In addition, there are some fantastic sales to jump on as well including the Gamers’ Choice Awards discounts (winners announced tomorrow) and the PS Vita Anniversary Sale celebrating PS Vita’s first year. Read on to learn more about these exceptional sales.

Don’t have PlayStation Plus? Go to the PlayStation Store on your PS3 or PS Vita or click here to get access via the Sony Entertainment Network online store.

February 26th PlayStation Plus Update

Plants Vs. Zombies (PS Vita)

PSN Price: $10.49, Free for PS Plus members

Popcap’s irreverent take on the real time strategy genre is yours to play free on your PS Vita starting this week as a PS Plus member. At first glance, you may think it’s just another cute strategy game. Get your hands on it, and you’ll find an incredible amount of strategy that relies on everything from picking the right plants, determining their placement, and decisions while under fire from masses of zombies. The PS Vita version sports a ton of great features including co-op multiplayer, a ton of modes, and even some mini-games to keep you busy, making putting Plants vs. Zombies down an pleasantly tough proposition.

Retro/Grade (PS3)

PSN Price: $9.99; PS Plus Price: $2.44

Retro/Grade Soundtrack

PSN Price: $7.99; PS Plus Price: $1.74

The game that turned rhythm games upside down is now available at an irresistible price for PS Plus Members! Starting at the end of the game and working your way back to the sound of head-bobbing retro tunes, you’ll need to ensure the pilot makes it alive through his backward journey through time. With 10 dazzling ‘backwards’ worlds, epic boss fights, and a seriously fantastic soundtrack, it’s a deal that everyone should jump on. If you like the music, we also went ahead and put the soundtrack on sale as well! You can grab it for $1.74 on the PS Store as a PS Plus member.

Gamers’ Choice Awards Winners Discounts

Various Discounts for PS Plus Members

You voted, now you’re about to reap the rewards. This week the winners of the Gamers’ Choice Awards go on sale at various discounts across the board. Tune in to PlayStation.Blog tomorrow morning to find out which titles won as voting is still on as of today’s Plus Update and the race in some categories is pretty darn close. If you need a refresher on the nominees and still haven’t cast your vote, click here.

What’s your favorite content from this week’s PS Plus update?

You should leave your thoughts by dropping them below and as usual, I’ll do my best to respond to key questions and comments. We’ve also got the PS Plus section in the PlayStation Community Forums where you can continue chatting about PS Plus, or find other topics to contribute your thoughts to, or start one for yourself. See you in the comments!

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I can say with considerable confidence that today’s episode is our biggest and best yet, weighing in at a groan-inducing (but quality-packed!) two hours and 10 minutes. Our time at PAX Prime last week yielded sweet fruit in the form of five new game developer interviews, and each one is a treat. First, indie developer Matt Gilgenbach discusses how his new PSN-exclusive “reverse shooter” Retro/Grade changed his life; from there, we shift to Snapshot, the charming PS3 and PS Vita platform puzzler that enables players to manipulate their environment through photographs. Then Drinkbox Studios’ Chris Harvey and Graham Smith discuss their plans for cross-controller support on their upcoming PS3 and PS Vita adventure Guacamelee, while Hitman: Absolution Game Director Tore Blystad shares the secrets of the game’s newly announced Contracts multiplayer mode.

Finally, we launch into a sprawling discussion on The Walking Dead – Episode 3 with a literal mob of Telltale game designers: Jake Rodkin, Sean Vanaman, Harrison Pink, and Eric Parsons describe the challenges of episodic game creation, the most-loved characters in the game, and how they’ve managed to stay true to Robert Kirkman’s relentlessly grim vision. It’s a fascinating listen and one of my favorite interview segments of the year.

We’ve also got a special guest in the studio: Brad Douglas, who comes to us by way of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. In addition to be being a big gamer, Brad explains Japanese gaming culture and how he ended up in the role of publisher relations in this week’s Origin Story segment. Of course, today’s show features the usual niceties, from next week’s PlayStation Store game lineup to an avalanche of Player Queries™ and tips to a vexing new Mystery Theme. There’s even a farm-fresh new PSN Gem of the Week! Listen in and let us know what you think.

