Retro/Grade is a PSN title from newcomer 24 Carat Games which is essentially a rhythm game, but tries to offer something new, which it achieves to various degrees.
The concept is that you are Rick Rocket, who has just saved the world. Except that by doing so, you have caused a rift in the space/time continuum and now time is flowing backwards. To correct space/time, you must now complete your mission in reverse by unshooting your bullets and re-dodging enemy attacks. The layout and setting all suggest a hortizontal scrolling shoot em up, but they are just the window dressing for this unique rhythm adventure.
The first thing you’ll notice are the outlandish, bright visuals. It certainly packs a punch in this regard, and feels very much like a euro-shmup in style. These visuals really help set the tone, but can occasionally get in the way. Everything is so explosive in colour that it can occasionally become hard to concentrate on just the lanes without them either blending into the background or missing something coming at you in the other direction.
It’s important to note the music in a rhythm game, of course. You’ll be pleased to know it’s rather good, channeling shootemup soundtracks of old. Made by Skyler McGothlin, it’s full of spacey synths as is appropriate and it makes sure to utilise varied melodies in order to create interesting note paths as well as some cooled down parts to allow for dodging sections. You can give it a listen here, and I suggest you do.
The basic mechanics are simply that of Rock Band, where notes fly towards you from the right in colour-coded lanes and you press them in time with the music. There are even notes you have to hold (although they can now move lanes) and the Overdrive mechanic, called Overthruster here. The similarities swiftly end there, though, as Retro/Grade throws a few extra mechanics into the mix. There are various hazards along the way which help spice up the gameplay, like attacks from bosses and black holes. Most importantly, enemy bullets Rick avoided in forward time travel to you from the left. It may take a while to get used to this, but eventually it will become second nature to keep it in your periphery.
Each time you get hit or miss a bullet space/time takes a hit, and if you get hit too much, time stops and the game is over. However, you have at your disposal a Retro Rocket. This is a rewind button which, as you’re already going backwards, makes time go forwards so you can correct mistakes that killed you, which you may need to do on the tougher levels. It resets your streak multiplier though, so it’s use for score attacking is not a replacement for just not making mistakes in the first place. Due to time’s backwards nature, your goal is to get a low score, your scoring deducting from the base score.
The game also offers two different ways to play. If you were looking for a reason to pull out your plastic guitar, this might be the game you’ve been waiting for, as it has a guitar mode, where you move lanes by pressing the frets (the lanes are colour-coded for this reason) and shoot by strumming. The controller layout feels simpler, and uses up/down to move lanes, with X shooting. It seems to just be a matter of personal preference, though, and neither system feels like a handicap.
Campaign mode is a standard affair where you go through the game’s 10 stages at any of the 6 difficulty levels, from Beginner to Extreme. Beginner has only 2 lanes, but Extreme has a whole 5 lanes to contend with. As is the case with Rock Band and its compatriots, the higher difficulties more accurately feel like playing the music, and as such feel like the way to get the full effect of the game’s ideas. Stages gradually introduce new ideas to keep things fresh, and slowly ramp up the difficulty until you’re deftly dodging enemy patterns and racking up combos of notes.
Most levels will have a dodging section, and unfortunately these tend to drag. Somehow, when you’re just playing one handed, it’s not as engaging. When a track gets into its flow, though, it can become quite exhilirating in the mad rush to get to your bullets and avoid the enemy’s, all while trying to maximise your score with clever use of rewinds and Overthrust. Once you’re in the zone, the result is really quite satisfying, as all good musical experiences should be.
Challenge mode works in a tree-like structure where you go through a set of preset challenges with some forks in the road. Progressing through these challenges grants unlock such as art galleries, new ships and access to the music tracks in a special DJ mode, where you can mix them together. Unfortunately, the system forces you to play really easy challenges at the start, which can drag, as well as most of them being fairly uninteresting modifiers to the original levels (play without powerups, disco lighting/no colour coding, etc) which means this mode has a lot of wasted potential, especially as some good ideas, like new patterns for levels and varying speeds are hidden away underneath under the more basic stuff.
Retro/Grade clearly set out to add a plausible context to an otherwise simplistic genre, and pulled it off pretty well. Their tweaks to the basic formula make for a more in depth and engaging experience. There’s a serious issue of longevity though. 10 tracks is just not enough, even if you have different difficulties to complete them in. It may be the kind of game you buy as a few hours’ distraction, then; if that’s what you want, this is a good choice.