I bought this as a treat to myself for decently handling what has been an extremely difficult teaching year so far. I needed a pick-me-up. I played for an hour today, trying out the first six...
I bought this as a treat to myself for decently handling what has been an extremely difficult teaching year so far. I needed a pick-me-up.
I played for an hour today, trying out the first six games in the pack (ordered “chronologically” — each game has a fake release date).
Barbuta is a rough start, honestly. It’s a 2D open-world platformer (probably metroidvania?), but it has really stiff controls. I will end up coming back to it, but as a first taste it didn’t have the “modern meets retro” feel that I wanted. It just felt retro.
Bug Hunter, on the other hand, is exactly what I was looking for. It’s a simple, elegant grid-based puzzle deckbuilder game. You have a set of cards with movements and attacks on them, and you have to move about a grid eliminating bugs and collecting energy pellets. Energy will let you swap out your cards with more powerful ones, which you’ll need as the field gets more crowded with bugs. I really liked this one and will definitely play it more. It’s got some genuine depth.
Ninpek is a score attack runner where you kill enemies and collect their drops for points, all while dodging their projectiles. Sessions for this one are very short — early on I was dying in a matter of seconds before I got used to the movement and enemy patterns. This one was okay, but I probably won’t spend a lot of time on it.
Paint Chase is a top-down grid-based driving game. You have to drive over squares to paint them your color all while enemy vehicles are painting them the opposite. You can run over opposing cars to destroy them, but new ones spawn regularly. Each level has different layouts and power-ups. It plays like a Pac-Man version of Splatoon. I really liked this one and will play it more.
Magic Garden is a snake-like game. There are certain squares that spawn on the floor that have stars on them. You wander around and collect a chain of cute things that follow behind you. When they are over star squares, you can press a button to “save” them, getting more points the longer the chain you have. While doing this, there are also enemies that get in the way (though you can get a power-up that lets you go after them Pac-Man-style). I think this one is neat but I probably won’t play it more.
Mortol is a 2D platformer in which you have a set number of lives to get through a level. The twist is that you will need to utilize previous lives to get to the end. You can launch a character like a dart at a wall that the next character can then use like a platform. You can turn a character to stone. You can blow up a character to clear obstacles. As you progress through the level, you can find collectibles that will give you additional lives. This is a neat idea, and I will play this one more.
Overall, I’ve been impressed with the quality of the games. Even the ones that I haven’t liked aren’t really bad — they’re just not my cup of tea. It’s clear a lot of thought and effort went into making the collection. None of the games I’ve played have felt like throwaways. All of them nail the retro feel, while a few have nods to modern ideas that are incorporated into a retro framework really well.
As a package deal, UFO 50 reminds me of two different things.
The first is the game Arcade Paradise. In that game, you manage an arcade and can play the different cabinets you buy. It was a neat concept, but the quality of the actual minigames included with the cabinets varied wildly, with many being clunky or un-fun. UFO 50 has a similar feel of “play all these retro facsimilies” but it drops the management aspect and, in my opinion, has games a cut above those in Arcade Paradise.
The second is the Playdate. When you buy that console, you also get a “season” of games. Due to the limitations of the device, many of these are simpler, more elegant, smaller-in-scope games with retro feel: less plot and more score attack. That’s not to say there aren’t some that feel modern and interesting, but that no matter what you’re playing, you’re looking at it through a lens of fairly strict restrictions on design that often end up being boons for creativity. UFO 50 has a similar feel — it feels like you’re buying a retro-inspired handheld that comes with its own “season” of games that manage to still be creative and interesting despite their deliberate design limitations.
It’s definitely not for everybody. If you don’t have a love for retro games, you can probably safely sit this one out. That said, I have only tried 6/50 games, and even then I was only dipping my toe in the waters of those 6. So take this as a very preliminary opinion rather than a last word.
If you do enjoy retro games and score attack-style play, then I can give a preliminarily solid recommendation. It’s great so far, and if the pattern of quality holds for the remaining 44 games, then UFO 50 will end up being something genuinely special.
Sorry for the marketing title, but I just learned about UFO 50 recently, apparently it's a game by the creators of Spelunky, Downwell, and others as 50 actual good full length games as a homage to...
Sorry for the marketing title, but I just learned about UFO 50 recently, apparently it's a game by the creators of Spelunky, Downwell, and others as 50 actual good full length games as a homage to retro gaming.
Wondering if anyone has heard of it/is hyped for it! It's coming out tomorrow and I'm kinda into the idea plus I've been reading that they're mostly full length games in there too. The value prop for $25 might be insane if that's the case.