Stuff We Talked About

The Walking Dead – Episode 3
Hitman: Absolution
Snapshot
Retro/Grade
Guacamelee
Double Dragon Neon
Rock Band Blitz
Treasure Park
Pinball Arcade – Monster Bash table
PS Vita Cross Controller
Hatsune Miku

The Cast

• Sid Shuman – PlayStation Social Media Manager
• Jeff Rubenstein – PlayStation Sr. Social Media Manager
• Nick Suttner – PlayStation Sr. Product Evaluator

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

• Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. Special thanks to Astro Gaming headsets for providing audio gear.

Now that you’re all caught up, we can get started. It’s been a long journey since our first post about Retro/Grade on the PS.Blog over three years ago. We’ve worked very hard creating the best game we possibly can since then — if you saw the three year old screenshots, you’ll notice that it’s barely recognizable as the polished product you see today. Besides all the visual polish we added — like jaw-dropping effects and full HD 1080p rendering at 60 frames-per-second with anti-aliasing — we’ve added a ton of content.

Although we have a campaign mode, challenge mode is really the star of Retro/Grade. It’s where the real meat of the game lies. In challenge mode, you are presented with a galaxy map, and you go through playing various challenges that are based on the campaign levels, but with various twists and rule changes. For example, in some of the challenges, the music is sped up, which naturally makes completing the level more difficult. We also have challenges that require you to reach certain score targets, have trickier patterns, and plenty more! There are 130 challenges spanning a map filled with secret paths, warps, and rewards.

What kind of rewards, you ask? All sorts! We have cheats that turn on fun gameplay features like big heads, disco lighting, a film noir look, and more. We also have 11 unlockable ships, some of which feature characters from other indie games like Meat Boy, Minecraft, Octodad, and Go Home Dinosaurs. We also reward you by unlocking tracks in the music player. While that may not sound too interesting (especially if you bought the soundtrack), our music player is set up like a DJ deck with two turntables, which means you can scratch and mix the unlocked sounds to your heart’s content!

If challenge mode doesn’t sound like it interests you, campaign mode will keep you coming back for more. You can compete on one of our many leaderboards for the different songs and modes — don’t worry, we have separate leaderboards for guitar and DualShock controllers, just in case you feel that one control scheme has an advantage.

Retro/Grade is available today for $9.99, or in a bundle with the soundtrack for $14.99. The soundtrack, which is in AAC format and is copyable to a USB memory stick, is also available separately for $7.99. We have a demo available, so if you’re not yet completely sold on this reverse-shooter, now is your chance to try it out! Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you on the leaderboards!

Firstly, how did we design a game played in reverse? We worked backwards of course! We started with the idea that it’d be cool to play a game where time is flowing backwards, but we didn’t have any ideas on how to pull that off. We did a lot of brainstorming — time reversing is a hard concept to wrap your head around. We figured for gameplay purposes, undoing your actions would be the best fit for that theme. When undoing, you have to match both the timing and the position of previous actions. When matching timing, music is the best way to achieve that, so we thought rhythm gameplay would be the best mechanic to build the game around. We figured a 2D game where your motion is constrained to a few discrete lanes would make it easier to match the positions.

A 2D spaceship shooter seemed like a great fit for the theme, so we tried to incorporate elements from sidescrolling shooters on top of our rhythm game core. Rick Rocket, the hero in Retro/Grade, must un-fire his shots, which are timed to the beat of the game’s music. Rick is equipped with basic lasers, but he’s also got a range of special weapons that he will un-fire, since shmups usually tend to feature awesome special weapons. All player fire has to make sense when time is moving backwards, so if the player makes a mistake and doesn’t unfire a shot correctly, it damages the space/time continuum, which is what you’ll be trying to preserve instead of health in Retro/Grade. Too much damage to the continuum and it’s the end of the entire universe!

One of the greatest parts of sidescrolling shooters is weaving through crazy patterns of enemy fire. We wanted to use that in Retro/Grade, but enemy fire works a bit differently since time is reversed. The player still has to dodge enemy fire, but it is returning to the guns that fired it. If the path is blocked, then it is preventing the shots from being fired, which creates a paradox. Paradoxes damage the space/time continuum, so Rick must carefully avoid enemy shots while getting into position to unfire his shots.

