UFO 50

Can't wait for this to come to console https://50games.fun/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfW0K4rRLnw

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

50 BRAND NEW GAMES - These are NOT minigames or microgames! 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.

AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE - According to the story of UFO 50, the games were all created by a fictional 80s video game company that was obscure but ahead of its time. Some games are sequels to other games in the collection and various characters appear in multiple titles as part of a shared continuity.

AN INSTANT LIBRARY - All 50 games are available to play at the start! The concept was inspired by multicarts, retro collections, and the experience of going to a friend's house and perusing their game library. Jump in and out of games at a whim - exploring the collection is part of the fun!

Yeah looks a lotta fun, been a bit of buzz about it already. Anyone who's got it and played let us know what it's like

been too busy to play it yet but i've been looking forward to this

Really wish this was on PS!

I always trust Suhrke and Yu.

I have only tried 2/50 games so far but Rock On! Island fully sucked me in last night

Looking forward to it. Kinda reminds me of Retro Game Challenge, the game (and its fan-translated sequel) inspired by the "GameCenter CX" Japanese TV show. I'm not really a very good gamer, so I'm not sure I'd be good at any of these games, though!

It is a lot like Retro Game Challenge, with the same quality maintained across both more and bigger games. I've played 15 and finished 5 so far and it's been pretty much continually delightful. Something about the context really adds to even the purer stylistic exercises too.

i loved that too.. so glad to hear about this thing. That's winter gaming sorted!

really into Golfaria

i think the idea is that they are all beatable, right? Getting through them all is a badge I'll never see. But it helps me press start on Magic Garden for the 10,000th time.

theres a little info card for each disk on the selection screen that will tell you the win condition, among other things. it'll just be beat the game for most of them but some of the arcade-y ones it's less obvious what that means so it will tell you

also once you've won there's a second harder objective for each game that appears there

dang, really want to check this out someday! my gaming situation is steam/mac only at the moment

I bought this fully intending to play it loads, but then Balatro got released on iPhone and I haven’t turned my steam deck on since.

i got balatro'd last year, i totally understand. you just have to cancel your next month or two

or this year? at some point i got balatro'd, time changed

there's a balatro in ufo 50

Please please come out on Switch

Mini & Max is amazing once it opens up. probably my favorite so far

i've tried 40 of the 50 games now, having a good time. there's a few that i noped out of quickly but the vast majority have a compelling hook even for someone who's bad at Hard games (me)

How are you guys finding the difficulty factor, as I see this is one of the main negative points people raising in their steam reviews?

I've only dug deep into stuff in the first half, but have generally found the difficulty really well-pitched. This may be because I played a lot of old games, but I generally didn't complete them. For the most part the games in UFO 50 are challenging but completing them is a much easier achievement than in most of their inspirations.

I'm guessing some reactions come from the default first game being Barbuta. That is a bit of an outlier in just how no-frills and '80s it is, and it relies on figuring out quite obscure secrets.

Even with that, though, I realised I'd missed some helpful signposting because I'd assumed period-accurate design approaches but it is more modern and generous in at least some ways. (also Barbuta rules)

Thanks!

there's also a decent number of turn based / menu based games which can still be challenging but that's a different type of difficulty than the platformers and arcade games

beating Pingolf on my first play was a nice payoff for playing a shitload of desert golfing on my commute a decade ago

lol nice. i appreciate how it lets you do a full play no matter how badly you score. One of the better ones for my 6 year old at this point. I didn't do much better than her.

thinking about Porgy today

the beauty and the terror of the ocean, in cute pixel art

have finally tried all 50 games. identified ~20 that i am interested in beating though i'll give most of the others another try too. there's only 2 games that i outright disliked on first impression (hot foot and combat ants) and only ~5 that feel beyond my gaming capabilities (star waspir...)

How are you guys finding the difficulty factor, as I see this is one of the main negative points people raising in their steam reviews?

There's a classic arcade near here packed with something like 200 vintage games. You pay a flat fee at the front and get unlimited play, but even with the equivalent of endless quarters so many of these games (many of which are paid homage to in this collection) are soooooooo frustratingly difficult. It's amazing I spent so much time as a kid playing Atari and Coleco and eventually Nintendo, let alone occasionally actual quarter-fed arcade games at the pizza place or wherever, when the games were so gosh-dang unforgiving.

aw we had a similar arcade where everything was on freeplay, but it got closed down when covid struck.

finished Night Manor, great stuff. genuinely scary for an "8-bit" game

i have mastered Bushido Ball

kind of fascinating watching others play this and seeing just how many people, when presented with a menu of 50 games with names and short descriptions, will play them strictly in the presented order rather than browse around.

I started out browsing around at random but switched to chronological order when I realised some of them are sort-of sequels to others.

i finally beat Golfaria last night, really liked that one. for some reason i get way less frustrated at physics-based difficulty than action game difficulty

xp i imagine there's a bit of a 'story' being told that you might not pick up on playing them in random order, right? not like an explicit one, but fun subtle stuff seeing how the games develop through time and maybe call back to earlier ones.

anyway these seems like a super cool thing. waiting for the right time to dig in, can see it taking over everything for a few weeks.

xp yes theres definitely a lot of instances of game mechanics being reused/recontextualized in different games, though i picked up on all that fine playing them out of order. the last row of games also feels intentionally staged like a company hitting their peak and then falling off, ending with an overdesigned comic book tie-in game. apparently theres some easter eggs / ARG stuff you can follow that leads to a more explicit 'story' of this but it comes through just via what the games are like which is cool.