Imagine the beloved shooters of yesteryear. Recall the likes of Zaxxon and the cute, yet amazingly 3D Star Fox. Good. Hold that and add in some awesome visual effects reminiscent of Geometry Wars, with awesome time-reversing and reverse-time-reversing gimmicks and make it a rhythm game, with a heavy dose of comedy. What do you get? Awesomeness, A.K.A. Retro/Grade.

The environments are gorgeous and feature details such as volume meters built-in various places, making the world come alive with the music as you go zooming by (in reverse). The Standard ship is amusing - it's a stylized old-school rocket with a convertible cockpit, where your avatar, Rick Rocket, is sitting there with his space suit on, his helmeted head be-bopping along to the beat. However, as you play through the Challanges Mode, you can unlock additional ships, including a Minecraft Ship and a T-Rex in a crude rocket fashioned out of a tree. It is to laugh.

Typically, one of the most important things about rhythm games is the music - specifically are the songs popular songs and are they performed by the original artists. Retro/Grade isn't that type of rhythm game. The music in Retro/Grade is original Electronic music with an old-school 8-bit feel, but with higher sound quality. And, while you don't already know the songs, they feel "familiar" if you played games back in the day and they fit the visuals of the game perfectly.

When you unlock music via the Challenges Mode, you can do more than just listen to them. The music player isn't just a music player, but is, instead, a DJ console. You can load music from the game into both the left and right side of the deck, then alter the play speed of the tracks individually, cross-fade between the two sides and even "scratch." This game achieves greatness by stuffing every nook and cranny with pure awesomeness.

While Retro/Grade has the looks of a modernized side-scrolling shooter, it plays like a rhythm game. If you play the Tutorial Level (highly recommended), you'll start by finishing the final battle... unfortunately, however, the final battle disrupts time, which destroys the universe. You, Rick Rocket, are the last - and only - hope to set things right. You must rewind time and un-shoot all of your shots while avoiding all of your enemies shots as they are un-shooting theirs. It's novel and a load of fun.

If you make a mistake and don't correctly un-shoot your shot or you take damage from an enemy's shot as they're un-shooting it, you can un-rewind for a bit and the re-rewind time, this time not getting un-shot. Sound confusing? It can be, but it's also hilariously entertaining.

There are three different types of shots: energy shots, which look and operate similarly to normal notes from other rhythm games, missiles, which line up into bursts of several notes next to each other (such as eighth notes) and laser shots which are held and can "slide" between pitches, much like typical held notes. One noteworthy difference is that with Retro/Grade, the gameplay is equally playable with a guitar controller or a gamepad. With the guitar controller, the different colored lines indicate the note to be played, while on the gamepad, you use the directional control (Up/Down only) to switch between these lines and (X) to fire.

As with any rhythm game that uses a guitar, there's a certain level of manual dexterity required to play. Beyond that, the difficulty of playing Retro/Grade with a guitar is about the same as playing other rhythm games with a guitar, with the added difficulty of not having the luxury of switching notes on your own time when enemy fire is un-shooting straight for you.

As for difficulty levels, there are 6 to choose from, ranging from the easiest Beginner to the most difficult Extreme, but the difficulty level with the most awesome name has got to be "Mediumcore." The different difficulty levels mainly control the number of different tracks you have to worry about, as well as the complexity of the track - much as in other guitar-based games.

One aspect that makes Retro/Grade stand apart from other rhythm games, however, is that the game requires you to move your ship, and hence, change which button you're pressing, in between strums. You might need to be on the top line of the screen (green) to un-shoot an upcoming shot, but if there are enemy shots coming up behind you, you might have to move down to other lines (other fret buttons) to avoid them, then come back to the green line in time to shoot. Some of these obstacles are timed to require you to swoop in at just the last second to un-shoot your shot and then get back out of the way. This is, of course, seen more in the higher difficulty settings.

As I mentioned above, there is the Rewind feature, that lets you move time forward (um, reverse your time-reversal) for a while. This uses up fuel, so you'll want to use it sparingly, keep an eye on your fuel level and spend it wisely, but it can help you get that low score you're shooting for. (Yes, since you're going backwards through time, un-firing your weapons and un-blowing things up, you're lowering your score as you go along. The lower the score, the better you, um... un-did?)

It is not unusual for a game to be built around a gimmick. Sometimes, the gimmick gets old quickly or the implementation falls flat. Other times, the gimmick works well and the developers create a game that attracts a cult following and does exceptionally well. How many millions of quarters were thrown at a game about eating while avoiding being eaten? Who would have imagined the following achieved by a game about rolling up large balls of... stuff?

Retro/Grade has the potential to rank among these games... or to slip by as a sleeper hit. Either way, the game is awesome; it's just a matter of how many people find out about it. If you like retro games and rhythm games, you should at least try out the demo to see just how awesome it is for yourself.