i’ve played five of the games so far, none that really caught me too much. playing chronologically. hoping something catches me, i really want to get into the hype this has.
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I know you didn’t ask, but my suggestion in your case would be to keep going. Don’t stress too much about giving enough time to every single game right now. Feel free to hop around until something grabs you. There’s enough variety here that something will hook you, and that might help you spend more time with another.
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Just got done reading all of your thoughts on UFO 50. I recently got back into it in a big way. It’s been interesting to read everyone’s opinions and which games you all vibe with. I just wanted to point out a few that i didn’t see too much discussion on:
Bushido Ball
This one really shines when played with someone else of a similar skill level. I played a ton of it with my brother on Christmas. We usually play fighting games or Windjammers, so Bushido Ball was a natural fit. Learning the mechanics and characters was fun, but the eventual mind games that happened as a result of responding to strategy and tactics held up to the likes of Tekken or Street Fighter. I loved being able to foul. It became a strategy to switch the pace up or throw my brother off. It’s fun as a single player experience as well, but competitive multiplayer is what Bushido Ball was clearly made for.
Overbold
This game is like a single screen, rogue-like Smash TV. The sauce for me was being able to stack more enemies for more payout every round. I can’t help but raise the enemy count right up to what i think my limits are. I’m actually pretty terrible at this one, but I play it a ton. If you fail, you can be on a new run in seconds. It makes Overbold so addicting. I also love that it appears to be the sequel to Velgress, which is also amazing.
Warp Tank
Warp Tank is just a delightfully simple and tight platformer. It’s got fun overworld exploration and most of the levels are pretty bite sized. This is one of the easier games to get a gold on. I keep chipping away at it for the cherry though.
Let me and everyone else know if UFO 50 still makes your GOTY list. I know it’s still my favorite game of 2024!
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Hey all! I’ve played a lot more and I wanted to share my thoughts on a few more games with you!
Mini & Max
I had cleared this game back when UFO 50 first came out, but I came back to it to get the cherry. It’s a fun platformer where you shrink or grow inside this small room. I really liked the many ways to get the collectibles. It made it so that no matter where you were exploring, or what quest you were working on, you were bound to be making progress towards the gold or cherry. I also thought there were so many clever places to shrink down and see something fun or get a hint to move forward. I thought getting the character upgrades was a little too opaque and spread out, but that also meant you could have a very different set of tools compared to someone else at any point in the game. Which I found very interesting upon reflection. At the end of it, I enjoyed all of my time in this one.
Avianos
This one I grew to like more and more. It’s a simple grid-based strategy game where you can pray to one of three gods each turn, giving you a series of 3 actions. Each god has a different set of actions that occur in a set order. Such as accumulate resources, recruit units and move/attack. The object is to take and hold 4 of the castles on the map for 2 turns. I imagine this one is probably hard for some players to get a hold on at the very beginning though.
I really like small scale and simple strategy or sim games. The rules of Avianos are simple and the loop is quick. Combat is pretty simple, basically just RPS. The fun of a game of Avianos is the decision making of which gods to pray to/upgrade, while paying attention to which ones your opponent is choosing. You usually can’t see your enemy’s units on any given tile until you attack, but you can have a pretty good idea how many units and of what type they might be. This leads to some fun calculated risk and/or exploiting a weakness you suspect the enemy may have.
I had a great time continuing to learn this one and wish I could play this online with my friends. It would be great to play with long turn timers like Polytopia, Words With Friends or Chess dot com.
Party House
I wanted to mention this one in my first post but hadn’t gotten the gold cart yet. I have since cleared the 5 preset scenarios. I have to say that I think Party House (along with Pilot Quest and Rail Heist) is a great example of taking modern design ideas and trying to represent them in UFO 50’s fiction. I’m going to lay out the rules and structure for anyone that hasn’t played it, so feel free to skip a paragraph if you’re already familiar with the game!
Party House is a stripped-down deck builder with the goal of trying to throw a 4-star party after so many turns. You have a rolodex of guests that enter the party every time you answer the door. When you start, you have only a few spots for guests and only a few types of guest. Each guest may give popularity, cash and/or trouble. Popularity is used to attract guests; money is used to buy more space in your home and trouble works on a 3-strike rule that will end your current round if reached (the police get called!). Each scenario has a myriad of party goers worth different amounts of popularity and money. Many have special abilities. Each scenario also has 2 guests you can add to your rolodex that are worth a star. The starred party goers always require the most popularity to add to the rolodex. By A LOT. This means you are likely only going to be able to get the 4+ of these guests you need near the end of your streak of parties.
The magic lies in having to add these starred units at the end of the game. It effectively means that to win the scenario, you are playing AGAINST your own deck. When you first play Party House, you will probably fail to get enough star units before the end. You will likely then construct your next deck in a way that will get you as much popularity and cash as possible; while avoiding trouble so you can maximize every round. You may then be able to afford four or more of the units for the win condition! Then you will most likely realize that whether or not these units appear is completely random and your deck is now packed with cards that don’t help you win. This realization will turn you into a true deck builder.
If you weren’t before, you are now considering the repercussions of adding any card to your deck. Are the benefits worth it over the course of the run? Do you have enough cards to mitigate trouble? Do you have too many? Do you have a card that peaks at the next card so you can push out another card when you’re on 2 strikes? Do you have a way to cycle cards to try to draw for your wincon? Do you even see the names of the party goers anymore? Do you remember that these used to be characters at a party instead of cards on a playfield?
Party House is a small, tight deck builder that lures you into the party by pretending to obfuscate its deck builder mechanics. In reality, it’s both a tutorial for the entire genre and great entry in it as well.
Thanks for reading! I’m working through Porgy, Valbrace and Rail Hesit now. I’m also trying to not suck at Star Waspir too, haha. I’d love to hear anybody else’s thoughts on these games or any others that you love! I’ll be back at some point when I have something to say about a few more.
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Reviving this thread because I have retroactively decided this is my GOTY 2024 and perhaps my new favorite video game of all time.
Onion Delivery has changed me as a person
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I didn’t like Onion Delivery, but I think it’s pretty cool how there are so many games that have different appeal to different folks. Like if we all made tier lists of the games, they’d all look fairly unique - save for the fact that I think everyone recognizes that Magic Garden is S tier.
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I absolutely HATED Onion Delivery at first- but now that I have cherried it with about 12 hours of playtime I think it has moved into my top 5 games in the collection
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I would not place Magic Garden at S tier. C maybe.
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Magic Garden is one of my favorites that I’ve played. It’s so simple, but open to a variety of strategies. I love each little art flourish, too.
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Magic Garden is also one of my favorites. It’s music and art is just perfect. I love the risk/reward game when going for the cherry.
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