UFO 50

For Yu and Perry, it’s been a preposterously ambitious undertaking, multiplying the challenges and timings involved in crafting a single video game by a factor of 50. For us, the result is a gift of wild generosity, a demonstration of how much untapped creative terrain remains in even the crudest-looking video games.

UFO 50 should be admired for its tenacious commitment to its mission - creating a fake machine from the 1990s and populating it with a diverse and authentic compilation of very real and mostly entertaining games.

The developers of UFO 50 took on a monumental task in creating 50 unique games for their fictional collection but they accomplished it in wildly successful fashion. Not only are the large majority of these games excellent, but when taken as a fictional canon, they make each other even better. Seeing how they bounce off each other, interact, and tell a story just in the way they evolve is a wonderful experience that’s unlike any other game I’ve played.

UFO 50 is an impressive achievement with a strong love for the medium while also understanding numerous genres on a deep level. A true masterpiece and resounding success on every level.

This is what 50 games will get you, then. The surprise of it: a premise that seems to be all scrolling and endless variation and swiping for something new, is actually about the pleasures of ignoring everything except for this one glittering thing that's in front of you right now. UFO 50's an improbably rangy confection that's secretly absolutely all about focus.

UFO 50 is a celebration of retro gaming, full of wonderful modern ideas, sensational video games and a whole lot of content.

Simply put, UFO 50 is an audacious triumph. Dozens of the games are compelling enough to warrant a full playthrough, and even some of the less successful experiments have some intriguing element or inventive idea to draw you in. Best of all, it's exciting to have such a rich vein of strange, creative video game experiences to examine. This is nostalgia, but not the candy-coated feeling of reliving what we've already experienced. It's remembering how it felt to discover something new.

A staggering achievement in indie gaming that offers almost too much value for its own good, with 50 superb indie games – many of which could be standalone games in their own right.

The astounding compilation UFO 50, which is based on a fictional game company from the 1980s, packs in so many completely different genres that choosing one is like opening a door to an ingenious Advent calendar.

This is one of the hardest games I’ve ever had to review, and not only because I spent 40 hours playing it and felt I had only just scratched the surface. It’s a game that’s meant to be discussed. The mystery of games like Mooncat, Divers and the curious Terminal continues to confound me, and I can’t wait to see people inevitably figure it all out hours after launch. However, the way that the collection spans so many genres while still feeling cohesively linked is impressive, and I cannot wait for launch to uncover all the parts I couldn’t possibly figure out for myself.

We’ve called out a few examples, but we’re making a point not to explain absolutely everything, because a lot of the joy of UFO 50 is stumbling upon and exploring a new game. It’s best approached as a goodie bag, with discovery and learning through playing as its key tenets. The difficulty is perhaps a bit higher than we’d like in spots for some of the games, but overall it really is a can’t-miss release.

UFO 50 will remind you why you fell in love with video games in the first place.

Just as in Assassin's Creed or Far Cry, each activity is enlivened by the knowledge that you have chosen to do it right now, out of many alternative options available in every other direction. So when one DOES hold your undivided attention for an extended span, it must be something special indeed. And of those, UFO 50 has more than its fair share. [Issue#402, p.100]

A superb retro-style smorgasbord in real danger of drowning out its own consistently good work.

Judging UFO 50 is a challenge, even just for the sheer amount of content it contains, with an incredible array of ideas, mechanics, and concepts that you’ll find within this alternate universe. Through its video games, UFO 50 narrates a historical moment, an era that never actually existed but lives within our memories, sensations, and the emotions we felt as children, back when this world was still unexplored. At the same time, it requires a certain devotion, a passion for a very specific kind of retro gaming and a lot of patience to explore.

UFO 50 is like stumbling across a time capsule and discovering a wealth of lost knowledge inside. And yet, it’s entirely a singular work of fiction. That by itself is deeply fascinating and makes this thing worth playing. Even if you pass over most of the games and only find a few that stick with you from a fun perspective, the depth on a conceptual level is absurd and gratifying to simply think about. We’re living at a time in which older games are vanishing from both physical reality and our sort of collective cultural well at an increasing rate, when remakes are seen as replacements for original work and curiosity to seek out history is dwindling unless there’s a purchasable remaster. UFO 50 is fun to play and take at face value, but it also highlights how age really isn’t a detriment to having a great time and engaging with games.

UFO 50 is a fantastic and fascinating collection of 50 genre-spanning games from acclaimed indie creators, a project as ambitious as it is generous.