It's the early 90s and you've stepped foot in your local game store. You browse the used NES games, hoping to find any hidden gems to your collection before you finally take that leap to the SNES. You find a curious little cartridge, different from the others. It's transparent with art that can only be described as "radical." You have found the Action 52, an unlicensed NES cartridge with 52 original games by Active Enterprises.
You buy it, rush home, and slam it into your NES, that satisfying spring squealing to a click to confirm that the cartridge is locked in. You look through the menu and check out several games. It didn't take long for you to realize one crucial detail about the Action 52: every single game on this cartridge is terrible.
UFO 50 is everything Action 52 wishes it was and more. At its surface, UFO 50 is a collection of fifty retro style games made by the fictional game company, UFOsoft. In reality, the games were made by Mossmouth's Derek Yu, Jon Perry, Eirik Suhrke, Paul Hubans, Ojiro Fumoto, and Tyriq Plumme. The games cover a wide variety of genres including platformer, puzzle, strategy, and turn-based RPG. They are presented in the order they were "released" from 1982 to 1989 for the (also fictional) Laser-X line of consoles. The games utilize 32 colors, not unlike titles released around that time, but without the slowdown and sprite flickering.
One of UFO 50's core design philosophies is retro gaming with modern game design techniques, giving you the best of both worlds. It seems like a daunting task to go through all 50 games, but the best (and probably intended) way to tackle the catalog is to start at the beginning with Barbuta.
Barbuta is not the best game in the pack, but it sets a tone for the whole collection. It's a platformer that's slow and daunting, with movement similar to Mario in 1983's Donkey Kong. You're constantly fighting your own patience as you explore the castle, which makes this feel very much like a company's first attempt at a game. Barbuta hates you in a way only early NES games could.
Barbuta doesn't leave a great impression for those that haven't dabbled in retro gaming.
Fortunately, there are at least 49 other games to check out if Barbuta isn't your speed — and their inspiration isn't just present, but celebrated. At the same time, you won't see one-to-one modern recreations of retro games. All of these games are entirely unique.
Paint Chase, for example, moves like Namco's Rally X, but the goal is closer to Splatoon where you have to paint a percentage of the stage. We also have Elfazar's Hat, which is a scrolling shooter reminiscent in style and gameplay of Taito's Pocky & Rocky.
Velgress takes clear inspiration from Metroid's main character Samus Aran for the lead, but its gameplay is a mix between the vertical stages of Kid Icarus with roguelite elements. You can shoot in the four cardinal directions and you have a double jump. As you climb, spikes rise from the bottom of the screen, causing instant death if touched.
Kick Club is reminiscent of Bubble Bobble. The goal is the same: kill all the enemies, move on to the next screen. The difference with Kick Club is that you kick a soccer ball instead of trap enemies in bubbles, but aesthetically the inspiration is clear.
Block Koala is another game where aesthetically it feels like Adventures of Lolo, but it's a completely different kind of block puzzle game. You can only push blocks with another block if it has the same value or above.
Valbrace has the approach of Shin Megami Tensei, where you're exploring a dungeon in a first person view with enemy encounters. If you've been paying attention, this is the point where UFO 50 switches up the game mechanics. Instead of being a turn-based RPG, the combat becomes similar to Punch Out!! where your knight is on the screen and you're dodging attacks with left, right, and down while up raises your shield. You can strike them whenever you want or you can wait for an opening. A strange mix, but it works. Adding Punch Out!! mechanics to a dungeon crawler may be what the series needs to make a comeback.
If you're disappointed that the Shin Megami Tensei-inspired game didn't have turn-based battles, you'll still get a chance to scratch that slow and methodical combat sized itch.
Grimstone is a traditional RPG and unlike most of the other titles that are shorter, arcade-like experiences, it can take over 60 hours to complete fully. In the factoid about the game from the select menu, it was in development for 2 years, which started before Rail Heist, a platforming strategy game set in the same world.
It's not just settings that some of the games in UFO 50 share. They sometimes share assets as well. As you play through the games, you'll start to notice that some of the sprites are reused while some can be considered an homage.
Mini & Max is a great example of this since there is a section of the game where you shrink down to a toy train and find enemies that throw blocks at you in the same manner as the ones in Rail Heist. Not only that, but the normal ending to Mini & Max has a reference to an earlier game, but telling you which one it is would ruin the surprise.
Finally, the "last" game in the pack is Cyber Owls. As if Mossmouth would give you a simple game to go out on, this time you play as four different characters with their own stages. There is a stealth stage like Metal Gear, while the other three stages are a beat 'em up, gallery shooter, and speed bike segment à la Battletoads. Definitely one of the cooler games in the back, but it feels rushed — and that's a conscious decision by the developers.
Within the meta narrative of UFO 50 and UFOsoft, the fictional team leader wanted to make a gift for his girlfriend's son, essentially forcing himself into a rush job. But that's nothing in compared to the game it's paying homage too: The Cheetahmen.
Early on, we mentioned Action 52, the crown jewel of terrible NES games. The standout game of the pack,The Cheetahmen, tried to latch onto the success of mascot titles such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Like the rest of the games on Action 52, The Cheetahmen and its standalone (and pricey) sequel Cheetahmen 2, are some of the worst NES games available. One of the selling points of The Cheetahmen is that each of the trio of heroes plays differently. It's hard not to see where the inspiration for Cyber Owls came from.
Even after playing all 50 games in UFO 50, there are still more secrets to uncover. The games themselves are just the beginning with a meta narrative that goes into detail about the fictional company and their downfall. There's also a secret 51st game that's found by putting in special codes in the terminal, which is primarily used for cheats. Finding the code to unlock the game, however, requires you to go through Barbuta — and as was mentioned before, Barbuta hates you as much as you hate it.
Going through UFO 50 made me nostalgic for the times in my life when I went back to consoles I never had a chance to play growing up. You have the entire history of a company (even if it was fictional) and you can feel the love poured into each and every game. It would be easy to make games on the same quality as Action 52, but Mossmouth wasn't satisfied with that. Their goal was to take the best parts of retro gaming and add in modern game development philosophies, and in that, they more than succeeded.
UFO 50 is available for purchase on Steam.
