➤ The GRIDD Retroenhanced review 🎮

GRIDD: Retroenhanced was born from an idea of Antab Studios, a small independent Spanish team made up of only three people. As you can guess without too much effort by looking at the images, the developers wanted to create a game that pays homage to the 80s; for one verse with the eye-catching neon graphics that winks at Tron, for the other with the classic structure of shoot'em ups, combined with a graphic sector more in line with current events. In reality, the first episode of GRIDD was published on mobile, more precisely on Windows Phone, with a more traditional structure: that of the canons 2D shooter horizontal scrolling. Some time later there was space for a sequel also proposed on Android, where for the first time a 3D structure was adopted with a view positioned behind the spacecraft to be controlled. GRIDD: Retroenhanced is basically an evolution of the same concept to adapt the game to home platforms. The first version published was the one for PC, available on Steam since May of last year, which was immediately followed by the conversion for Xbox One a few weeks later. Now, almost twelve months later, the frenetic Antab Studios shooter has landed on Nintendo Switch and so we took the opportunity to try it and put our feelings on paper.

Arcade mode

The atmosphere old school which is already perceived at the first impact with GRIDD: Retroenhanced first of all passes from I share audio, based on effective electronic sounds that are repeated in a loop without being tedious. Indeed, the opposite is true: the music effectively manages to sustain the pace of the game, supporting the frenzy that makes its way as soon as you enter the obstacle. Arcade mode. Once on the field you have to start dodging laser beams, light barriers and fierce enemies at maximum speed who will do everything to put the reflexes to the test even before the user's patience. The small aircraft to be controlled will function as a sort of Trojan intent on infiltrating a super-protected mainframe to destroy its code from the inside. To succeed in the enterprise it will be necessary to deal with a highly hostile Artificial Intelligence, which will fund every resource in order to keep the infrastructure operational and safe. The nacelle moves at a fixed speed, therefore accelerating or decelerating as needed is not allowed. The only possible action is dodging. For the rest, all you have to do is shoot at everything that moves, doing your best not to suffer damage to the hull. To put it in other words, GRIDD Retroenhanced is the typical title that, just to pay homage to the glorious 80s, offers a very simple and immediate gameplay. Under the accessibility, however, there is a level of challenge that is definitely not within anyone's reach. At this point it is necessary to make some clarifications on the shot management, that in the opinion of the writer have proved to be more of a limit than a way of enhancing the interaction to differentiate themselves from other illustrious exponents of the genre.

The view placed behind the ship is not only not fixed, but is also positioned slightly by three quarters: this translates into a few headaches too much in the early stages of the game, especially when you have to get in tune with the management of spaces. At first there is the perception that reference points are missing: not exactly the best in a game where speed and promptness are everything. Our main perplexity therefore concerns the reactivity of the movements, specifically when we come across the various bosses that the enemy AI puts in front of us. All too often it happens to move with a rough idea of the surrounding space and this inevitably leads to frustration. Suffice it to consider that the Arcade mode it does not foresee the presence of checkpoints, consequently when the ship is destroyed it is necessary to resume the raid from the beginning. The automatic lock on on enemies and the prerogative of firing continuously by holding down the dedicated button take care of it; a choice if we want very little 80s, but at least it serves to offset the shortcomings of the camera. Moreover the automatic aim does not always work in the best way with respect to its positioning in the field: it happens, for example, that by moving the spacecraft to the top and bottom of the screen, or to the sides, the viewfinder does not remain focused on the target, ending up requiring more time than it should to get rid of the threat.

Endless mode

Once you have completed the arcade section you can unlock the Endless mode, which plans to face a path generated with procedural criteria. In this case you have to try to survive as long as possible, getting a high score and trying to climb the scores online. We are talking about the only alternative section to the Arcade one proposed by GRIDD: Retroenhanced, but at least in this phase it happens to face many more variations on the theme compared to the initial path. Also in this case it is possible to access three different types of power up, useful to restore the integrity of the spacecraft or alternatively the x2 or x3 firepower multiplier. By knocking down the enemies that come before us, and successfully avoiding as many obstacles as possible, you are able to forfeit a score bonus progressive which will significantly improve the final evaluation and positioning in leaderboard when the game is over.

Comment

Tested version Nintendo Switch Resources4Gaming.com

Readers (1)

4.7

Your vote

With only two game modes GRIDD: Retroenhanced doesn't shine for longevity, but that's not the real worry we have after finishing our test. We remain convinced that with a better managed camera the game of Antab Studios could have aspired to a better verdict, because overall the 80's atmosphere, the use of the neon palette and the presence of a rhythmic soundtrack are choices that we enjoyed.