That's an incredible concept. Unfortunately I don't know how much I'd actually enjoy playing it though; I've tried a few older games recently that I hadn't played before and just felt no desire to...
That's an incredible concept.
Unfortunately I don't know how much I'd actually enjoy playing it though; I've tried a few older games recently that I hadn't played before and just felt no desire to stick with them. Seems nostalgia might be the main factor for me than actually enjoying the design and aesthetics of older games.
Seems that way to me too. Games look shallow and unappealing for anyone who didn't grow up with the 80s-90s era of gaming. It's a tough sell for me to put down something like Ori and the Will of...
Seems that way to me too. Games look shallow and unappealing for anyone who didn't grow up with the 80s-90s era of gaming. It's a tough sell for me to put down something like Ori and the Will of the Wisps to bang my head against the wall with a 2D side scroller with 2 button inputs and crunchy graphics/music.
I've been playing the horror point-and-click game in the pack and it's much better than actual games of this type from the 80s. Really cute game design while still operating within the confines of...
I've been playing the horror point-and-click game in the pack and it's much better than actual games of this type from the 80s. Really cute game design while still operating within the confines of the retro graphics. For example, when your character gets scared the cursor shakes around and you have to fight it to click on things. And when you get a flashlight you can only see a portion of the screen through dithered blackness.
Sure, but that's a comparison most people won't be able to make. You have experience playing those games and its a fun thing to go back and compare to. Most younger people won't have that same...
Sure, but that's a comparison most people won't be able to make. You have experience playing those games and its a fun thing to go back and compare to. Most younger people won't have that same connection and feel the same sense of excitement from something like this.
I want to emphasize that I don't have any problems with nostalgia, but I think its important for anyone to realize that their opinions on something may be affected by it, and others don't share that experience with them.
Yeah. I was raised with NES games even though that’s a bit before my time (we played that during the N64 and GameCube generations). My parents thought we’d spend less time playing video games if...
Yeah. I was raised with NES games even though that’s a bit before my time (we played that during the N64 and GameCube generations). My parents thought we’d spend less time playing video games if we only had older ones available.
I'd give it a little more credit than that. Spelunky is a 2d game made in the style of older stuff, and easily one of the best games i've ever played, with an absurd amount of content. The...
I'd give it a little more credit than that.
Spelunky is a 2d game made in the style of older stuff, and easily one of the best games i've ever played, with an absurd amount of content. The spelunky dev is just one of the dev's involved in this.
I suspect there will be some duds by your standards, but at the same time I wouldn't completely write it off on appearance alone, as "looks retro, is actually amazing genre has been around for awhile now. Hell the best metroidvania i've played is Environmental Station Alpha.
Haha maybe, I'll probably give it a shot eventually; even if its just for the local multiplayer games. But I don't think I've ever had a good experience with the many "50~ games in one!" packs...
Haha maybe, I'll probably give it a shot eventually; even if its just for the local multiplayer games. But I don't think I've ever had a good experience with the many "50~ games in one!" packs I've played over the years. Even if this is one of the best ones ever, its not a very high bar.
The thing is, each of these 50 games was designed specifically to be a good standalone game. The entire point of the exercise was to take the concept of a "50 games in one!" package and ask, "What...
The thing is, each of these 50 games was designed specifically to be a good standalone game. The entire point of the exercise was to take the concept of a "50 games in one!" package and ask, "What if these were actually good?"
"Good" is pretty subjective though. It's not like they're packaging 50 hollow knights, stardew valleys, and metroids all in one game, its all little experiences that are meant to last for a couple...
"Good" is pretty subjective though. It's not like they're packaging 50 hollow knights, stardew valleys, and metroids all in one game, its all little experiences that are meant to last for a couple hours as most. Not sure what the draw is for me when you could experience the same thing consistently with other popular indie games
Small, more compact experiences have a joy of their own, though. For example, a game with a long playtime may have more drawn out parts, or gameplay elements that start off interesting or engaging...
Small, more compact experiences have a joy of their own, though. For example, a game with a long playtime may have more drawn out parts, or gameplay elements that start off interesting or engaging but eventually wear out their welcome. Games designed to be shorter can distill their gameplay down to the most fun, exciting parts, and end before anything gets old.
“Good” is certainly subjective; my point is just that these aren’t designed like Action 52 games (I.e. shovelware), but are made with the intent to be fun, quality experiences. So the usual preconception of “XX-in-one” collections as being of lower quality is not applicable here.
While you are most likely correct, I think if you don't have nostalgia or at least a positive interest in these sort of games, it just wasn't made for you. I grew up with Atari and the NES, so I'm...
