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UFO 50 discussion topic
Based on the previous topic, it looks like there are a few of us currently playing through this. I felt like we could use a dedicated topic on Tildes given that FIFTY different games yields quite the discussion surface area.
Use this topic to talk about any and all things UFO 50!
I've been playing this for a few days. It's quite good.
Since they are 1980s retro games and have appropriate difficulty for that time, I'm getting stuck quite a bit. I definitely have a lower level of patience with game difficulty than I had years ago. So that will be a common theme in my comments below. Basically, "I'm too old for this shit" (lol).
But I notice that there is a part of the game called "Terminal" which I'm guessing will let you enter codes like a Game Genie and make some of the games much easier. And by the way, I'm making a big deal about difficulty but actually continues are much more generous than any 1980s game would have been. Many games have infinite lives and if you get out you are placed very close to where you died. Also, many of the games have a continue and you don't have to enter passwords or other archaic stuff.
Here are specific comments about individual games I've been playing the most. I'll put the game number next to the name in case I spell the game wrong
Barbuta (game 1)
Wow this one is super hard and the controls are too stiff. I don't think I'll finish it. It's very trial-and-error and you need to have very good memory or a map to know what order things should be done it. It reminds me of a first-gen gameboy game like the Castlevania that was on that.
Magic Garden (game 5)
I played this a while. This would have been a popular arcade game in the 80s. Like most of the rest it is pretty hard and unforgiving.
Bushido Ball (game 14)
This is very good and fun. Sort of like an early tennis game. I got pretty far. The difficulty is using your special move, it has fussy timing and it's hard to determine why it doesn't work some time. This has a 2-player mode which I'm sure is better than single player.
Camouflage (game 16)
This is a pretty fun puzzle game. I may try to finish it but not with the optional collectables because that may be too frustrating.
Warptank (game 20)
I like this one. It caught my eye right away because the tank looks like Blaster Master which was one of my favorite NES games. I played it for about an hour I think and then I started running into levels that were a little tedious because I would keep getting out in the same spot.
Porgy (game 22)
This game is a lot like Dave the Diver, but much harder. The point is that you have to find upgrades and bring them back to base before you die. I've only been able to get fuel upgrades which allows me to stay underwater longer. This would probably be my favorite game of the collection so far but the difficulty is a little too high for this type of game. It's not that I'm constantly getting out, it's that I have trouble going out for 5 minutes and finding an upgrade, then making it almost home and blowing up and losing that progress.
Onion Delivery (game 23)
Top-down food-delivery game, sort of like crazy taxi. I like the control scheme but it is too stiff and unresponsive which leads to frustration for me.
Party House (game 25)
I only played this for 5 minutes and it seemed uninteresting to me. But I read online that it is kind of similar to Balatro so I will return to it.
Rikshasa (game 38)
This is an excellent Ghouls-n-Ghosts type game. I was able to beat the first boss which took a few tries. I think I may not have the patience to get much farther.
Grimstone (game 40)
This is a very traditional RPG that is very much like the initial Final Fantasy or Phantasy Star games. I'm enjoying it but may be losing interest. I think there are too many random encounters and it's too expensive early game to buy horses to avoid them, and too expensive to buy healing items to help. I'm currently stuck on what is probably the first boss. Since there are so many random encounters I am already weak when I meet him. When you get stuck on this kind of game, it's hard to be sure if the game is just difficult or you are missing some upgrade or location that will make it easier. I can grind to a certain extent but I'm in an early part of the game where there aren't any great items left to buy and the levels are going up pretty slowly. Unlike in Elden Ring (for example) I can't just go to a different area and grind because there is a bridge out and I think I have to beat the first boss to get the parts to fix it.
Pilot Quest (game 43)
I will definitely be able to beat this one because it's mostly an idle game and I think the "numbers will go up". There is an arcadey part of it (the wild zone) that is a bit frustrating because you can lose some progress there. I'm a little confused about how the idle part works. I've returned after an hour and made way more progress than overnight. Either the offline progress is very random or there is a bug in the calculation when you continue.
