Why haven't you bought UFO 50 yet?

Power Pro

Power Pro

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I'm a bit disappointed that I haven't seen a thread devoted to this amazing title so far. Admittedly I didn't know much about it until I heard people like Jeff Gerstmann talk about it on his podcast, but he only scratched the surface. For $25 on steam, I picked up this GOTY contender and I've put over 30+ hours into it, with many more in my future being likely.

What is UFO 50? Well it's 50 games in one. No hyperbole, there's 50 fleshed out games in this. It's set up as a collection of lost games from the 1980s for a computer that never really existed. While some seem a little more advanced than what hardware in the 80s could do, they all evoke the time period very well. Feeling modern, and retro at the same time.

I still have yet to really dive deep into all the games, but I've booted up every one at least once. Even if some games aren't quite my genre, every game seems fully realized. I can easily see every one having their own favorites, and being very different from another person's favorite.

So far, my favorites Bug Hunter, Magic Garden, Mortol, Waldorf's Journey, Party House (oh god I love Party House), Rail Heist, and Mini and Max. That's just the ones I've really delved into. There's a few that I booted up that seemed like they could be really cool, like Grimstone, and Night Manor.

Seeing no threads on here about this game, I just felt I needed to post something. More people need to check this title out, and the developer deserves the recognition for making such an great package.

Here's just a few random screenshots from a few of the games to give an idea of the look of them. In order: Party House, Mini and Max, Bug Hunter, Night Manor, Attactics, Valbrace, and Magic Garden.
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Power Pro said:
I'm a bit disappointed that I haven't seen a thread devoted to this amazing title so far.
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www.neogaf.com

UFO 50 review thread

https://www.metacritic.com/game/ufo-50/ https://opencritic.com/game/17307/ufo-50 The New York Times - 90 The astounding compilation UFO 50, which is based on a fictional game company from the 1980s, packs in so many completely different genres that choosing one is like opening a...
www.neogaf.com www.neogaf.com

www.neogaf.com

UFO 50 - an Action 52-like

UFO 50 is a collection of 50 single and multiplayer games from the creators of Spelunky, Downwell, and Catacomb Kids. Explore a variety of genres, from platformers and shoot 'em ups to puzzle games, roguelites, and RPGs. Our goal is to combine a familiar 8-bit aesthetic with new ideas and modern...
www.neogaf.com www.neogaf.com
There's a couple threads.🥴
 
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UFO50 is so awesome and ive only played one of the games you screenshotted (Magic Garden).

The best way to understand it is 50 brand new, original games from the era when NES box art looked like this:
220px-BalloonFightnesboxart.jpg

IceClimberboxartnes.jpg
 
I thought Spelunky was a pretty dreadful game and I lost interest in Downwell pretty quickly, so the pedigree doesn't particularly entice me. I might give it a shot at some point, but... eh. It's a cool concept, though.
 
Because it will be a day 1 purchase if it comes to PS5, maybe the dev doesn't want more $$$, I'm sure it would sell nicely on Switch too.
 
Because... quantity=/=quality?

I actually have no idea of the quality of these titles, if I'm honest, but let's put it this way, I'm still not sold.
 
Because I'm not paying $32 canadian to play a collection of "old" games im not interested in. I had my fill of these type of things as a kid with the 50 in 1, or 200 in 1 cartridges.
 
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Maybe some of these simple games are worth dabbling with for a while. I watched some UFO 50 YT videos from people going over each game. Most of them look like junk.
 
Is there some sort of cool meta narrative at play around the fictional console or the company that made the games?

I frankly don't give a shit about 50 unconnected NES style games in 2024.
 
FunkMiller said:
I frankly don't give a shit about 50 unconnected NES style games in 2024.
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I wouldnt even call most of them NES style games. More like simple arcadey games from around 1980-83.

Anyone expecting 50 retro games akin to Contra or Zelda will be disappointed. I'd put the original Donkey Kong arcade game as higher quality than most games I saw on those vids. And that game came out in 1981.
 
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A large amount of these would be considered classics if they released on the NES.

A few of them would still have been ass though.
 
yansolo said:
cool concept but i thought the games kind of sucked (didn't try all of them), refunded it in 30 minutes
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I got a refund after about an hour. Absolutely hated it. I get some people are nostalgic for the era, but my god are these games painful to play if you're not. And I GREW UP with these kinds of games.
 
Poppyseed said:
I got a refund after about an hour. Absolutely hated it. I get some people are nostalgic for the era, but my god are these games painful to play if you're not. And I GREW UP with these kinds of games.
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yeh i felt the same way, i would rather just go play og retro games, it surprises me sometimes how such crappy games get so popular
 
Sorry, but it seems awful. Those very simple early '80s arcade games just aren't much fun for me these days. With some exceptions of course.
 
Power Pro said:
md88Vmw.jpeg



I'm a bit disappointed that I haven't seen a thread devoted to this amazing title so far. Admittedly I didn't know much about it until I heard people like Jeff Gerstmann talk about it on his podcast, but he only scratched the surface. For $25 on steam, I picked up this GOTY contender and I've put over 30+ hours into it, with many more in my future being likely.

What is UFO 50? Well it's 50 games in one. No hyperbole, there's 50 fleshed out games in this. It's set up as a collection of lost games from the 1980s for a computer that never really existed. While some seem a little more advanced than what hardware in the 80s could do, they all evoke the time period very well. Feeling modern, and retro at the same time.

