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Quick Recommendation #12: UFO 50

Modern Retro Gaming Masterpiece

Imagine if someone, especially someone who likes retro gaming, told you: «What’s the NES? I’ve never heard of it, or played any of the games.» And then imagine you could tell them they could buy the 50 best games for just €25. What a treat they’d be in store for! Dusting off old classics, and exploring a treasure trove of retro gaming they haven’t seen before…

The game's key art, a colourful drawing of many different characters. Some of them: A woman in a green space suit with a run that fires a slug. A guy in a tank-top doing a fly kick, a smiling submarine. A little car with an onion on the roof driven by a three-eyed alien.

Cue UFO 50

If you told me about this game/project, available for Steam1 and Switch, I would brush off as too ambitious to ever become a reality. However, it’s actually done, and here today!

A group of indie devs went together and created a fictional developer, called UFO Soft. The story is that this “company” released a bunch of games for their consoles, LX-I, LX-II, and LX-III, between 1982 and 1989. And you’ve just discovered 50 games, spread across the lifespan of the company, that you can play in any order you’d like.

UFO 50 is a collection of 50 single and multiplayer games from the creators of Spelunky, Downwell, Air Land & Sea, Skorpulac, Catacomb Kids, and Madhouse. Jump in and explore a variety of genres, from platformers and shoot ‘em ups to puzzle games and RPGs.

— From the game’s website

The UFO 50 menu as you begin. All 50 cartridges are available, but they are dusty and covered in cobwebs, etc.

The game menu starts out like this. 👆🏻 The games are sorted from oldest (Barbuta, 1982 — currently selected) to newest. When you click the game, you dust it off, and start it up. And here’s the thing: These are full games!<!—more—>

These are NOT mini-games or micro-games! Although the size of each game varies, every one is a complete experience, from its opening title screen to its ending credits. Some are small arcade-style games, but there are also larger open-world adventures and a JRPG that could take many hours to beat.

— From the game’s website

As the “years” progress, so does the games — with improved graphics and more. There are even things like sequels to games “earlier” in the collection!

If you want more thorough coverage of this game, which this post is not:

There are many good reviews and videos about UFO 50 out there. So I recommend searching for it if you’re interested. To help you get started, here are two: This nice written review by TheGamer/James Kennedy, and this video by Snoman Gaming:

Retro, but modern

I also want to highlight something important — which they say well themselves:

Our goal is to combine a familiar 8-bit aesthetic with new ideas and modern game design sensibilities.

(…)

Authentic but also modern: We carefully chose what elements to modernize. Every game shares a unique 32-color palette, and we took great efforts to make them look and sound like actual 8-bit titles from the 80s. On the other hand, it was important to us that UFO 50 was fun and surprising for modern players, so we chose not to limit ourselves to the genres and design conventions of the past.

— From the game’s website

My favourite game (of the ones I’ve tried) from the collection shows this well: Party House is something as weird as a deck builder from 1986.

A screenshot from Party House, showing the different quests you can 'purchase' between rounds in a specific scenario.
This screenshot shows the main gameplay window, where the player has won by getting four 'star guests' before getting three 'trouble guests'.
Image credits: u/Glitch29 and TheGamer/James Kennedy

Similarly, Rock On! Island 👇🏻 is a tower defence game from 1987. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Rock On screenshot. Dinosaurs are attacking the player, which has built things like chickens and 'caveman soldiers' to defend.
Image credits: TheGamer/James Kennedy

But it’s also important to mention that the games that are more traditional in terms of genre and gameplay, are still really fresh. They don’t just slap together something that’s similar to Mario or Metroid and call it a day.

Some things are still retro, though…

Games like the excellent Celeste shows what you can get with retro graphics, but smooth, modern gameplay tweaking. Sometimes the games in UFO 50 are like this. But they also toy with giving (especially) the “earlier titles” a more clunky feel.

You sometimes have to turn on a bit of that vintage patience while playing. Not every title pours out instant gratification…

But if you like retro games, please give it a try!

In a world filled with stale AAA titles, this crazy indie project is something I really root for. I know I’ll double-dip, by buying it again for the Switch (when I can afford it).

The opening screen of Rail Heist, showing a menu with Continue, New Game and 2P versus. At the bottom it says 1987 UFO SOFT. There's a cowboy on top of a train, with a guy falling of the back of it as well.

If the screenshot above gives you warm feelings, and trigger your curiosity, I really think UFO 50 could be something for you. Get a controller with a good D-pad,2 turn on the CRT filter, and start exploring this “lost” collection of games from an alternative reality.

The rest of the images are gameplay screenshots of different games — which I'll try to explain. (But I haven't played them all myself.) Everything has colourful 8-bit pixelart. This one looks like a platform game of sorts. You're a little UFO that trying to fly through the stage without touching the walls or colourful enemies.
This is a tactics game, with red soldiers on the left side facing right and blue soldiers on the right facing left. You can see some archers, cavalry, swordsmen, etc. It's grid-based.
This looks like a 2D platformer adventure game, where the player has met a giant humanoid otter or something, that says '10 star fragments opens the path, but also awakens the bile of old.'
This is a dungeon crawler, where the enemies are in front of you, but you can see your player character's back. He is facing two orcs and a flyting rat.
The character select screen of a brawler a la Double Dragon. The selected characters are Cat, the track star, with low power but great recovery, and Victor, the brash boxer, with great power but low everything else.
A point-and-click adventure game. The scene is a living room with a fireplace. You can see a minimap and the inventory, which includes a spoon, a small note, some coins and some matches.
A colourful shoot-em-up, where it looks like you're controlling a fish. Plenty of bullets and enemies, in what looks like a dinosaur cave (with fossils).
A super-colourful one-screen puzzle game. A girl is walking in a grid in the middle (a garden), with a blue witch watching from the sides. There's also a cat sleeping, and smiling purple trees all around.
A 2v2 sports game a la Pong. It's set in a retro looking gym.
A menu where you can customise your character — which is a person in a space-suit (that looks a bit like a bug as well). You can see that the gun is upgraded to Hot-Shot, that provides flame bullets.
A sort of shoot-em-up, that looks a bit like Contra but in third person. It has a jungle settting.
A top-down driving game, a la the first GTA titles. The city looks really run-down, and there are plenty of cars driving around.
A quite complex looking strategy game. There's a 4x5 grid on the map, with different tiles. Top left you can see a flying dinosaur with the name 'quetzal' beneath. It looks like you can choose between Muster, Move and Trade, and that gives you different resources.
It looks like an action game a la Pocky & Rocky. Two players are facing what looks like a boss fight: A large tree stump with a big red nose.
More screenshots, from the developer.

  1. It’s technically only available for PC — but I’ve had luck playing it with things like CrossOver. ↩︎

  2. I’ve played with an older version of the 8BitDo Ultimate 🖇️ controller, which I reviewed here. I’d love an 8BitDo Pro 3 🖇️, though — for that proper D-pad placement. ↩︎