Mini & Max (game 45)
I like this one very much and I think I will be able to finish it because I find the difficulty level appropriate. The subject, graphics, and pacing remind me very much of a Sega Master System game. It also is kind of slow-moving and the world is slightly empty which also feels like an SMS or early Genesis game.
The games have only been out a few days so it is interesting that you kind find much strategy guides or secrets yet. That will change soon.
Big same. I really want to like it, but I feel like it's super punishing! Yes, I fully realize the irony of complaining about a retro-inspired game being uncompromisingly hard.
I'm assuming I'll eventually get more power-ups that let me handle enemies better, but I feel like I just get wrecked by them. I either use up my fuel by dodging them or eating hits from them. I feel very outmatched by them with the (I'm assuming) base-level gun.
FYI, markdown turns whatever numbers you type into 1,2,3...when you use that numbered list format.
Thanks I edited the post and put the game number after the title
In case you haven't noticed, hitting the ball successfully with normal hits, multiple times, will build up bars for you in the upper left.
It costs half a bar to do a special move, and a whole bar (and charging) to do your super. You can lose bar if you're hit by many of the opponents special moves, which can of course screw up whatever plans you had.
I think there's a bug, because I also noticed the same thing. I'm trying to figure out if running it while playing other games in the pack you get more resources or not. I think it only accounts for when you're in the pack from what I can tell.
Okay! I managed to play at least a couple of minutes of each game to the point where I can at least understand the gameplay loop a bit for each game. I marked them as favorites for now and I'll go back through the other ones eventually of course.
So far the only game I "cherried" (I think it's called?) is Night Manor! As I mentioned in the previous thread, I never really loved the "video game logic" thing about point and click adventure games but this one was genuinely very fun. It's very creepy too, surprisingly scary for such a pixelated game haha. I think the killer mechanic was kinda annoying at times, but at least there was no penalty for dying. There's a couple of weird video game logic things there too of course, but not as bad as other point and clicks I've tried.
I really enjoyed Magic Garden a lot, but I do like the simplicity of Snake in general sometimes. It's pretty straightforwards and a great scorechasing time.
Mortol is a very interesting concept, I like the death mechanic a lot and I feel like it's very creative! It's a weird puzzle game platforming game that scratches that itch for me. Using the dead bodies as platforms will never not be funny tbh.
I feel like Velgress was made by the creator of Downwell who's in this project, and if it isn't I'd be very surprised. It's basically a very similar concept but backwards lol.
Devilition scratches my brain really well, it's a chain reaction puzzle game that I've never really played any similar games for, and it's definitely a thinking one for sure. I'm definitely not good at it but it's super satisfying to pull off a nice chain reaction when you get it right.
My brain isn't working right now but the final game I wanna mention is Rail Heist, it's a "turn based" heist game where you navigate a rail car and try to steal money from lawmen, it's actually super interesting and I really love it a lot. I'll put more thoughts on keyboard later but I'm exhausted today.
Adding onto my list right now:
Hyper Contender is super cool, think arena fighter mixed with the mechanic where you lose rings when you take damage in a Sonic game lol. First to 5 rings wins! I love the idea of it and I'm gonna have to try and see if friends want to play as well, it seems like a fun party-ish game.
Can we take a moment to reflect on the genuine quality of these games? I'm honestly incredibly impressed.
I think the "50 game pack" setup gave me shovelware expectations, or that the games would simply be derivative (here's the Pac-Man clone; there's the Space Invaders clone; etc.). Instead, it's clear a ton of time, effort, and genuine creative thought went into these. They're interesting, polished, and unique. Even when they do something familiar, there's a twist or an iteration on the base idea that makes them feel fresh.
I now appreciate why the collection took seven years to make.
