An excellent hypnotic and psychedelic shoot ’em up

Retro shoot ’em ups have had some serious adrenaline shots in recent years, with the well known Geometry Wars and Space Invaders Extreme proving there’s lots of life left in intense but simple gameplay yet.

Gridrunner has been around for many years – the Commodore 64 version was in 1982! While it’s still a shoot ’em up, the game has changed a lot, and deserves to be called ‘Gridrunner Revolution’.

This is an arena shooter – so you move around the screen, shooting enemy craft as you see them, and collecting sheep. Sheep are very important! The game introduces you very gently do the different aspects of gameplay, and the speed of this is just right. There are different ship types available, some of which you’ll recognize, and you can use gravitational pull to direct your weapon’s constant stream into enemies.

The gentle tutorial means that after a while you’ll be handling really busy, glowing psychedelic screens that would fry your brain if you played them cold! Gridrunner Revolution draws you in very well, and it’s really hard to stop playing, as the music, graphics, strange humor and fantastic sound effects become extremely immersive and hypnotic. There is much more depth here than in most retro shooters out there.

There are also plenty of unlockables, including simulations of the original Vic 20 and C64 games, an endurance mode and an insane ‘Thrusty Mode’, where your movement is controlled by thrust. For ‘hardcore’ players, this is one of the most hardcore experiences you’ll find!

Gridrunner Revolution is an addictive, humorous and visually stunning experience