Now that you understand how we came up with the design and what it is, how is it actually played? When we were still brainstorming how the game would work, we realized that if we have five or less discrete lanes, a guitar controller would be a great control mechanism — Retro/Grade is a rhythm game at its core, after all. From the beginning of development, we designed the game for both the guitar and the DualShock in order to ensure that one scheme isn’t easier than the other.

With the DualShock, Retro/Grade plays a lot like a shooter. Up and down move your ship one space lane up and down, and the X button unfires your projectile. When playing with a guitar controller, you press the colored fret button to move your ship to the corresponding lane, and strum to unfire. We also have a Retro/Rocket power up, which allows Rick to reverse the flow of time again (forwarding it) allowing him to undo mistakes and try again. The circle button, or whammy bar, will summon this power.

Sounds confusing right? It really isn’t! Understanding how everything fits into the fiction of the game world with time reversing is complicated, but the actual gameplay is easy to pick up. It’s all about dodging enemy shots and un-firing yours, and everything is timed to the beat of our awesome original soundtrack by Skyler McGlothlin. We spent a lot of time putting together a tutorial that introduces all the concepts slowly but surely, so if you aren’t sold on the game yet, be sure to try the demo once it’s available.

Retro/Grade will be available for $9.99 on PSN August 21st, or you can get a bundle featuring the game and soundtrack for $14.99. The soundtrack will be available by itself for $7.99, so if you want both, the bundle will save you $3. Thanks for reading, and I can’t wait to see you all on the Retro/Grade leaderboards!

Hey everyone, good news: We’ve finished our award-winning rhythm/shoot’em up, Retro/Grade! The game will be released on August 21st exclusively on PS3, and will provide hours of mind-bending rhythm-based gameplay as you fight through reverse-timed space battles.

We’ve gotten many requests to make Retro/Grade’s soundtrack available, so I’ll go ahead and confirm that we’ll be selling it on PSN. If you want the game and the soundtrack, there will be a discounted bundle — we’ll have more details on pricing soon.

For those who aren’t familiar with Retro/Grade, it’s similar to a classic Shoot ‘Em Up… in reverse! At the beginning of the game you stop a massive alien invasion, but all the destruction damages the space/time continuum, causing the flow of time itself to reverse. What would have been the final boss is actually the beginning of your backwards journey. You must help Rick Rocket restore the continuity of space/time, before the temporal anomaly rips the universe a new time-hole!

Since time is reversed, you must undo your actions to protect the health of the space/time continuum by unfiring your shots, which are timed to the beat of the game’s music. In addition, you must dodge enemy projectiles returning to the guns that fired them. You can unfight the battle with either a DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller or a PlayStation 3 guitar controller.

To learn more about the game, click here and visit the official site. Check back soon — we’ll have much more to discuss, including Retro/Grade’s support for guitar controllers!

So we set up a camera for 24 Caret Games’ Matt Gilgenbach, clad in a hard hat, to show you how the game actually plays. He actually beats the game in the first 30 seconds, but that’s not an accident…

While at Fantastic Fest, Destructoid called it “a blast in the pants.” I agree (I think). Retro/Grade will be coming exclusively to PSN in 2012. Hold on to those plastic guitars.

Retro/Grade is an innovative fusion between a rhythm game and a sidescrolling shooter that has received the IndieCade audience award as well as two Independent Game Festival nominations. The game begins when you have just singlehandedly fended off an alien invasion, but all the destruction damaged the space/time continuum, which caused the flow of time itself to reverse. What would have been the final boss is actually the beginning of your backwards journey.

Since time is going in reverse, you must undo your actions in the space skirmish to protect the health of the space time continuum. This means you have to dodge enemy projectiles returning to the enemies that fired them while un-firing your projectiles as they return to your ship. It is easier than it sounds since everything is timed to the beat of the original retro game inspired soundtrack.

If you have a guitar controller collecting dust, brush it off because you can use it to play Retro/Grade! (Don’t worry. Gamepads are supported as well.) If you are having trouble imagining how a game can be played in reverse or how to pilot a ship with a guitar controller, you’re in luck. Retro/Grade will be playable in booth 6415 at PAX Prime later this month, so stop by our booth and give it a try.

