Retro/Grade

Wiki: Retro/Grade Guides

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 21:59:00 GMT

Guides for Retro/Grade

Blog Post: A surprising gem of the ps store

LordXevious — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 20:11:00 GMT

I personally bought the game on the day of release. I was not expecting much from this game but after playing through it I was really impressed. The whole idea of the game is based around the idea that you are a pilot and have just saved the entire universe from the enemy aliens. so it is basically a side scrolling shooter which you would think that that would be pretty self explanetory. But here is the twist, suddenly the whole universe goes out of wack and you have to play the whole game backwards, to repeat you actions in reverse to save the universe again from a paradox. The story isn't pushed on you very much since it is simplistic and not very important to your enjoyment of the game. It is told to you through mission breifings in the stage select through the campaign. The backwards concept to it really makes the gameplay unique to it though. You have to dodge enemy attacks coming from the left to the right so that they go back to the enemy and recieve your own attacks going from right to left at you. You do this to avert a paradox. all this to the beat of the awesome chip/beat mixture of this games amazing soundtrack adds up to a hectic and enjoyable time. It has a rockband /guitar hero vibe to it as your shot that you recieve intertwine with the beat of the music. Also playable with the guitar accesory used for rock band. I played it with the regular controller and thought its controls would be better suited for the fast movements required for this game. And this game can be really hard on the higher difficulties. This is not a problem because one of the biggest pleasures in the game is to go through the levels on a really high difficulty. The campaign itself will only last you at most a couple of hours. But the meat of the content is found within the challenge mode and unlockable features. The challenge mode is huge it basically takes the regular stages and puts a certain rule for completion on it. These range from harder ones like complete the level 120% faster or complete the level without any mistakes. To just plain awesome ones like complete the level with disco mode on! Now there isn't many different types of challenges, so to keep things from getting to tedius and boring they put unlockables into the challenges so every once in a while you will unlock something. these things are artwork and songs from the sound track which can be acessed through the extras in the menu. They also have cheats and different ship skins to use things like the minecraft ship and big head mode usable in the stages. There are dozens of these in each category through the extras, and they are given out at just the right pace to keep the player going. And yes disco mode is available as a cheat for all the stages! This has truly proven in my opinion to be one of the gems on the ps store that have been rolling out lately. So for 10$ go out right away pick this up and enjoy the disco! You won't regret it.

Blog Post: The Backwards-Rhythm-Side-Scrolling-Shooter

Kyle Hilliard — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 19:57:00 GMT

Rhythm games saw a renaissance in popularity during the apex of Guitar Hero and Rock Band’s success. In recent years the audience for the genre has dwindled significantly, but that doesn’t mean that developers aren’t out there trying to do something interesting and unexpected.[Excerpt]

Retro/Grade is about a savior of the universe who accidentally reverses time with a massive explosion. It may look like a side-scrolling shooter, but it moves backward as you must undo everything that led to the explosion. You dodge enemy fire coming from the left side of the screen as it returns to enemy ships, and you align yourself with the bullets you fired as they return to your ship, making it more of a rhythm game than a shooter. The concept is difficult to describe, but easy to grasp when you have a controller in hand.

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The game begins with the end boss. It only takes a few shots, explodes, and then the credits roll. The credits barely scroll long enough for you to realize that the names sound fake when everything begins moving backward. The credits zoom in reverse, the handful of shots you fired on the end boss return to your ship, and the action begins in earnest.

Retro/Grade takes place on a horizontal scrolling track not unlike Guitar Hero, and even has colors corresponding to the familiar fret buttons on the plastic guitar collecting dust in your closet. You can use the controller and d-pad to move between the tracks to collect your bullets, or you can grab a duster and a guitar controller and use that instead. Using the guitar, each fret button corresponds to a track and you use the strum bar to collect your bullets.

On the lower difficulties I preferred using a controller. When you only have to jump between three tracks, using the up and down buttons to control movement alleviates the confusion of assigning a button to each track. In the higher difficulties, when you have up to five tracks, using a guitar controller is nearly a requirement. Progressing is much easier when pressing one button on a guitar instead of tapping the up button four times to move from the top to the bottom of the screen with a controller.

Despite appearances, this is a pure rhythm game that involves dodging enemy fire and collecting your own. The game is designed so that if you are successful at collecting your own bullets, you will automatically avoid enemy fire. By focusing the rhythm of the music, you can tune out the million things that seem to be happening on the screen at once and keep hitting your marks.

Alternatively, at certain times you just dodge enemy bullets, and in these scenarios you are not adhering to a rhythm, which is disappointing. When I am playing a rhythm game, I want every button press to be part of the music I am hearing. Moving between the tracks without being part of the music not only throws you off, but it sort of defeats the purpose of the game being so painstakingly set to music. Once you hit the higher difficulties, many of these sequences disappear, but at the normal difficulty, they happen frequently enough to be disheartening.

Retro/Grade only has 10 levels (and 10 corresponding songs), but each offers a multitude of difficulties, and the music is good enough that you look forward to hearing the same tunes as you replay levels. Each level features a short introductory story paragraph that I recommend reading. The story is genuinely funny, and it offers insight as to why the final levels are easier than the opening ones. These short paragraphs are easy to miss, so keep an eye out for them.

When you make your way through the campaign, or need a breather before moving up the difficulty chain, a robust challenge mode offers all kinds of unlockables, including tracks that you can remix slightly using in-game using turntables. You can also unlock art assets, cheats, and new playable ships. With challenge mode, you make your way along a map where levels have slight changes, or task you with achieving a certain goal. While this mode stills refers to the 10 levels you have likely already defeated for its assorted remixes, each challenge still feels distinct.

Retro/Grade is a weird but admirable attempt to rekindle the popularity of a genre that has fallen out of favor. Though its timing may be off, fans of games like Amplitude and Guitar Hero shouldn’t overlook this one.

File: Retro/Grade screens