious depth to the game, and mixed with the intense speed of it, it delivered a gaming experience that couldn't be beat. Every reflex of yours would be put to the test. Almost everyone I've shown the game to was too afraid to even try it because it moved so fast.

However, much later on, a third game was introduced: Virtual-On Force. The main premise of this game was that instead of one-on-one battles, it would be two-on-two. One member of each team would be the leader, and if the leader was taken out, the match ended. If the partner was taken out, the leader could dash near the fallen comrade and share health. A radar was even implemented. However, the gameplay was radically changed. While I haven't seen or played Force, word was that it felt much different than Oratan. While you could customize your VR with weapons that would affect armor, speed, long, medium and close range weaponry, the speed of the game was greatly reduced. Word also was that graphics were worse; the lighting effects found in Oratan were near-absent, the explosions appeared worse, and stage design was rather bland thanks to 'realism'. It was said in the past that the speed was reduced because of the arcade hardware used and instead of two VRs on the screen, you had four.

Then we get to the review of this game, Marz.

Virtual-On Marz came out in 2003 for the PS2. The upside to this system is because of the way the analog sticks are aligned, the player can actually move them similar to the twin sticks in the arcade, while the L1/L2/R1/R2 buttons are used as turbo and attack. However, in case you've played too much Oratan, there's an available button configuration similar to the Dreamcast predecessor.

But unlike its previous games, Marz isn't all about fighting. Yes, there's several VRs to fight, but Dramatic Mode, the core of the game, is a single player adventure mode. In some stages, you have to find enemies hidden in camouflage, destroy bases, protect cargo trucks or destroy them, navigate through a maze and there's even some areas with platforming involved. However, every other time in the game you'll take on several other VRs in the combat you've grown to love, or not.

The fighting engine for Marz is taken directly from Force. Hearing the negative reaction from hardcore Oratan fans, I went in with lowered expectations, and I still wound up disappointed. So much was changed from Oratan for the worse, and you can point out the problems are and how to fix them very easily. My first problem was double-jumping. Oratan introduced double jumping and air-dashing, and one of the most important techniques to find your enemy was to jump, then crouch to land quickly, a jump cancel. Jumping would normally turn you towards your enemy. But in this game, attempting to double jump makes you perform a jump cancel instead, which takes time to get used to. Dashing, air or non, is also much more slow, and more than likely you'll get hit a lot. My main absolute problem is attacking while dashing. Before, if you dashed in one direction and fired, your VR would turn toward the enemy and fire, VOOM and VOOT. In Marz, however, your character takes their time with rotating, and fires WHILE rotating. This will result in horrible, horrible accuracy. Did I forget to mention that your VR is much less responsive than before? Often I'll land and attempt to dash immediately afterwards, only to stay still and get bombarded by attacks. Also, your left turbo attack is gone. You only have a right turbo attack, and the other button is used to switch targets, which won't always respond. While the left turbo attack was always weaker than the normal attack in VOOT, it did allow you to trap and paralyze your enemy more easily. In some cases it automatically knocked them down. But that's not here.

The enemy AI is much smarter than VOOT and will often challenge you, which is good if you thought VOOT's AI didn't challenge you enough. Even on the hardest difficulty setting in VOOT, the game was a breeze. Note that I didn't say your partner AI was that smart. You'll find that on missions your enemies will avoid several of your attacks just by jumping. Close combat on the other hand is much, much more difficult. Most of the time the enemy will block the attack at the last second, or counterattack. Some of your battles will be one-on-two or even one-on-three, and while one blocks your attack, another could come in and strike from behind. The challenge is nice, but sometimes when you're forced to protect a base or supply truck, you just want your enemy to fall and die just like in the old days. Instead, he avoids all of your attacks, while his buddy destroys what you're supposed to protect.

Unlike the previous games, you're not able to select a choice VR. Unless you're a huge fan of Temjin, you're stuck with him. While you unlock more VRs throughout the game, the majority of them will be Temjims, Apharmds, and Voxes (think Dordray and Grys-Vok from VOOT). I'm personally a Raiden person, and I wasn't too thrilled with how slow he moved and how short his dashes were when I unlocked him. However, like Force, you can see the specs of each VR and see which suit your needs. The game won't require you to use any other VR, and you'll wind up sticking up with a Temjin throughout the game, really.

Also unlike the previous games, the game is heavily story-based. While you won't have enemies yelling at you as they fight (except for specifics), there is a lot of voice acting. For the American release, english voice acting is used, and thankfully it's not too bad. It's not great, but it didn't make me cringe. The Virtual-On stories have all been the same, really. Corporations at war trying to find power. Like most arcade games at the time of VOOM's release, story didn't mean anything at all. VOOT paid a little more attention to the story when it came to unlocking the secret ending, but Marz is story all the way. It doesn't necessarily focus on a pro-or-anti war stance, rather humanity's greed and lust for power. It's not a strong story, but it does give you a slight sense of what's going on. You'll have enemies and comrades to fight and team up with. I have to say, I almost shed a tear when I had to defeat a specific character and he says his final words of the game.

Visually, there's not a lot of impressive moments. While the VRs are detailed, animate more smoothly than they did in the last game, and this game usually runs at a solid 60 frames-per-second, the lighting effects that made the VRs look so amazing in Oratan are absent. Furthermore, the stage designs don't have the life they did. In Oratan, the stages virtually breathed with small details and several animations going on, whether it be in the skies or floors. There was always something to admire. They're not bad in Marz, but they don't have the appeal as before. Some weapons and explosives don't look as interesting, and the menu interface is rather bland and boring.

Speaking of the menu, this is probalby the single most irritating thing of the game. In the menu screens, anything you do will force the game to constantly load. I'm not sure if they made it so that the game engine was loading during the menu screens, but it's a pain. The game's not very responsive at all in menus. For example, in versus mode, when you choose the VRs or a stage, pressing left five times won't take you down five choices. There's a lag between them, and constant loading at menu screen doesn't make for a user-friendly interface. It's not confusing, but it takes a while to respond and it takes about three to... Read more ›

3.0 out of 5 stars Alittle Dissapointed, July 31, 2009

By 

Marc Moses (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Virtual on Marz (Video Game)

I have been a fan of the series since I was about 9 years old. I finaly got a PS3 that could play PS2 games, so I thought I would give this a try and to my dissmay, it was no where near as good as the Dreamcast predicessor. The game feels sluggish and unatural. The good news is that sega tried to encoperate a story mode however it makes the game worse. The best feature in this game would be all the virtoids you could pick but it dosent make this game that much enjoyable. Unless your a fan of the series or have money to throw away, I would stay a way from this one.