I'm starting to get obsessed with this game but I've returned it to my buddy. Gah, it's gonna be a long wait until February.

The way that they're all bundled together and have just a little bit of lore between them makes it all feel connected. That plus the way they keep track of which ones you've beaten (on three different tiers!) makes me want to commit more to each one than I would've otherwise. Like I might've given up playing a friend's copy of, say, Devilition on the grounds that it just wasn't my thing. But being familiar with the devs' work and having it as part of a larger whole encourages me to give it more shots to see if it clicks.

It's almost like it's one mega-game with 50 wildly-different worlds to play through.

And geez, it's easy to overlook 50 games as just a number but when you're actually playing that many, it's kind of mind-blowing. While many of them are fairly small, I can't imagine how much effort that must've been to design all these different characters, UIs, secrets, etc. And I'm sure some of them coming up are pretty lengthy!

The meta-progression almost makes it like getting an education in game genres. But where every game is a weird alternate history version that illuminates how our real-world versions still have a lot of potential within their design space. I'm normally against that sort of compulsion, but it's used tastefully here, to strongly insist that there might be something you're missing in the games you'd normally skip over.

Every game being only two buttons really helps with this! There's always friction in learning a new game, but these UIs have had so much thought put into them that it's never too scary to pick up something new.

I played some Party House for the first time tonight, and it's awesome. It's a sort of deckbuilder/resource management game with a fun coat of paint. Didn't win my first game, but I'm excited to try again and get this machine built right.

@TriforceBun

Oh, Planet Zoldath might be my least favorite game! It's sort of a Toejan & Earl-like, right? I could never get into that either. I actually dismissed Planet Zoldath as being intentionally bad for narrative reasons, it being the pilot's first appearance. I'll need to try it again.

I'd play more Devilition if it had a save feature. It's really cool, but needing to dedicate 30+ minutes to it makes it a hard sell to just pop into.

@Zero

Porgy is exactly the kind of game you'd have found on DSiWare back in the day.

@Secret_Tunnel
Yeah, it is somewhat similar to Toejam & Earl, although the progression is different. But the whole "randomly-generated planet exploration with limited combat aspect" is the big similarity. Planet Zoldath does lack TJ&E's funky vibes but it's a little more transparent in how to play and what you need to be doing. It takes a couple attempts to shake the grime off but I thought it was an alright time once I got my bearings. It doesn't overstay its welcome, upgrades are pretty fast and frequent, and I can see the improvisation required for the quick completion cherry being fun (haven't attempted it yet myself though).

Party House seems to be one of the more popular ones. I assumed you'd played all of these!

@TriforceBun

I dusted off every one, but some I only tried for a minute or two. I think I trophied about ten of them and cherried about three? Some of them are really meaty!

I need one of you guys to try Grimstone and let me know how the heck you're supposed to make progress in it. I played a few hours of the Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster; Grimstone is ten times harder! The other turn-based JRPG, Divers, is similarly impossible. I like that the enemy encounters aren't trivial, but I'm stumped at what you're even supposed to do!

I finished Porgy!

I don't expect most of the games to be this meaty but damn was it meaty. Took some hours to finish! Mind you, a lot of that is due to the nature of the game, you have to keep coming back to the surface bases fairly regularly. Can be a little annoying at times.

But overall it was pretty great! Lots of interesting design stuff in there. Like fuel and health being shared, made every enemy encounter matter, even if it is some scrub who gets in a lucky hit that could be the hit that makes you run out of fuel right before you get back to base...

I feel like this is probably? what games like Subnautica do in 3D but I got Subnautica for free and played it for like 20 minutes and was super confused and gave up. Porgy is a lot easier to get into!

@Zero
I didn't get far in Subnautica either--not from confusion but rather the whole thing made me crazy uncomfortable. No lie, Subnautica just may be the scariest game I've played. And it's E10!

@TriforceBun

I only just realized that when you say you borrowed UFO 50, you mean via virtual game cards! I haven't tried that yet, how is it?

@Secret_Tunnel

Works great! But only within friend groups. Still though, very handy for borrowing from my buddy, brother, sister-in-law or kids!

