The 50 games of UFO 50

[LeFish]

UFO 50 is out today and it seemed too dense and generous of a package to discuss it in the regular “what are you playing” thread - so I thought I’d start this one instead for us to collectively discover what it has in store.

My initial intention was to start playing games “chronologically” within the fiction of the package but I quickly found myself dinking around in games that jumped out at me from each game’s blurb. I’ve already had a strong impression that some games will take much longer to click for me than others and that it be months, or even years, before I enjoy them.

Two that have jumped out for me so far are:

Waldorf’s Journey - a cute, physics-based platformer that reminds me mostly of the human cannonball sections of Pilotwings 64 and the general inertia of Psycho Fox on the Master System. The game involves getting Waldorf the walrus across a stage(s?) by metaphorically catapulting them across platforms.

To do this you choose your direction and charge up a power meter for distance. Along the way there’s a bunch of hazards like wind effects, clouds that disappear, and other animals that knock you away. I’m really enjoying this, least of all because Waldorf is chubbily cute.

The second game that’s caught my attention is Seaside Drive which I can only really describe as Contra 3’s stage 4 set at the OutRun beach. The hook of the game is that you have a meter that determines the strength of your bullets and is charged by drifting, so you’re highly encouraged to keep moving to keep your meter charged. I’ve only reached the second stage of the game so far but I’m keen to get into it more.

Is anyone else playing? What is catching the attention of the Insert Credit forums?

[freakscene]

Outside of Seaside drive it rocks that my games are completely different.

I love the Campanella trilogy, both in the gameplay of two, which is kind of a spaceship blaster master, but also that they made a third one that is seemingly a complete departure of my beloved campanella franchise, and is instead space harrier.

I’ve been playing some of the JRPG, which gets the job done, but that Dungeon Crawler where the combat is punch out is something I’m excited to jump back into.

Also bushido ball. Bushido ball dude…

[tomjonjon]

I’d really like to play this but it’s windows only for now.

[giogadi]

I’ve played the first 10 games today. I found a lot to like about a lot of them. I’ll just write some notes about each one:

Barbuta: I love this one. It feels like Metroid, Dark Souls, and Ghouls n Ghosts. It has an arcane, obscure feeling that I really enjoy. I like that the jump requires precision, and at first I thought the sword collision was crappy but it turned out that I was indeed doing damage, but there’s no feedback for “hit an enemy but didn’t kill them”, which was like a tiny magic discovery when I realized what was going on. Every time I boot up UFO 50 I give this a run to see how far I get. I’ve gotten as far as having 4 items or so. I can tell there are lots of secrets hidden here.

Bug Hunter: I only played a bit of this; it didn’t hook me right at the beginning but I think it’ll be interesting to play more later.

Ninpek: I like this one a lot!! I keep dying right when the balloon appears, and I haven’t yet seen what that does. But it feels good to play. I like the auto-scroll aspect of it.

Paint Chase: Very clever: it’s fun to try to plan out an efficient route on-the-fly, and I like that you are encouraged to take fewer turns to keep your speed up.

Magic Garden: Also a very clever idea. Seems to take some inspiration in controls from Paint Chase. It feels reeeeeally good to drop off a really long chain.

Mortol: Another great idea for a game, but I didn’t find myself immediately hooked. The controls were a bit floaty for my taste. Also feels like some of the interesting puzzling can be cheesed with precise platforming

Velgress: I LOVE THIS ONE. I found it really easy to just keep trying over and over. I only got to the 2nd level, which has some interesting polarity mechanics in the laser obstacles. This feels amazing to play.

Planet Zoldath: When I realized that on different runs, the same creature type can have totally different behavior/hostility, it was a magical moment. It’s a little slow to get started. I never “cleared” the first area. But it’s somewhat of a generative metroidvania thing, and that’s something I haven’t seen before.

Attactics: It’s a bit overwhelming at first, but I started to get the hang of it in my 10 minutes or so of play. I’ll def come back to this one and dig deeper. I really like the “column of grunts is invincible” idea; I hope there are more geometrical pattern bonuses later. I found it hard to keep track of HP and promotions and stuff, so I was just kinda haphazardly putting dudes in front of other dudes

Devilition: I like this one a LOT. It starts off a little slow and easy, but when there are lots of enemies and villagers on screen it gets really interesting. I like that you can choose an arbitrary thing to detonate first - this allows for some improvisation on where your “trigger point” is as you play.

Overall, I’m blown away by the generosity of this set of games. Many of these individual games on their own are more interesting than most things I’ve played recently. It’s incredible. I’d love to learn more about how this got made; for example, were the games made IRL in the chronology of the in-game studio?

[Herb]

I’m sure there’s other games like this, but the strongest comparison to Waldorf I know is that one game that was a meme for streamers to play there for a while. Jump King:

Jump King Speedrun in 4:34 IGT/4:58 RTA (Former WR)

[RubySunrise]

I’m having a blast so far. I appreciate the commitment to 8-bit look and feel. I’m no expert in computer chip capability of the time period, but I feel like there are definitely a few “cheats” here and there that help smooth out the experience, but to me at least, they’re subtle.