I’ve said elsewhere this feels like The Orange Box in levels of value. It’s amazing
In the previous topic, I started writing quick summaries and first impressions for the games in the pack. I'll copy over to here what I've written so far. I've also now played up through 30, so I figure I'll write up those too in case anyone is curious about the individual games and finds these useful.
I'll eventually make my way up to 50 and write up the rest of the games too. Even just trying these out is a ton of fun -- to say nothing of enjoying the actual games themselves!
kfwyre's UFO 50 Quick Summaries and First Impressions
Bolded titles are personal favorites.
Barbuta
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
This, 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
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
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
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
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.
Velgress
A vertical platformer. There are different platforms, mostly clouds, that disappear a short time after you stand on them. You have to jump up the level and, as you do, a bar of spikes rolls up beneath you, making falling a constant hazard. You also have a gun you can use to shoot platforms, barricades, and enemies. When you make it to the end of a level you can spend your coin on power-ups for the following one. This one was alright. I'll play it a bit more.
Planet Zoldath
A procedurally-generated top-down exploration/combat game. It kind of feels like if Metroid were the original Legend of Zelda game. You wander around the open world divided into single screens and find items and dodge/kill enemies. Each time you die, a new level is generated. I only tried a few rounds of this and didn't get very far into it, but it's promising.
Attactics
A turn-based auto-battler. Your castle is on the left side of the screen, and the enemy's is on the right. Each turn, units spawn and advance/attack. The turns are also timed, so they automatically happen every few seconds. The playfield is broken into several different lanes, and, in those seconds before the turn ends, you can move individual units up, down, or back, but not forward (they will do that automatically on the turn end, if they can). Your goal is to defend your castle against the enemy's advances while breaking through their defenses to get to their castle. This had a Plants vs. Zombies feel to me, but with much more time pressure. You do not get long to think or plan each round. I think this will be really cool for some people. It's not my personal favorite.
Deviltion
A grid-based cascading explosion puzzle game. There are enemies and friendlies placed on a board. You then place pieces that will, if triggered, explode in certain patterns. Your goal is to set up your pieces to make a chain of explosions to take out all the enemies (and spare the friendlies). You can only detonate one square at the end of a round, so your setup has to Rube Goldberg itself to take care of the rest. I really like the concept of this one, but it's missing a pretty essential QoL feature for me: highlighting explosion patterns once placed. If I played the game enough I'd learn all the pieces by sight and be better able to "read" the board, but, as is, I had to put in a bit more effort than I'd like in that regard (note: I'm also completely mentally exhausted from this week, so take that into account).
Kick Club
A soccer platformer combat game. You are on a single screen with enemies, and you can kick a soccer ball to kill them. You cannot attack other than that, so you have to dodge the enemies and retrieve the ball after kicks in order to clear the screen. It reminds me of Super Crate Box or the POW minigame in the original Super Mario Bros, but a little more strategic since you have to put a bit of thought into your kicks. I like this one.
Avianos
A grid-based turn-based strategy game. Each round you can choose a god to pray to. That determines your actions for that turn, which vary from gathering resources, setting up structures, recruiting soldiers, and moving on the map. Praying also increases your affinity with that god, which will yield blessings (better actions) over time. Your goal is to eradicate the enemy from the map, which they are also trying to do to you. This felt like a single-player board game. It's not my favorite genre, but I also think people who like this style of game would really like this. It seems very well designed and thought out.
Mooncat
A 2D platformer with a unique control scheme. I actually thought the game was glitched when I first started and almost tried to remap my controls. You press on the d-pad to move left, and the face buttons to move right. While pressing one direction, you can also press the opposite direction to jump. It is quite odd and I still don't have it under my belt yet. Mild like on this one, but I need to play more to see where it goes.
Bushido Ball
Sort of like Pong, only you control a person who can position themselves anywhere on their side of the court (instead of being stuck to the same vertical plane) and who can use special attacks. I didn't love this, but it seems like plenty of other people do!
