In the 80s and 90s, terrible bootleg game collections ran rampant throughout the game industry. These mostly featured bizarre versions of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games or the worst arcade games one could ever play, as the developers used ludicrously high game totals to make a profit.
An infamous example of this phenomenon was an NES game known as Action 52. Instead of filling out its roster with trash or stolen titles, its developers created 52 original titles to give their game actual value as a collection.
Every single game in it was terrible and under-developed.
While Action 52 was—to put it nicely—abhorrent and awful, its core idea held some merit. The concept could never work with the technological capabilities of computers from the 80s, but current advancements in game development could allow a savvy team to realize Action 52’s true potential.
The minds behind the recently released UFO50 sought to accomplish this with the style of games from the 80s and executed it with extraordinary excellence despite inherent problems with parts of their design philosophy.
UFO50 immediately slaps the player in the face with its overwhelming charm. The game presents itself as a collection of titles from the history of a fictional game company and fills each title lore outside of the game itself. Every game also presents itself as a dusty and aged cartridge, perfectly encapsulating the collection’s intended aesthetic and the main idea behind the entire collection.
Replicating design from the 80s inevitably raises the problem of reproducing cumbersome mechanics, but UFO50 mostly avoids this issue. Some games suffer from shoddy design—dodging rain is easier than evading the bats in Barbuta, and I’ve seen puddles with more depth than Magic Gardens—but most titles in this collection avoid this pitfall.
(Side note: Admittedly, I think the jank design in Barbuta could be intentional. It’s possible that the developers’ goal with that title was to perfectly emulate a cheaply challenging experience from the 80s. While that’s an admirable goal, my problem is that I don’t find that style of game fair or fun.)
Most titles go beyond avoiding basic issues and understand what makes NES-era games beloved enough to turn their experience into a rich and high-quality product. Games like Camouflage, Ninpek, Mini and Max, and Paint Chase all accomplish this to some extent. They nail their visual and auditorial appeal with vibrant colors, detailed sprites, and chipper yet crisp tunes. The gameplay balances simplicity and complexity, preventing the games from being mindless yet allowing anyone to pick up and play them. Each game is challenging yet fair, placing the onus of failure onto the player’s shoulders and encouraging them to keep playing.
The collection inherently fails to entertain at times, but this weakness becomes its greatest strength. The beauty of UFO50 is that nobody will like every game it has to offer, and that’s a good thing. The goal of this collection isn’t to appeal to everyone but to allow every title to be as niche as it wants so that it can blossom into an incredibly engaging experience.
Additionally, a surprisingly high number of these games are incredibly in-depth. Arcade games have clearly defined goals that prevent the game from becoming repetitive, titles like Mini and Max are filled with secret collectibles, and games like Night Manor explore genres one wouldn’t expect to see in a collection like this.
I’m not sure if a game like this warrants a rating. Covering this experience with an undisputable score of its quality devalues its core philosophy by judging everything as one whole package. I would instead recommend UFO50 to anyone who enjoys video games in general, as any one of its games could become a classic or cherished favorite with enough time.