I borrowed it again. One day I'll buy this game, I swear...but hey! I've now cherried two games: Ninpek and Bug Hunter! Bug Hunter is really rather remarkable. Gets me sweatin'.

11 - KICK CLUB ('84) - This has the vibes of Bubble Bobble mixed in with a few early-90s platformers like Panic Restaurant and Spanky's Quest. As far as single-screen action-platformers go, Kick Club has tight controls, colorful visuals and a decent hook with your method of attack being a soccer ball. The aiming is a little bit like Yoshi's Island but more "from the hip." Overall, it's a fun time although the lack of a save feature or continues means you're gonna have to git gud if you want to make sufficient progress. What're you doing here if you're not planning to embrace game mastery??

12 - AVIANOS ('85) - This one definitely took a few attempts and a few aspects are still kind of a mystery to me. But it feels sufficiently beefy, with lots of player choice and even a decent options menu (with plenty of difficulty levels) for exhibition matches. A lot of it is a learning process but it should pay off to grasp it since I've enjoyed resource-management tactics games in the past (such as Settlers of Catan). It's somewhat board-game-ish. Some Dino choices seem much more advantageous than others but I'm starting to think it's more down to when you activate their powers rather than always picking your favorites.

13 - MOONCAT ('85) - I knew going in that this one would be unorthodox, but the in-game descriptor had me expecting something more nonlinear like Barbuta. Instead, it's a series of platforming challenges with a brain-scrambling alternate control scheme that--if you can manage to forget everything you've learned about games over the past decades--has a certain logic to it. I managed to Gold this one on my first go, but I had plenty of deaths in the process. The hardest part for me was controlling the bounce. All in all I think it's a neat and original platformer, but it does feel rather sparse and basic at points, with seemingly little to aim for besides the level goal (no collectibles, upgrades, or even a scoring system). Maybe going for the secrets will change my tune on that.

My biggest complaint with this game is that the in-game timer is all sorts of screwed up. It says I've played for 50+ hours, while the Switch 2 timer says 10+! It must run while in sleep mode or something but it messes with all the fun "time played" aspects of the games (10th most played, etc).

I finished another game! The camouflage one! It's a pretty fun puzzle game and unlike Porgy you can burn through it pretty quickly.

@TriforceBun Yeah mine said I played Porgy for 30 hours. Um... definitely not.

@Zero

Camouflage is fun! One of the first games I beat on the Steam version.

@TriforceBun

Mooncat is one of my absolute favorites, and I finally cherried it yesterday. I do think the secrets are a bit too obscure, but once you know the specific thing you're looking for, it's fun. Love the mood and soundtrack in this one, and I love the implied tie to Barbuta.

@TriforceBun

Any Bug Hunter tips? With turn-based games I always fall into the trap of wanting to brute-force every decision by reasoning out every branch of the decision tree, which gets exhausting, so then I try to move faster and just lose right away. The active battle system in Final Fantasy solves this for me, but I wonder if part of the fun of mastering a turn-based game like this is getting faster just because of time's intrinsic value.

@Secret_Tunnel
Bug Hunter is a lot like some co-op board games where you get a finite number of moves and then the "game" takes its turn and adds a bunch of hectic junk. As such your goal should be in making every move count. Typically this makes me play a lot slower if anything, but thankfully the game has a Save & Quit feature so I'll do one job at a time in order to not fry my brain.

Keeping the bugs from evolving (if possible) is pretty crucial because the evolved bugs will cause way more trouble for you than their piddly larval forms. You'll quickly notice that you've got far fewer attacks than there are bugs on the field, so it's important to look for movement-based tricks to give you an edge:

-You can push bugs into pits. This works for most of them; it insta-kills the shield ones and keeps you from getting countered by the exploding ones.

-While energy cubes are super-important (more on that in a bit), sometimes it's worth blowing one up to clear the area around it and knock out a couple bugs in one go. Consider also pushing a bug into the danger zone in this way.

-You can also squish bugs by moving "onto" them from higher ground. Again, this will one-shot the shielded ones and even protect you from the shrapnel guys. I don't think this works for the invincible ones though.