Block Koala
A sokoban-style puzzle game where boxes have numbers on them, and you're able to push them provided that the numbers are descending or equal. I played a few levels of this and liked it, despite not usually liking sokoban games.
Camouflage
A tile-based puzzle game where you're a chameleon and you have to avoid threats by changing colors. I've only played a few levels so far, but I really like this one. Very simple but very engaging. A cool twist is that, in each level, there's a baby chameleon collectible. If you get it, the chameleon will follow you, which means you now have to solve the puzzle with, effectively, a 2-tile chameleon instead of a one-tile one. It's a clever way of adding optional challenge.
Campanella
Sort of like Flappy Bird in a spaceship. You control your thruster which propels you upward, and you have to constantly manage it so that gravity doesn't pull you down and you crash into the ground or obstacles. By carefully managing your movement, you navigate obstacles and enemies. I liked this one with one caveat: I had to rebind the controls. I know it's against the spirit of the game, but micromanaging the thrust on
Awhile trying to precisely attack at the same time withXwas giving my hand cramps, so I putAon a back trigger and it was 100x more comfortable.Golfaria
A 2D open-world golfing game. I don't have a whole lot to say about this yet because I haven't gotten far at all in it. I am very bad at it.
The Big Bell Race
A single-screen kart racing game. It uses the exact same movement mechanics as Campanella (17). I loved this one. This was also the first game in the series that I beat.
Warptank
A platformer, sort of? Like VVVVVV you can invert gravity and move from driving on the ground to driving on the ceiling (or vice versa). You can shoot above/below you to clear obstacles and attack enemies. I haven't played much yet, but I really like this one so far.
Waldorf's Journey
A walrus-launching game. You launch a walrus. He can fly for a little bit. You can collect things as you soar through the air to resolve his hunger or buy power-ups from stores. I like the concept of this one (it's adorable), but I didn't love playing it.
Porgy
An open-world swimming game. You play as a fish submarine with limited fuel. You go out on a dive to explore and bring back powerups. It reminds me a little bit of Dave the Diver. This has the potential to be a favorite once I play it more, but maybe not? It's pretty punishing so far. I'm hoping that changes.
Onion Delivery
An isometric top-down driving game. Feels a little bit like if you put a Crazy Taxi mode in the original Grand Theft Auto. Driving is slippery. It would take me a decent amount of playtime to get used to the handling model. Not sure if I'm going to put that kind of time in.
Caramel Caramel
A side-scrolling space shooter game. Your ship has a reticle and you can take pictures of groups of enemies. Doing this makes them easier to kill, in addition to giving you double points for killing them. This is a really clever way of making the player not just focus on their ship, as I do in nearly every other game of this type. The problem with doing that is that I hit untold numbers of bullets and obstacles because I'm focused downscreen instead of on my ship. If I get good at this, it could be another favorite.
Party House
A push-your-luck deckbuilder game. You have a rolodex of contacts, and you randomly call people to come to a party at your house. There are only so many people that can fit at your house. Each person has different traits. Some give you popularity (which lets you add people to your rolodex), some give you money (which lets you expand your house and host more guests), and some are TROUBLE. If you get three or more TROUBLE guests in one party, then the police show up. The party gets busted, and you don't get any rewards for that night. I don't know what this says about me, but this is genuinely my favorite game I've played in the pack so far. Super simple, but very addictive.
Hot Foot
A 2v2 dodgeball game where you throw bean bags at the opposing team to score points. The previous game was my favorite one so far, and this is my least favorite one so far. To me there's a big design issue due to the two-button restraint they imposed. The button to pick up a bean bag is the same button used to switch characters. It's meant to be context-dependent, so you pick up a bean bag if you're next to one but switch characters if you're not. The number of times I messed that up made this one genuinely un-fun for me.
Divers
An underwater JRPG. You have a party of three reptiles that you equip with weapons and armor, then swim out into the depths, exploring and battling other creatures. Battles are turn-based menu-crawlers. I liked this one and will definitely put more time into it.
