I know this might be an unusual post, since this is a new game, but hear me out!
I just picked up UFO 50 this week, and I can’t recommend this enough to anyone who loves retro gaming. The premise is that this is a collection of 50 games from a fictional 8-bit console in the 1980s, with a little info card for each one providing its release date, developers, and some trivia. The game selection screen shows 50 cartridges to choose from:
These are all full games like you might have seen during the era - not minigames or demos, and the ones I’ve booted up feel pretty authentically 8-bit (with some modern QoL things thrown in). There are all sorts of cool ideas and game types: platformers, a point and click adventure, bullet hells, at least one full JRPG, etc.
Some examples:
It looks like as you browse through the chronological library, you see a sequel or two of previous titles. This was made by the team that created Spelunky, and it wasn’t even on my radar until I fortunately saw a video a few days ago of one of the individual games (followed by some confusion when I couldn’t figure out where to buy that game by itself). If any of this appeals to you at all, I highly recommend checking it out.
I’m holding off on buying this until I clear some stuff in my backlog (and hopefully getting the game at a deeper discount).
However from the videos I’ve watched my only criticism is that some of the games look rather complex and would benefit from supplying more information than a small blurb and a controls page. I wish UFO 50 had taken a page from Retro Game Challenge and had some in-universe game manuals and magazines. Still, since I’m planning on buying it at some point obviously not a deal breaker.
I think this is very deliberate. Having played at least a chunk of all 50 games, there are only two or three that I think would have benefitted greatly from more instructions or tutorialization. Figuring out how each game works and being surprised when you find a new way to use the very simple controls is part of the experience.
Yeah, I have been confused by some at first. However, that was also my experience playing games like this back in the day, so in a weird way it has added to the authenticity for me. Lol
If I can’t figure some of them out (looking at you, Barbuta), I’ll have to look up some stuff.
Dunkey made a video on it. Looks fun.
Mortol is the game of the year. I got gold and cherry at the same time. I replayed each level 10-50 times to try to get the best runs I could. Ended the game with 150 lives. Played it for about 8 hours. I would have paid $10 for that game alone!
And I still have Mortol 2 to play!
This was the one that I saw a video about before I knew what UFO 50 was! I tried searching for Mortol on steam, to no results. Lol
What a creative idea for a platformer.
Available on steam for $25
