The MARS Lightcon & IR Station works surprisingly well for something so easy to set up, and the Lightcon gun controller feels appropriately heavy without being too much for players to keep aloft for extended periods of time. Although the on screen system is not as graphically smooth as some people may have come to expect, especially after the Nintendo Wii, the MARS system works well enough to deliver at least one fun game upon launch.
Developed as a "universal lightgun," the MARS system sees players placing an IR camera directed at their television screen which then calibrates and defines the edges of the screen as borders for the Lightcon's gun. The IR Station is connected to the console, tested here on a PS4 Pro, by USB, and must be placed a few feet away from but still facing the television. Calibration is nearly instant, made by simply waiting for the camera's crosshairs to appear on screen and then adjusting slightly for direction. Once locked in, the IR camera's connection remains consistent throughout gameplay, unless the table it is on or the camera itself somehow gets bumped out of position.
Up to four Lightcons can be synced with the MARS station at once, and although the infrared camera draws power from the game console the Lightcon controllers themselves require two AA batteries in order to function. The guns can also be used on either the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One versions of the MARS IR system, making them slightly more versatile than other controllers on the market. The Lightcon has an adequate number of buttons, with a back hammer button, trigger, slight pump-action, and color-changing LED circle which functions as both the gun's on/off button and also curiously as a pause/Start Menu button in the games included.
Of the three games currently available for the MARS Lightcon system, only two of them are worth playing. Voyage of the Dead is the first, a House of the Dead-style rail shooter which can see up to four players defending themselves from zombies, aliens, and other monsters on and around a cruise ship. The second, and best game of all MARS-compatible titles, is Qubit's Quest, in which players (again, up to four) must protect an adorable robot dog from other, evil robots in order to save the human race from certain destruction. With ten different mini games including a Missile Command clone and a version of Flappy Bird called Floppy Dog, Qubit's Quest is both an enjoyable title for all ages and also the best reason to buy a MARS Lightcon system.
All three of the titles suffer from what is either a graphical issue or a slight delay in feedback with the Lightcon gun, a problem which causes the on screen cross-hair to stutter slightly and always feel like its just a half-second behind where it should be. Especially after the smoothness of playing titles like House of the Dead: Overkill on the Nintendo Wii, this is disappointing because it makes frantic shooting segments less enjoyable. However, even with this slight graphical delay the MARS Lightcon system functions adequately enough to help make enjoyable titles like Qubit's Quest even more enjoyable, and the ease and portability of the MARS IR camera mean pretty much anyone can easily pick up the Lightcon system for the first time and figure it out fairly quickly, making it perfect for multiplayer party games. Hopefully, more compatible titles will be released for the peripheral soon, and, even more hopefully, players will start a petition to have Qubit the dog be the next cameo in Super Smash Bros.
The MARS Lightcon & IR Station is available now for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. A PS4 version of the product was given to Screen Rant for the purposes of this review.