XBLA Indie Review: Retrofit: Overload
“All Your Arcade Favourites Meshed Into One!”
An XboxHornet Review By WDesm.
WAM! Games has brought their big-league experience to the small-league indie level, and everyone, be it dev or gamer, has benefited from them upping the ante on XBLIG Indie quality. “Retro” is in on the Indie Channel these days, and not just for popularity reasons: For the small-time game dev, having simplistic graphics and audio can be a saving grace for their timelines. Unfortunately, this can lead to the misconception that “Retro = low quality”, but there is a small handful of fantastic retro titles to scare away such worries (if you’re curious what great retro offerings XBLIG has, see the list at the bottom of this article). Retrofit: Overload oozes quality from top to bottom, and is certainly worth the rock-bottom price for what it offers.
This showcases the many multi-gun power-ups that you can stack
At first glance, Retrofit: Overload appears to be a Space Invaders clone: Enemies fly in rank above you, slowly moving closer while they bombard you with fire. However, within seconds you’ll realize that Retrofit: Overload is way more than that. Enemies fly in from off the screen, and their neon frantic movements are more in line with Geometry Wars (or, for the Indie comparison, Pew Pew Pod). Enemy formations change, and some ships will dart off to the side, while others rush towards you. Perhaps the biggest difference from a “pure” Space Invaders clone is that, while you can still shoot only upwards, you have full movement across the entire screen, and you’ll certainly need it; expect to be racing to collect the sparse power-ups that drop, either in the form of more guns, or in the form of a temporary shield, turning you into an invincible wrecking ball for a short time.
Retrofit: Overload also includes a two player local mode, with independently tracked scores, power-ups, and lives. If you thought that retro neon ship flying was intense alone, the added firepower of a friend will be able to really amp up the odds. I thought that it was unfair if one player dies, they had to wait until the other one was done to restart – if glitching/stealing points are a concern, the surviving player’s points could simply be wiped to zero upon a revival, but I found that the lull (especially if one player is substantially better or luckier than the other) can be a tad longer than necessary for a multiplayer title.
One of the bosses of the game
After surviving wave after wave, you’ll eventually meet your match, and hopefully earn some bragging rights on both the local and the online leaderboard. The online leaderboard is already dominated by some ridiculously high scores, but with so much polished content crammed in to 3MB, and at such a ridiculously low price, I have a feeling that it’s going to get even more popular and competitive.
Game Score 9.5/10.
Read our WAM! Games interview here.
Watch a trailer for Retrofit: Overload here.
Download a free demo of the game here.
For other great Retro XBLIG titles we’ve reviewed, see (alphabetically):
- Breath of Death VII (8-bit JRPGs are back!)
- Pixel! (Classic sidescrollin’)
- Pixel Whirled (think Space Invaders Extreme)
- Tobe’s Vertical Adventure (Cute sidescroller)
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It really is a lot of fun!
[...] the bank), this title ramps up the dot phosphor art direction and delivers. And here’s a recent interview with the creators for more [...]
[...] the bank), this title ramps up the dot phosphor art direction and delivers. And here’s a recent interview with the creators for more [...]
This game is just brilliant, get out there and buy it people
[...] Galaga) clone, but with a single button press, you are shown the slickest feature to sneak in since Retrofit: Overload cunningly got rid of 1-d [...]