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I've been waiting 7 years to play UFO 50, a love letter to the NES era that brings together 50 brand-new retro games from an all-star team of indie developers led by Spelunky's Derek Yu. I finally got my chance at Summer Game Fest, but as part of what was essentially a speed-dating event for Day of the Devs - meaning I only got 10 minutes to explore this massive, massive library. That still managed to be just enough time for me to fall in love with its bizarre pinball golf platformer and grow fascinated by what the rest of the games had to offer.
UFO 50 catalogs the library of a fictional '80s video game console inspired by real-life 8-bit machines like the NES, featuring an authentic color palette and supreme dedication to a two-button control scheme. The games are all available from the start, but they're organized along a timeline that charts the console's development from its very basic launch games to the more technically impressive releases that defined the platform's later days. You could play this as a chrongaming project charting the fictional history of UFOSoft, or you could just play it like a flash cart, popping open whatever title catches your eye to see if it takes your fancy.
The game that immediately took my fancy was a side-view golf game that challenges you to complete a hole filled with pinball-style hazards. It's a mini-golf-style joy to navigate these obstacles, and it all works very well within an extremely simple "hold the button to charge your shot power" control scheme. After I spent a few holes repeatedly getting dunked into water by moving bumpers, lining up the perfect shot and watching a Rube Goldberg machine's worth of chain reactions bounce my ball across the stage for a hole in one was incredibly satisfying - and, I assure you, a reflection of my skill rather than luck (...maybe.)
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UFO 50 does feature some of the genres you'd expect from the NES - traditional platformers, JRPGs, and the like - but every game I stumbled across in my playtime was delightfully bizarre and experimental. Take for example a wonderfully weird platformer where you play as a walrus that moves exclusively by charging up to fling itself across a variety of precarious, icy platforms. The most straightforward thing I came across was an exploratory action-RPG that appeared to take more than a few cues from Legacy of the Wizard - which itself is one of the NES's weirdest and most experimental titles.
Another standout was a hybrid 2D and 3D shooter. Enemies come in waves, first approaching from the distance in 3D, ala Space Harrier. The opponents you miss then become obstacles in the 2D space you occupy - but you can still shoot them down by firing in the opposite direction you're currently moving. It starts to make sense quickly as you play, and the gentle mental gymnastics make it a lot of fun.
Everything here is very pick-up-and-play, which makes UFO 50's multiplayer games particularly intriguing. I spent a few minutes battling the AI in an arena-based platform fighting game where you compete with your opponent to grab a certain number of rings. The characters are wildly varied - I played as a guy who drops mines and runs over them to jump to higher platforms, while my opponent appeared to be able to reverse his own gravity to flip between floors and ceilings. It was enjoyable solo, but it feels primed to be a riot in local multiplayer, akin to indie hits like Duck Game and Samurai Gunn.
And really, comparisons to those modern indies shows the secret sauce of UFO 50 - it's inspired by '80s classics, yes, but it builds on modern design sensibilities, using the limitations of the NES era as a canvas for some delightfully unique new ideas. That sort of idea has given us modern classics like Shovel Knight, and it feels like UFO 50 is about to deliver something akin to 50 Shovel Knights in a single package. Personally, I can't imagine a more exciting promise, and I still can't wait for UFO 50's launch on September 18.
Brush up on the best NES games of all time if you want to know where UFO 50's inspirations come from.