-Leaving the game idle at the start shows several of these tricks and a couple others in the attract mode.

Ultimately you're going to want to try to get into a groove where you use your six abilities and then purchase more on top of them to do further actions. Because of this, grabbing cubes is crucial and I would highly recommend the ability that lets you nab any cube (and adjacent cube to it) on the map. It only costs two and will usually pull in at least that much per turn, which is definitely worth the slot. This is also a reason I try not to let the blue ones evolve because negative energy is such a hindrance.

Observe the stuff available to buy and you'll often find something really great for the setup you're dealing with (such as auto-attacking all elevated platforms--just take care to not be on one when you do this). Go for maximum efficiency like this and the 6-job run is very doable. Good luck!

@TriforceBun

Oh wow, that title screen demo really is helpful! I didn't realize how much optionality there was for killing bugs, that really opens the game up and ny extension makes it faster, yeah. I'm having a lot more fun with this now, thanks.

Got the cherry in Ninpek! Getting past the first half of the first loop was the hardest part. After that I found my groove and had enough extra lives to barely get through the whole thing on my last one. Ended with a score of 34,200.

@Secret_Tunnel
Nicely done! Ninpek is one of the quicker cherries I think if you've got some platforming experience.

This game is becoming an obsession for me and I'm not even a third through it yet. Easily my retroactive GOTY 2024.

I finally bought this digitally! And yes I do plan to keep giving first impressions for every game, so let's get movin'.

14 - BUSHIDO BALL ('85) - Let me start by saying this game is unbelievably hard for me! No lie, I must've played 20+ games against the second opponent (of I presume 5 or 6) before I finally sent her packing. There were stretches where I hadn't scored a point in over a dozen rallies! It's pretty discouraging that even after a couple hours, for whatever reason, I'm just kind of bad at this game.

...So it's fortunate that this one is so freaking fun. Seriously! This is my new favorite of UFO 50 thus far. The intense, arcadey back-and-forth complete with charge shots reminds me of Mario Tennis on the N64. There are fighting game elements sprinkled in here so it feels like much more than just your average sports game, and the audiovisual side of things adds lots of flavor too. It's impressive how many moves you can pull off with just two buttons, and all the characters have their own feel to boot. Awesome game that I'm horrible at!

15 - BLOCK KOALA ('85) - Our first control-your-character type puzzle game of the set, Block Koala's most impressive feature so far is that it seemingly boasts a full 50 stages. That's like Adventures of Lolo levels of content! I've played the first 7 or so, and after a somewhat annoyingly long time figuring out the mechanics, I was having a good time. So far the number block quirk is a pretty conservative hook compared to many of these games, but maybe it'll get deeper as I get further. Even so, it'll be nice to cool down from the action games with this one from time to time, especially since it boasts so many puzzles.

16 - CAMOUFLAGE ('85) - And with that we have our second control-your-character type puzzle game! This one does boast a really neat hook and I ended up playing through the whole thing in two settings. It's really quite charming and fun and has entered my top five of the set. There's some cute backstory involved here and the ending wraps everything up nicely. My only complaint is that I'd love, say, five more stages or so. As is it can be cleared in a little over an hour, very much unlike Block Koala. Or failing that, a scoring system that keeps track of your lowest number of Undos (or deaths) per stage.

This second row is really coming into its own. Can't wait to see what's next!

@TriforceBun

I think Camouflage was the first game I cherried. Beat all the levels, simple! Block Koala, on the other hand, was inscrutable to me after taking a break from it and coming back.

Bushido Ball is probably the first game in the collection that I totally bounced off of after thirty seconds and never gave a second chance. There are more of those as the collection gets deeper, not because they're bad, but because the games get so complex that it became harder for me to just sample them for 20 minutes and move on. I think there are a couple in here that I've literally only seen the title screen of, haha. Your glowing review makes me think Bushido Ball needs to be one of the first ones I revisit!