At PAX, we are having a high score contest where the winners will be forever immortalized in the credits of the game. To enter the high score contest, you need a Reverse Pilot ID Card. If pre-register on our website, we will print a custom reverse pilot ID card with your picture and call sign that you can pick up at PAX. If you forget to pre-register, you can still compete, but you will miss out on your chance to have a cool custom card. In addition, we will be giving out t-shirts to people who beat a challenge.

If you can’t make it to PAX to check out the awesome progress we’ve made, here’s a quick update. We’ve added some amazing boss fights with crazy reverse attacks. Your spaceship can now unshoot plasma beams. We now have motion blur to give you the feel that you are reverse rocketing through space at breakneck speeds. We’ve added new exciting locales for backwards battles. We’ve added all of this without sacrificing antialiased 1080p running at 60 frames a second! Check out this video to see some cool new stuff in action:

If you want to make sure you have all the latest and greatest info as we announce it, become a fan on facebook or follow us on twitter. I hope to see you at PAX!

As you can see in the screenshots, all the graphics have been redone in order to take advantage of the power the Playstation 3 provides. Retro/Grade will look amazing on your HDTV because it runs at Full HD (1080p) with anti-aliasing at a silky smooth 60 frames per second.

On the gameplay side, we’ve been very busy working to ensure that it is the most fun possible. After some serious focus testing, any rough spots in the gameplay have been smoothed out. Our composer, Skyler McGlothlin, has worked hard to improve all our original tracks for the game. We’ve adjusted the gameplay patterns for maximum enjoyment. In order to help people wrap their minds around our time bending concepts, the tutorial has been greatly improved.

If you are going to the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle on September 3-5, stop by booth 3008! Retro/Grade will be playable, and we are giving out posters and info cards. As well, you can win a Retro/Grade t-shirt by beating our challenge.

On top of all that, we are having a contest to get your name in the credits for Retro/Grade! The gamers with the top five scores using the guitar controller and the top five scores with the DUALSHOCK 3 at PAX will be mentioned in Retro/Grade’s credits. It should be a great time, so be sure to stop by!

At this point, you may be thinking, “How on earth do you play a game in reverse?” That is a very good question, and after many years of temporal physics research, we’ve finally come up with the solution. As you can see from our screenshots, Retro/Grade looks like a really exciting shoot ‘em up. However, it actually plays more like a rhythm game. In order to protect the health of the space/time continuum, Rick must undo his actions exactly the reverse of the way he performed them in the first place. That means he has to get in the appropriate space lane from which his shot was fired and press the shoot button at the appropriate time. As well, he must avoid blocking the path of the enemy shots as they return to the enemy’s guns. If he blocks their path, it creates a paradox since he is stopping the shot before it was ever fired. All of the gameplay is timed to original retro themed tunes by Skyler McGlothlin, aka acclaimed electronica artist Nautilis. Retro/Grade earned a nomination for Excellence in Audio at the IGF because of our great tunes.

One feature in Retro/Grade that we are really excited about is the ability to pilot Rick’s ship using a guitar controller. You can use the fret buttons to move Rick’s ship to the desired space lane, and the strum bar acts as the shoot button. It’s a lot of fun to use the guitar, but it is equally fun with the DualShock 3 controller if you don’t have any guitar controllers handy. Players that play a lot more rhythm games will probably feel more comfortable wielding a plastic guitar whereas shoot ‘em up junkies looking for an innovative twist on the beloved genre will feel more comfortable with their trusty DualShock 3.

Retro/Grade features many innovative power ups including the ability to reverse time (again). You may be thinking, “But wait Matt… Time is already reversed!” This power up allows you to reverse the reversed flow of time, so time moves forward! Although that sounds confusing, the gameplay effect is really exciting! It allows you to undo any mistakes you’ve mde made and repeat a section again. This is extremely helpful for when you hit a hard section that requires a little more practice or you lose the rhythm and start making mistakes. Once you play Retro/Grade, you are sure to bemoan that other rhythm games don’t have that feature.

All of these compelling features earned us a nomination for Excellence in Game Design at the Independent Games Festival. There’s plenty more to get excited about that we aren’t ready to announce just yet. Stay tuned, and we will update you Playstation Blog readers with more information as development progresses! If you want to stay up to date, be sure to follow 24 Caret Games on Facebook!