I still have yet to really dive deep into all the games, but I've booted up every one at least once. Even if some games aren't quite my genre, every game seems fully realized. I can easily see every one having their own favorites, and being very different from another person's favorite.

So far, my favorites Bug Hunter, Magic Garden, Mortol, Waldorf's Journey, Party House (oh god I love Party House), Rail Heist, and Mini and Max. That's just the ones I've really delved into. There's a few that I booted up that seemed like they could be really cool, like Grimstone, and Night Manor.

Seeing no threads on here about this game, I just felt I needed to post something. More people need to check this title out, and the developer deserves the recognition for making such an great package.

Here's just a few random screenshots from a few of the games to give an idea of the look of them. In order: Party House, Mini and Max, Bug Hunter, Night Manor, Attactics, Valbrace, and Magic Garden.
LOsRRxI.png
l69geg9.jpeg
0NZr4l7.jpeg
Q9aswn4.jpeg
4cuGpWa.jpeg
Pa1u57F.jpeg

Rn6gtmn.jpeg
Click to expand...
I did.

Then I refunded it.

It's fun but it's also a bit of a gimmick.

I expected more from it
 
Guess those games aren't for everyone lol. :goog_relieved:

I have it and I've put like 10 hours or so into it. Haven't tried that many games, since I'm playing them in chronological order and trying to beat one before moving on to the next and even getting some cherries here and there, last one I've done so in being Velgress:

hq720.jpg


This one has been my favorite so far, a pretty fun and kinda challending "Downwell in reverse" in which you have to climb out of a monster's den or some shit. A very fast paced action game.

My only gripe so far with UFO 50 has been that most games so far (I've tried only 8 out of 50) have been kinda short, although I've read that later on the games become longer and more complicated, which makes sense since UFO 50 is about a made up videogame company making games from 1983 to 1989, so the first games are more arcade-like while later ones are more long, being stuff like metroidvanias, point & click adventures, JRPG, etc. In fact, I went ahead and tried one of the later games, Valbrace, and it's an amazing dungeon crawler with action combat which seems to be far longer and cooler than anything prior to it:

1800.jpg


I can definetly recommend this collection to anyone who loves indie and/or retro games. Picking a game up and finding out what's it about and how it plays is super fun, like digging up gems of a forgotten system or something. Games are very varied and most are pretty fun. Just don't be scared of Barbuta, being the first game of the collection it can be a bit intimidating, although I'd say that it's also one of the more rewarding ones.

hq720.jpg


Oh and Ninpek is GOTY.

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I want to but afraid that I won't like it as much as I like the idea of it. That might be less likely to happen after a sale.
 
This would be the perfect Switch game, especially since a lot of those games are 2-player as well.

So, waiting for that to come to Switch.

And then I still need to buy a Switch, I guess.
 
Never heard of this, but I like the concept.

Problem is if this is just a bunch of mediocrity? I'll have to check out some videos, because screenshots aren't selling the game to me.
 
Having bought the game due to positive reception and GAFers in the other thread being extremely hyped and positive about the game, I'm now met with some doubt because the games are more purposely janky and difficult than I expected.
I totally understand it's a love letter to the 8-bit days and pirate/multi-game carts, but I'm not sure if I want to spend xx hours just to git gud to beat a hard af minigame (compared to other games I can play in my limited gametime).
Also, I believe there's no save feature at all, even for the (slow) adventure/RPG/strategy type games, which again makes it feel more time consuming than I'd like.
Even though I love retro game design and graphics, maybe I'm just spoiled by modern day features or I always sucked at difficult games from the past :pie_thinking:
My initial plan to complete every game in order as presented in the game (left to right, top to bottom) is very much off the table at least.
 
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SmokedMeat said:
Never heard of this, but I like the concept.

Problem is if this is just a bunch of mediocrity? I'll have to check out some videos, because screenshots aren't selling the game to me.
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96% user score on Steam and people are gushing over it on social media and the other UFO 50 thread.
I'll grab it later, busy with zelda and doing Plucky Knight later.

www.neogaf.com

UFO 50 - an Action 52-like

UFO 50 is a collection of 50 single and multiplayer games from the creators of Spelunky, Downwell, and Catacomb Kids. Explore a variety of genres, from platformers and shoot 'em ups to puzzle games, roguelites, and RPGs. Our goal is to combine a familiar 8-bit aesthetic with new ideas and modern...
www.neogaf.com www.neogaf.com
 
Herbspiceguy said:
I'm not sure if I want to spend xx hours just to git gud to beat a hard af minigame (compared to other games I can play in my limited gametime).
Click to expand...
The games are inspired on the 8bit era so of course they are going to be hard as nails.

That said there are easy games, like Ninpek or Magic Garden among others.

Imo having Barbuta being the first game was a mistake, bet it's giving a lot of people a wrong idea of what to expect from UFO 50.

Herbspiceguy said:
Also, I believe there's no save feature at all, even for the (slow) adventure/RPG/strategy type games, which again makes it feel more time consuming than I'd like.
Click to expand...
That's false. Many games have a save feature.
 
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I've been playing the hell out of it, and it's great. I understand it's not for everyone but damn I love it. Mooncat bros rise up.
 
Its on the list, just a busy month.

Is there some linear progression or overall meta like FunkMiller asked? I would have more fun conquering or getting to a specific level in each game/unlocking more than just a lump some of 50.
 
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