Barbuta is fantastic. I’m excited to chip away at it, although so far my curiosity about the other games has pulled me away. My mind got blown when I realized I had to drop down from the screen above to get to an area. That’s so cool! There’s a ton of moments like that in these games, I’ve found.

In Ninpek the action never stops, even on death. It’s such a brilliant little choice. Being a ghost is detrimental to your score, but otherwise doesn’t stop the action (until you run out of lives).

I’m with ya @giogad, Velgress feels incredible to play. Out of the first eight or so, this one is a stand-out to me.

There’s something going on with this game. Not only is there somewhat of a context/story(?) unfolding in the descriptions, but there’s a terminal screen where I can enter codes. Are there cheat codes? Hidden secrets in the meta-game? That would not be surprising to me given the developer.

[giogadi]

Mooncat is CRAZY, it’s so good. Insane movement controls that make you feel very cool when you actually figure them out. Also the music and art of that one are wonderful

[Naaaaaaaathan]

Thanks for starting this thread! I have been eagerly waiting for this game for years. I’ve only had a few minutes to poke at Barbuta (work, family, etc.) but I am already smitten by the presentation of the whole package. The intro slideshow, the lil details in the game info cards. I particularly appreciate that the crt filter is lovely, tastefully implemented, and scales properly on Steamdeck.

As @RubySunrise mentioned, I too detect something going on with the game. What’s up with the terminal?!?

I propose we use this thread for schoolyard style discussion of tips and tricks a la the Void Stranger thread. What do folks think?

[whatsarobot]

LOVE the idea for this thread.

Personally, I cannot wait to play this. Spelunky and Downwell are two of my favourite games of all time, and I think this looks awesome.

But! I am waiting for the inevitable Switch release. Only a matter of time.

[RubySunrise]

Regarding the terminal…

It’s different on different screens in different games.

[Naaaaaaaathan]

Ah ha! I thought so!

[100syndromes]

So glad to see a thread on this, easily my most anticipated game of 2024 (wasn’t so easy when Demonschool was still slated to release soon, but all the more time to enjoy UFO 50!). I’ve been playing chronologically and having a blast. Dabbled in all of them up to Bushido Ball, definitely putting more time into some more than others.

So far my highlights are Bug Hunter, Ninpek, Mortol, Velgress, and Devilition! Not a single miss thus far though, even the titles I initially think aren’t for me end up grabbing my attention.

Bug Hunter hit for me from the start, I’ve put almost an hour into it and is by far the most played. The action/module system keeps it super engaging and taps into the sicko side of my brain that wants just one more run with games like Hades and Vampire Survivors. Also what a lovely interface!

Mortol has got to be my second favorite, there’s a lot of room for expression in how you handle each obstacle and in just the first 3 levels it’s expanded so much that I don’t know what’s coming next.

Last one I’ll touch on is Devilition, which I initially felt tepid on but quickly grew to love. Pulling off each wave is so satisfying and much harder than I expected. Gaining a villager for a total clear is a great incentive for me to push for it, tricky as it may be (I do wish I could see the attack radius of weapons I’ve already placed!).

So far this game has exceeded my already high expectations, eager to read more of your thoughts on it!

[100syndromes]

are you on Mac? I’ve been running it just fine on my ancient mid-2015 pro through Crossover. You can start a 14 day free trial and after that it’s a one time-purchase!

[mtvcribs]

is this a secret horror game?

I think i may already know the answer.
These games are good but they all feel a little funny

[freakscene]

I haven’t got far enough in any of the games but I feel like there has to be something meta going on. I imagine it is set off by beating something.

[RubySunrise]

I think I know what you mean. I wonder how far the meta-context goes wrt this fictional developer and system. Is the world itself also fictional? How different is it? Maybe disturbing or horrifying?

[donrumata]

Maaaaaan this is sweet. Feels like back in the old days when I’d just pick through romsets. Except a way higher percentage of these games are good and none of them are by Color Dreams or Micronics. An absolute steal for $25.

I think I’m in agreement with the general sentiment that Mooncat is a standout. There’s one game in there that’s very Shatterhand and that one seems cool, although the name escapes me right now. I have to call out Rail Heist as something special, too. There’s a game called Golfaria that’s some kinda golf ball adventure game? I haven’t dug too deep into any of the more narrative ones (gotta go to bed soon) but there’s just so much.

They’re real games! 50 of em! For $25! And so far they’ve all been interesting! Highly recommend picking it up.

Someone on Reddit has pointed out that there’s some kinda secret meta-game. Seems neat.

[Bbtone]

I’ve only played an hour so far but this is for-sure my favorite thing I’ve played all year. Videogames truly are back

[freakscene]

I wanna show some love to Pilot Quest.

It starts off as like, oh, this is zelda, then it turns out, oh this is harvest moon, then it turns out, oh, this is game dev story.

I’m a fan.

[MegaSigil]

I immediately got kind of hooked by Magic Garden so if there’s a meta thing going on threaded through all the other games I dunno if I’ll ever see it