24 Caret Games has announced that Retro/Grade, the first game to be played entirely in reverse, will be coming to the PlayStation Network.

Retro/Grade will be the first game on the PlayStation Network for 24 Caret Games. According to Matt Gilgenbach, co-founder of 24 Caret Games, the game “stars ace fighter pilot Rick Rocket who has just saved the universe. Unfortunately, the massive destruction he left in his wake has caused a temporal anomaly that reversed the flow of time. You must assume control of Rick’s spacecraft and fight through the epic space battle… in reverse!”

Gilgenbach explains that although the game looks like a shoot ‘em up it 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.”

It is very interesting to note that players will be able to pilot Rick’s ship with a guitar controller, using the fret buttons to move the ship and the strum bar to shoot. “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.”

The gameplay is timed to original retro themed tunes by Skyler McGlothlin and includes various power-ups, some which reverse time again, allowing you to reverse the reversed flow of time so time in fact moves forward! This enables you to undo mistakes and repeat a section.

Gilgenbach has confirmed that there will be a demo for the PS3. If you just can’t wait until then, you can check out the demo of a build made several months back which is available for the PC at www.retrogradegame.com/demo/RetroGradeIGFDemoInstaller.exe.

He also confirmed that a European release is on the cards but couldn’t reveal an exact release date for the game just yet. “We have the ‘when it’s done’ mentality because we want to make a truly great game. I can say it definitely won’t be done until 2010 though.” He also did not want to commit to a price just yet, but did say that “it definitely won’t be one of the most expensive titles on PSN.” Another thing he didn’t want to reveal just yet is whether Retro/Grade will only be a single player game.

If you are still confused, check out the debut trailer for Retro/Grade below and stay tuned for more details over the next couple of weeks.