Review: RetroCosmos
Score:
70%
The clue is in the name of the game. Retro. Because RetroCosmos is harking back to the old days, the days even before Galaga and Defender ruled the arcade halls around the world. If there was a big timeline of arcade games where we would place Fabien Chereau's title, it would be sandwiched between the original Space Invaders and the more colourful Galaxians.
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This is not an all singing arcade shooter that you would expect in 2011. You'll be firing just a handful of bullets at a time, starting out with a single bullet and you need to wait till it's off the screen before you can fire another one. How old skool (sic) is that? I'm going all misty eyed just thinking about it.
It's the same with the controls, just hold your finger down and slide around the screen. You've got the freedom of movement that lets you get right up to the edge of the advancing alien army, which gives you rapid fire shooting due to the smaller distance to travel. Alternatively, you can hold back and have lots of time to react to incoming alien gunfire. However, you will need to lead the target some distance to make up for the travel time for the bullets.
Some of you might read this is as poor design, allowing you to switch from a reactions based game to one where a bit more grey matter has to be used - for me it's a delight. There's an ebb and flow where you can decide where the balance lies. If you become too eager (which happens to me all too often) and get close to the enemy, you'll likely be shot down in a matter of moments.
RetroCosmos is not a slick looking application - the graphics are bold and clear, while at the same time appearing blocky and quickly designed for that retro look. Touch screen arcade games like this don't have much control choice, so the tap and slide around the screen is fine, as is the addition of auto-fire if you keep holding down on the screen.
The difficulty curve is well pitched too. There's just the occasional descending alien as you start, before you have fleets of attackers flooding down, along with the side to side stepping aliens at the top of the screen. With power-up carrying critters thrown into the mix as well, things gets busy by just the right amount.
So yes it looks like a bit of a throwback, and the handling is a bit 80's, but that's the charm, as they say. No, I'm not cutting it any slack because it's coded by a single author, this is a developer that has a vision of an old fashioned game, working on 21st century devices, with all the trappings of 1979.
If you think games were better back in the old days, this is one for you.
-- Ewan Spence, June 2011.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at