UFO50 is a really interesting project; a collection of 50 games, made to feel like you’re playing titles from a long lost line of consoles that released in the 1980s, with a wide spread of titles across various genres, made by different designers and presented as a chronological evolution of a platform. The idea is ambitious and there are some great games in there that alone by themselves justify the price of admission and are worth playing, some other titles were not my cup of tea, and my goal of “completing” each game (getting an achievement was quickly met with failure, but UFO50 is really cool and I’m sure there’s something for you in it!
While the games themselves are good, I’m unsure about what I feel relatively to the framing and core concept of the project; these games are sometimes filled with obscure or difficult challenges that I just couldn’t overcome, and I really would’ve appreciated cheats or tips like you would have gotten in a title like the Game Center CX collections, I had started with the first game on the collection, Barbuta, with hope that I could see everything in the 50 games, but in most of them I would just game over immediately or struggle to get past the first challenge, without any apparent way to get better or learn what to do, thus I dropped some almost immediately.
My other issue with UFO50 is that I do not feel like these games would’ve been made in the 80s, maybe some, but not all. Now, I wasn’t exactly gaming during that period of time, and I know that some complex and deep games came out in that decade, but some just feel a little bit over-designed, with mechanics that weren’t ‘discovered’ for a while afterwards. I did not mind the lack of self-imposed graphical and technical limitations, but it sometimes made the games feel like 2024 imitations of the eighties. All of which is totally fine, but then maybe some more quality of life settings could’ve sneaked in too.
I had a great time with UFO50, as I’ve said, some of the games really hooked me and I’ve managed to complete them - or play them for a long long time - while most of them had me try for a little bit, then abandon and move on. If you’re interested at all by gaming’s history, old retro games, or just want to throw darts at a bunch of titles and see what sticks, this is a great value proposition and you’ll get some good milleage out of it I’m sure! And now for a one-sentence review of each title…
Barbuta: Obscure adventure platformer with punishing mechanics that you’ll trial-and-error your way around.
Bug Hunter: Fun puzzler where you improve a hand of abilities in order to fight increasingly difficult foes.
Ninpek: Run-and-gun platformer where I couldn’t get past the first screen
Paint Chase: Splatoon meets mario kart, pretty neat
Magic Garden: A very cute puzzler where quick reflexes are important
Mortol: Lemmings meets platforming; You use a vast supply of characters to create paths and defeat enemies, I really enjoyed how the lives work.
Velgress: Vertical platformer where I couldn’t get past the first screen
Planet Zoldath: Exploration roguelike with impossible to decypher mechanics
Attactics: Strategy game of rock-paper-scissors where I couldn’t get past the third level without understanding why
Devilition: Puzzler where you setup chain reactions to clear the board of enemies, pretty fun!
Kick Club: Arcade screen-based game where you must defeat sports-themed enemies in various stages using a ball, fun.
Avianos: Deeper strategy game with resources, deities to worship, and inscrutable combat.
Mooncat: Single-button platformer that made my brain hurt
Bushido Ball: Windjammers… three!
Block Koala: Fun puzzler with some core mechanics that could’ve been explained better
Camouflage: Really neat puzzler where you must go through various stages of different biomes without being spotted by predators by blending in the color of the tile you’re on.
Campanella: Arcade spaceship game with strange controls, couldn’t get anywhere.
Golfaria: Apparently a golf RPG, couldn’t get anywhere
The Big Bell Race: Arcade racer, kinda okay
Warptank: A really cool puzzle platformer where your main move is to invert gravity, a lot of stages to explore and the difficulty was just right.
Waldorf’s Journey: Some kind of platformer, couldn’t get anywhere
Porgy: You control a submarine and explore the depths, collecting upgrades and getting further every time, was okay, but I lost interest because I didn’t feel like I was making progress.
Onion Delivery: Reminds me of the driving sections of Dick Tracy, couldn’t get anywhere.
Caramel Caramel: Shoot-em-up ala TwinBee, couldn’t get anywhere.
Party House: Deck building game where you have to balance making points and respecting some rules, it’s okay.
Hot Foot: Sports game, couldn’t get into it.
Divers: Interesting RPG where you dive with a party of three characters, buy gear, upgrade your stats and explore the ocean. Difficulty was all over the place, stopped when I didn’t feel like I was making progress.
Rail Heist: Some kind of Sunset Riders kind of thing? Couldn’t get into it.
Vainger: Amazing metroidvania with a unique mechanic of having three slots for your upgrades and being able to switch upgrades there on the fly, nice gravity flipping gameplay, bit difficult but I completed that one.
Rock On! Island: Tower defense, got too rough too quickly.
Pingolf: 2D golf game, too difficult
Mortol II: Now a pure platformer rather than a lemmings game like its predecessor, couldn’t get anywhere.
Fist Hell: Beat ‘em up, couldn’t get past the first stage
Overbold: A bit like Smash TV, pretty rough.
Campanella 2: Reminds me of Blaster Master, but I couldn’t get the vehicle controls, so I didn’t last long.
Hyper COntender: Fighting game, couldn’t get into it.
Valbrace: A really neat exploration first person game with franctic combat and a unique spellcasting system where you draw runes.
Rakshasa: A platformer like Ghosts & Goblins, too difficult for me.
Star Waspir: Another shoot’em up, too difficult for me.
Grimstone: The best game in there, final fantasy inspired turn-based RPG with rhythm mechanics for weapon attacks where you pick a team of four out of 8 characters and explore towns, dungeons and the overworld, learning skills, picking up gear and more. Got too grindy at the end so I didn’t finish it.
Lords of Diskonia: Medieval bayblade, couldn’t get very far.
Night Manor: Neat adventure game like Shadowgate where you explore a manor and solve puzzles, was turned off by a mechanic where the killer would interrupt you and you have to hide or get killed and restart from somewhere else.
Elfazar’s Hat: Pocky & Rocky-style game where I couldn’t get past the second stage.
Pilot Quest: Supposedly an idle game, I didn’t get that at all.
Mini & Max: Platformer where you can shrink down at various spots in a bedroom to explore and solve puzzles.
Combatants: Ant-based strategy game where I didn’t understand what I was supposed to be doing.
Quibble Race: A game where you bet on centipede racing, couldn’t get into it
Seaside Drive: Racing-themed shooter with a neat style.
Campanella 3: Concludes the trilogy of games I couldn’t really understand
Cyber Owls: My team of various characters with different gameplay styles all got defeated almost immediately and it was game over.