17 - CAMPANELLA ('85) - The 1985 hits keep coming with this fun single-screen action game. I'm not sure what this reminds me of (besides Kick Club) but I do know that I want to remap the gas button to a shoulder button. The hidden coffees are a good exploration incentive and the stages are surprisingly varied in mood (I like the haunted one). I wasn't thrilled with this game on my first attempt but it really clicked in the second and my kids enjoyed watching me get through about half of it before I lost.

18 - GOLFARIA ('85) - I'm going to be playing through this one for my kids too! It took a few minutes for us all to get acclimated with how the game works but when I got my first upgrade, they went nuts. It's quite challenging to push yourself to the next checkpoint or upgrade with limited strokes but it makes hitting your goals that much more satisfying. I gotta say though, this is the most egregiously anachronistic one yet; there's no way this game could've been done in '85! That's a year before The Legend of Zelda, yet Golfaria's got nonlinear-yet-guided progression, smooth screen-scrolling, the visuals of a 1992 NES game, and the genre-mashup hook of a modern indie! Oh well, when I'm enjoying it this much I can't really be too upset. Time will tell if it holds our attention through the whole quest but I'm looking forward to playing more.

Boy my last few posts are a love-fest, huh? This second row of games has really clicked with me. Are the later ones all this good too? So far the only games I don't like that much are still Devilition and Velgress. I like everything else.

@Secret_Tunnel
Block Koala is kind of hard to figure out and it's not always intuitive. Upon revisiting it yesterday I couldn't immediately get back into knowing how the blocks work with each other, which could be a big barrier to my puzzle enjoyment. I'm starting to see why it's one of the less-popular games...

That said, perhaps my favorite thing about UFO 50 is that the games are so varied that everyone has their favorite. There's not really a clear "winner" like how Retro Game Challenge had Haggleman 3 and Gaudia Quest. And if you had told me going in that one of my top ones would be a sports/fighting game hybrid (two genres I very much am not a big fan of) I would've laughed in your terrified face. But darn it, Bushido Ball is just so fun for me. It really does have that magic appeal of Mario Tennis (64) where the gameplay is immediately satisfying but there's plenty of depth.

ALSO, I realized why I was struggling so much in Bushido Ball! I accidentally had the game speed option set to Hyper, so my reflexes couldn't keep up! But it worked out because by training under those harsh conditions I was able to learn the game better and actually complete (gold) it last night! It still wasn't easy--I continued 7 times to get through the 5 matches--but it was doable and fun. I also got an incredible replay saved that showcases how insane volleys can get in this game.

@TriforceBun

Your video is wild! It reminds me of Windjammers.

Last night I got the cherry in The Big Bell Race, Campanella's little spin-off. Pretty easy, and good training for Campanella itself. Campanella is one of my favorites, appropriately so since it's the Super Mario Bros. of the collection. I need to spend more time with it.

I've tried Golfaria a couple times, but I don't think I ever went in the right direction. Definitely eShop vibes on this one.

19 - THE BIG BELL RACE ('85) - I've gotten spoiled for choice in UFO 50 and the expectation that each game will have its own thing. So when a game like The Big Bell Race comes along--which is a perfectly fun experience, mind you--it's kind of disappointing compared to most of the others. After all, this flying saucer race really could've been a side/bonus mode in Campanella and no one would bat an eye. I know it sounds greedy asking for more modes in a game that has 50 but that's the standard it set for itself already. This is a fun time while it lasts (about half an hour to get the cherry for me) but it really lacks its own identity I find.

20 - WARPTANK ('85) - Like Mortol and Golfaria, this is another high-concept game-with-a-hook that we probably wouldn't have seen in the supposed year it came out. But again, fun and novelty trump believability for me and Warptank closes out the second row of games really nicely. I like the gimmick and the puzzle-laden layouts make for sort of a thinking-man's action title. The scrolling is a little jerky but I kind of get it since it has to have tile-based movement. I'm about half a dozen levels in and there seem to be a good number of them, which is awesome, but I haven't seen any tile/music changes yet, which is less awesome. If it can keep the variety up it'll be a real highlight.

That's 2/5ths of UFO 50 explored! The second row was pretty great overall and I'm still eager to play more.