Rail Heist
A stealth game where you have to sneakily defeat enemies on a train and escape with the loot. I'll be honest, I played this for only a round or two and didn't quite give it a full shake. Stealth games aren't really my thing.
Vainger
A platformer with bigtime Metroid vibes. Like Warptank, you can reverse gravity in order to walk on the ceiling. I didn't play too much of this one, but I really like the concept. I'm excited to play more.
Rock On! Island
An active character tower defense game (my favorite!). Prehistoric enemies are trying to make it all the way down the path to your home cave, and you have to stop them. You can set up towers to attack the enemies, as well as attacking them directly yourself. I love this one.
Has anyone run this on Steam Deck?
Yep. I've been using it to play. Since every game is just 4 directions and 2 buttons, they all work fine.
Yep! I've been enjoying it on my Steam Deck. I had a little issue with my input at first, since it recognized the Steam Deck as P2, but once I fixed that it's worked like a charm.
Nice, thanks! Might pick this up since it runs well.
Current standouts for me are Mortol and Koala Block.
Both hurt my brain. In a good way.
This post has spoilers about the Terminal in the game.
I've been messing around with the Terminal. I know that there are hints about it in some of the games. I heard that Night Manor and Max & Min contain hints, for example.
The terminal has a syntax of VERB-GAME, where GAME is a 4 character code for the game. Some of the games have unintuitive names so part of the challenge is figuring that out. I saw in a review that there was a command LIST-GOLF. I tried that and it shows that GOLF is game 0018 and it shows it at the top of a list of 17 games. So you could get the rest of the games after GOLF by trying the last in that list until you get to 50. I tried to get the top of the list but Barbuta doesn't match with a few things I tried including BARB BRBU BUTA.
I was interested in messing with Grimstone, which has the 4-letter code BRIM. If you type HELP-BRIM, it gives you a list of commands:
Typing HIST-BRIM brings up this text: "ALMOST TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING, THIS MASSIVE GAME WAS ACTUALLY STARTED BEFORE ITS THEMATIC COUSIN RAIL HEIST"
The last 4 commands start with asterisk. I tried EDIT-BRIM and it said THAT OPERATION HAS BEEN DISABLED.
I have heard that the EXEC command can be used to run games from the terminal, and there is at least one hidden game that can be started this way. I haven't tried that yet.
Besides hidden game(s), I'm wondering if there are also hidden commands that do other things. It seems likely that you can unlock permission to use the EDIT and other commands. I'm hoping that this allows you do do something like Game Genie to get infinite lives or something
hidden thing
There is also a hidden command, GREG-MILK, which gives you a cryptic message. It appears to be a grid showing you some sort of data, but I don’t know how to change them. Trying using GREG with other things hasn’t made anything work with anything else I tried.This might be a bit late, but if you haven't played Pilot Quest (Game #44), start it first because it's an idle game haha
I made sure to play it first, and then got so addicted to it that I ignored every other game for like two days...
I've been hooked on bushido blade whenever I have time to play, and have also been slowly working my way through the various puzzle games. Magic Garden also continues to be a fun time sink.
I've only played Night Manor so far. Just beat it tonight. I got to the "bad" ending on my own, but got stuck on the "good" ending because there's one door that really doesn't look like a door and I completely missed it. So I cheated and looked up a playthrough. Glad I did, though! Awesome game.
I commented on this elsewhere, but I really love how they've back-ported modern game design into the retro form-factor. I grew up playing NES games. I know how difficult they could be and how painful the puzzles could be. By comparison Night Manor is extremely generous. I'm told you get a little bonus for never "dying", but there's no major consequence if you do die. You're just placed back at the start with all of your progress saved.
There is one puzzle that I didn't get on my own and I somewhat resent the game design for it. There are a ton of objects you can inspect that have descriptions designed to tell you not to waste your time investigating them any further. But one of those objects actually has a critical clue hidden inside and you need to use a specific item on it to get that clue. Otherwise it's nice to see how far we've come in the field of game design.