While you are most likely correct, I think if you don't have nostalgia or at least a positive interest in these sort of games, it just wasn't made for you. I grew up with Atari and the NES, so I'm likely going to pick it up even if I would generally get more enjoyment out of a modern game.
They've been quite tightlipped, outside of individual dev streams over the years. Now that it's here it will be very hard to sort out what I learned before now except to say that this is one of...
They've been quite tightlipped, outside of individual dev streams over the years. Now that it's here it will be very hard to sort out what I learned before now except to say that this is one of the most ambitious and thoroughly approached projects I have ever heard of. I assumed for a long time that this would be vaporware and never release!
This looks great, thanks for posting it! One of my favorites are modern takes on the old formulas. I do have a lot of nastalgia for the older gamss but I really don't miss the jank at all. I'm...
This looks great, thanks for posting it! One of my favorites are modern takes on the old formulas. I do have a lot of nastalgia for the older gamss but I really don't miss the jank at all. I'm going to keep this one I the pocket for when I'm feeling like spending a few hours in the past.
I bought this as a treat to myself for decently handling what has been an extremely difficult teaching year so far. I needed a pick-me-up.
I played for an hour today, trying out the first six games in the pack (ordered “chronologically” — each game has a fake release date).
Barbuta is a rough start, honestly. It’s a 2D open-world platformer (probably metroidvania?), but it has really stiff controls. I will end up coming back to it, but as a first taste it didn’t have the “modern meets retro” feel that I wanted. It just felt retro.
Bug Hunter, on the other hand, is exactly what I was looking for. It’s a simple, elegant grid-based puzzle deckbuilder game. You have a set of cards with movements and attacks on them, and you have to move about a grid eliminating bugs and collecting energy pellets. Energy will let you swap out your cards with more powerful ones, which you’ll need as the field gets more crowded with bugs. I really liked this one and will definitely play it more. It’s got some genuine depth.
Ninpek is a score attack runner where you kill enemies and collect their drops for points, all while dodging their projectiles. Sessions for this one are very short — early on I was dying in a matter of seconds before I got used to the movement and enemy patterns. This one was okay, but I probably won’t spend a lot of time on it.
Paint Chase is a top-down grid-based driving game. You have to drive over squares to paint them your color all while enemy vehicles are painting them the opposite. You can run over opposing cars to destroy them, but new ones spawn regularly. Each level has different layouts and power-ups. It plays like a Pac-Man version of Splatoon. I really liked this one and will play it more.
Magic Garden is a snake-like game. There are certain squares that spawn on the floor that have stars on them. You wander around and collect a chain of cute things that follow behind you. When they are over star squares, you can press a button to “save” them, getting more points the longer the chain you have. While doing this, there are also enemies that get in the way (though you can get a power-up that lets you go after them Pac-Man-style). I think this one is neat but I probably won’t play it more.
Mortol is a 2D platformer in which you have a set number of lives to get through a level. The twist is that you will need to utilize previous lives to get to the end. You can launch a character like a dart at a wall that the next character can then use like a platform. You can turn a character to stone. You can blow up a character to clear obstacles. As you progress through the level, you can find collectibles that will give you additional lives. This is a neat idea, and I will play this one more.
Overall, I’ve been impressed with the quality of the games. Even the ones that I haven’t liked aren’t really bad — they’re just not my cup of tea. It’s clear a lot of thought and effort went into making the collection. None of the games I’ve played have felt like throwaways. All of them nail the retro feel, while a few have nods to modern ideas that are incorporated into a retro framework really well.
As a package deal, UFO 50 reminds me of two different things.
The first is the game Arcade Paradise. In that game, you manage an arcade and can play the different cabinets you buy. It was a neat concept, but the quality of the actual minigames included with the cabinets varied wildly, with many being clunky or un-fun. UFO 50 has a similar feel of “play all these retro facsimilies” but it drops the management aspect and, in my opinion, has games a cut above those in Arcade Paradise.
The second is the Playdate. When you buy that console, you also get a “season” of games. Due to the limitations of the device, many of these are simpler, more elegant, smaller-in-scope games with retro feel: less plot and more score attack. That’s not to say there aren’t some that feel modern and interesting, but that no matter what you’re playing, you’re looking at it through a lens of fairly strict restrictions on design that often end up being boons for creativity. UFO 50 has a similar feel — it feels like you’re buying a retro-inspired handheld that comes with its own “season” of games that manage to still be creative and interesting despite their deliberate design limitations.
It’s definitely not for everybody. If you don’t have a love for retro games, you can probably safely sit this one out. That said, I have only tried 6/50 games, and even then I was only dipping my toe in the waters of those 6. So take this as a very preliminary opinion rather than a last word.
