UFO 50 Review

UFO 50, released in September of last year, is still garnering immense attention, almost a year on from its release. Why? If you want a short answer. Nintendo. If we dive deeper, though, it's one of the best indie games to have been released in the recent past. Again, why? The game is not just a game; it's a plethora of games within a game. To be more precise, 50. Each game contains flavors that will serve everyone's taste palettes.

If you know the Spelunky series, you know Mossmouth. UFO 50 is Mossmouth's only other venture apart from that series, and they demonstrate their know-how on various genres, especially with UFO 50 containing 50 games in one. Every single game in this collection possesses its own identity, each different from the rest, ranging from the turn-based strategy Avianos to the roguelike Velgress.

Out of everything on the list, something is bound to catch your eye. UFO 50 is the modern-day derivation of the old NES games. Point to be noted: even if in many ways the collection may be a modern iteration, they are by no means simplified. UFO 50 will be a trip down memory lane for you, 80s-style retro gaming enthusiasts. For your information, this is no retro-styled cash-in preying on your nostalgia, so don't think otherwise because this isn't your average collection of mini-games festered with bootlegs.

So before we proceed, it should be mentioned that going through all 50 games was not possible, but we'll discuss the ones we tried and tested for you to play on your Switch or, like the rest of us, on PC. Moreover, it would be a disservice to the game itself because part of the appeal is finding out what sails your boat in UFO 50. 

You start off with the basics, and the games increase in complexity as you progress. You can access the games by "release date" from their in-world developer, UFO Soft or LX Systems. A common misconception we took upon ourselves to clear up is that you need to complete the game in order, which is most definitely not the case, and you can play the game according to what appeals to you.

It's quite hard to grasp how much depth the game offers. Nonetheless, we can begin with the games that we think are an absolute must-try. Coming in at number one (this is not in order), Velgress is the show-stealer here. It takes the cake as the most accurate depiction of what an 80s game could be.

Making you reminisce about a time you never lived in, which is what we'd hope, assuming the arcade-goers in the 80s are not playing UFO 50. But hey, if any one of you millennials is here, you should be in on the action, because Velgress is a perfect blend of modern and retro.

Velgress will take you down to the pits of hell, metaphorically, of course, or so we'd like you to think. It's up to you to escape. You never know what to step on because every platform crumbles under your weight, and a giant spiked cylinder that prevents you from going downward is going to be your arch nemesis.

This gameplay loop invites chaos like no other. It creates urgency. You want to rush your way to the top, only to be distracted by collecting coins and gathering keys. It's roguelike mayhem alongside retro aesthetics. What more could you want? There's also a shop between floors where you can purchase upgrades, so it's a bonus point there. 

Mooncat is the thirteenth game in this collection. Bushido Ball, or maybe even Avianos, rivalled it, but Mooncat inches them out for its bizarre alien direction. Mooncat invites you into its world. It'll be hard to decipher early on what really is the core mechanic of the game, but give it time, and it just clicks.

The game is therapeutic, where you just hop around and immerse yourself in its world, but alas, it ends. Mooncat doesn't have a long playtime, which may be a common complaint for many of these games, including Velgress, but more than criticism, it is a compliment because you are left wanting to play more. 

The controls need some time to get the hang of, but it works in Mooncat's favor. The music is the icing on the cake. Just a tidbit for you to know, Mooncat is a remake of Mossmouth's submission for the 2015 Ludum Dare 34 game jam. 

Let's talk about Campanella. Good news for you. There are three installments to this game within UFO 50. The in-game year this was released was 1985. So basically, you fly around in a tiny spaceship while having to carefully fly, avoiding obstacles. 

UFO Soft did not end Campanella's run there. Campanella 2, made in 1987, followed suit. This game retains the core mechanics but in a vaster world, allowing you to land and get out of your ship and go through doorways that switch the game to a side scroller. There's also a cute little narrative here. You play as Isabell, an astral bounty hunter who's on the search for her missing brother.

If that wasn't enough, Campanella 3 came afterwards, with the fictional year this time being 1989. It plays a lot like a Sega Genesis game, drawing comparisons to Space Harrier, where you're flying forward and shooting anything and everything in your line of sight

Now onto Overbold, which sees space pirate Alpha captured on the alien planet Phogon, and in the ultimate battle of wits, you have to survive eight rounds of space combat. This gameplay loop is fairly simple, but boy, is it captivating. Staying alive in this arena will drain the life out of you, again metaphorically, of course, or so we'd like you to believe.

But there's something about pushing yourself for that extra drop in the prize pool, as you can increase payout with your own hands and thus increase your odds of survival in the next round. It's almost like a game of Russian roulette. Overbold is a perfect execution of a retro one-screen arena shooter. 

For your convenience, we have listed briefly some other games you might want to try your luck with. Starting, Hyper Contender, a one-on-one fighting game where you play to the death with opponents until one of you collects five rings, UFO 50's very own Mortal Kombat.

There's Vainger, a lovechild of Metal Storm and Metroid that has you defying gravity as you explore the map. Night Manor is a point-and-click horror survival game. There's a really fun beat 'em up called Fist Hell that looks eerily similar to River City Ransom.

It should be underscored that while there's no traditional XP of any sort, the collection has three levels of completion to them—Gifts, Trophies, and Cherries. Gifts you can get by making some progress in a game; you don't really even have to complete it.

Trophies are achieved when you beat a game, and Cherries are the true medal of honor; those are what you should have your sight set on. Cherries are granted after 100% completion or by incredible feats when not applicable. If you want to 'trial-and-error' every game, it's recommended to get the Gift on pretty much all of them. By the time you've got it, you'll have been sufficiently informed of its quality.

The controls in some of the games aren't the greatest, though, like in Bushido Ball, which functions like Windjammers, but the controls make it hard to get the timing down, as well as Mooncat, which has controls that are very difficult to maneuver and get the hang of. With those flaws, though, that's only a handful of games out of 50 here, and the developers deserve their plaudits for making each of the 50 games unique.

Visually, all these games have so much depth and character to them. Although the retro template applies to every one of the games, they never feel overbearing or repetitive, given that they all have so many nuggets of design wisdom and depth to their mechanics, the more you continue playing.

Seaside Drive, for example, may graphically look like a 2D version of Outrun, but much to our surprise, instead of a driving sim, voila, it was a shoot-em-up. Pingolf might seem like a standard golf game on first glance, but then you notice that you can dunk your shot to gain extra speed and avoid obstacles. Even Magic Garden takes two staple mechanics from Snake and Pac-Man and produces something unique in its own right.

The soundtrack is memorable, and it was all created by one person; Eirik Suhrke alone created almost 300+ songs that all seem to capture the mood perfectly and stay in your head for a while. Although whilst playing 50 games, the soundtrack may not be your primary focus, it does blend well with the overall aesthetic of the game, or games rather, to provide for a seamless experience.

UFO 50 is, in and of itself, a library of memories and of games lost in time. It holds the capability to bring a chronically online generation back to the glory days of the roaring 80s. UFO 50 is one of the most impressive collections of games you'll ever come across. Once you overcome the initial skepticism, since compilations like these do end up being such cash grabs, you'll find out that UFO 50 is not your average game compilation; it's an indie classic in the making. 

There's just so much to choose from in UFO 50. Dive in, find your jam, stick with it for a couple of hours, then move on to the next game of your liking. Every game here has something for you to easily get lost in for hours upon hours.