Some things I loved:
If this game was available on the NES I am sure of 2 things:
I finished it last night and had the same experience. I kind of want to play again to get the “true” ending even though I know it is not going to be worth it.
The “never died” ending or the “good” ending? You can start up your save file after getting the bad ending and you’ll have all of your progress. It shouldn’t be too much more play time to get the good ending.
I've been playing for a few days, and it's great fun. It's super cool how polished and well designed all the games are. For just 22 euros the pack is amazing value.
My favorite, and only cherried game so far is Party House -- This game is amazing. It's a single player deckbuilder kinda like Dominion, it's pretty much exactly the kind of game I love. I just love being "efficient" and figuring out what's the best strategy for the given scenario. I already got the cherry for winning 5 random scenarios in a row.
Besides Party House I also got the gold and a few more games: Moon Cat, Devilition, Rock On! Island and Overbold.
Moon Cat is actually super cool. In a way it's a pretty standard platformer, but it has a pretty weird control scheme and tons of movement tech. It's really surprising how cool the movement is when you get used to it, and just learning how to play the game was super enjoyable.
I really enjoyed MoonCat but I seriously can't figure out where the other two eggs are....
Bushido Ball Stuff(formatting at a future date when I’m not on a phone going by memory to kill time).
Basic moves:
Z hits the ball. Up and down can angle the hit. Back will do a lob shot which can buy time or get you over an enemy weapon (bombs being the big one). Every two hits gives a half bar of meter. Max of 3 bars.
X dodges. Hitting the ball by canceling a dodge puts a curve on it. Still unsure how you influence it. Rolling forward to close distance and hit with a special attack can be very powerful.
Z Z for special move. Takes half a bar. LEARN TO USE THESE. Most if not all will remove half a bar from the opponent if they hit them.
Z hold for super move. Takes 1 bar however the more bars you have the longer you can charge it for different/stronger effects(up to a max of 3). Whiffing the attack loses the bar. Letting the ball hit you can cancel the charge. Not sure if there’s another way. Holding directions can change the effect of at least some of them.
Note that almost all projectiles can be interacted with (special moves included)
Fouls:
Characters:
Spear Samurai:
Red shirt samurai:
special: throwing star that is very flexible. You can “combo” the opponent by noticing when they get stunned by a ball hit and throwing your special at them before while they cant dodge and then hitting the ball into them/past them. Can also hit the ball with it to cause all sorts of chaos.
super: does a loop then curves. Very little time with him so need to test higher levels.
Blue shirt samurai:
Yellow shirt samurai:
Ninja:
More later. Done killing time
I think all of the dodge-hit movement patterns are character-specific.
I swear the final difficulty level on this game must be cheating. I absolutely cannot get more than 2-3 points in a game. I kind of wonder if you're meant to use penalty moves against them.
I’ve beaten the game and almost no loss cleared it. You can absolutely beat the final level but you do need to be using all your tools and not just relying on regular hits/roll hits.
I guess I just suck, then. :(
Meh takes practice. I love fighting games and the spacing/mixups from there translate well.
I’m impressed the game translates the skills well (like windjammers).
That said like fighting games some strats that should work vs humans just do not work vs the AI. Playing up close is especially hard thanks to their reaction speed
Yeah, the reaction speed is why it feels like cheating to me. I keep finding new little tricks but they are so fast to counter them all universally so it doesn’t matter what I do. You just have to luck into them doing something stupid. Even playing as Ayame - the pink one - and laying caltrops they seem to be able to avoid hitting them almost all the time! And because the last one is such a steep increase in challenge I can’t get positive feedback to improve myself.
I can get pretty good at fighting games with practice, but the extra dimensionality with this game has got me really through a loop. There is another game that is basically a fighting game version of pong and I really enjoyed that one, but it had gravity and a side perspective, and I felt much more at home there.