If you do enjoy retro games and score attack-style play, then I can give a preliminarily solid recommendation. It’s great so far, and if the pattern of quality holds for the remaining 44 games, then UFO 50 will end up being something genuinely special.
Sorry for the marketing title, but I just learned about UFO 50 recently, apparently it's a game by the creators of Spelunky, Downwell, and others as 50 actual good full length games as a homage to retro gaming.
Wondering if anyone has heard of it/is hyped for it! It's coming out tomorrow and I'm kinda into the idea plus I've been reading that they're mostly full length games in there too. The value prop for $25 might be insane if that's the case.
Opencritic is here:
https://opencritic.com/game/17307/ufo-50
That's an incredible concept.
Unfortunately I don't know how much I'd actually enjoy playing it though; I've tried a few older games recently that I hadn't played before and just felt no desire to stick with them. Seems nostalgia might be the main factor for me than actually enjoying the design and aesthetics of older games.
Seems that way to me too. Games look shallow and unappealing for anyone who didn't grow up with the 80s-90s era of gaming. It's a tough sell for me to put down something like Ori and the Will of the Wisps to bang my head against the wall with a 2D side scroller with 2 button inputs and crunchy graphics/music.
I've been playing the horror point-and-click game in the pack and it's much better than actual games of this type from the 80s. Really cute game design while still operating within the confines of the retro graphics. For example, when your character gets scared the cursor shakes around and you have to fight it to click on things. And when you get a flashlight you can only see a portion of the screen through dithered blackness.
Sure, but that's a comparison most people won't be able to make. You have experience playing those games and its a fun thing to go back and compare to. Most younger people won't have that same connection and feel the same sense of excitement from something like this.
I want to emphasize that I don't have any problems with nostalgia, but I think its important for anyone to realize that their opinions on something may be affected by it, and others don't share that experience with them.
Yeah. I was raised with NES games even though that’s a bit before my time (we played that during the N64 and GameCube generations). My parents thought we’d spend less time playing video games if we only had older ones available.
I'd give it a little more credit than that.
Spelunky is a 2d game made in the style of older stuff, and easily one of the best games i've ever played, with an absurd amount of content. The spelunky dev is just one of the dev's involved in this.
I suspect there will be some duds by your standards, but at the same time I wouldn't completely write it off on appearance alone, as "looks retro, is actually amazing genre has been around for awhile now. Hell the best metroidvania i've played is Environmental Station Alpha.
Haha maybe, I'll probably give it a shot eventually; even if its just for the local multiplayer games. But I don't think I've ever had a good experience with the many "50~ games in one!" packs I've played over the years. Even if this is one of the best ones ever, its not a very high bar.
Flashbacks to the shitty intellivision and Atari collections we had on the PS1 where 80% of the games were just garbage.
The thing is, each of these 50 games was designed specifically to be a good standalone game. The entire point of the exercise was to take the concept of a "50 games in one!" package and ask, "What if these were actually good?"
"Good" is pretty subjective though. It's not like they're packaging 50 hollow knights, stardew valleys, and metroids all in one game, its all little experiences that are meant to last for a couple hours as most. Not sure what the draw is for me when you could experience the same thing consistently with other popular indie games
Small, more compact experiences have a joy of their own, though. For example, a game with a long playtime may have more drawn out parts, or gameplay elements that start off interesting or engaging but eventually wear out their welcome. Games designed to be shorter can distill their gameplay down to the most fun, exciting parts, and end before anything gets old.
“Good” is certainly subjective; my point is just that these aren’t designed like Action 52 games (I.e. shovelware), but are made with the intent to be fun, quality experiences. So the usual preconception of “XX-in-one” collections as being of lower quality is not applicable here.
While you are most likely correct, I think if you don't have nostalgia or at least a positive interest in these sort of games, it just wasn't made for you. I grew up with Atari and the NES, so I'm likely going to pick it up even if I would generally get more enjoyment out of a modern game.
i'VE BEEN wAIting For TEN YEARS for this
It looks like it's been super well reviewed! I just learned about it so I'm wondering if you know anything exciting about the game
They've been quite tightlipped, outside of individual dev streams over the years. Now that it's here it will be very hard to sort out what I learned before now except to say that this is one of the most ambitious and thoroughly approached projects I have ever heard of. I assumed for a long time that this would be vaporware and never release!
This looks great, thanks for posting it! One of my favorites are modern takes on the old formulas. I do have a lot of nastalgia for the older gamss but I really don't miss the jank at all. I'm going to keep this one I the pocket for when I'm feeling like spending a few hours in the past.
Launch trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfW0K4rRLnw