UFO 50: (Attr)action Fifty Two

If you’re a retro gamer, there’s a good chance you’ve probably heard the name Action 52 before. Whether having played, seen or heard about it, most of us have likely experienced the tragedy of the over-stuffed, under-developed compilation for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Mega Drive; a testament to why games need time to make. Fast forward several decades, and game studio Mossmouth - of Spelunky fame - have rounded up a group of modern-pixel indie developers and studio friends (people like Ojiro Fumoto) to create UFO 50; both a nod and an antithesis to Active Enterprises’ cash grab…It’s Action 52, but it’s actually fun.

Essentially, UFO 50 is a collection of 8-bit games made by “UFO Soft”, a pseudo-imaginary game studio - obviously parodying the aforementioned Active Enterprises - spanning from 1982 through to 1989. There is a decent range of platformer, puzzle, RPG and sports titles - even modern concepts like tower defence. While not expanding much outside those mentioned genres, the selection available is still quite impressive and dense, considering it is meant more as a taste of what could be, rather than something entirely fleshed out.


Speaking of fleshed out, it’s very obvious that the devs have put a lot of thought and effort into re-inventing, tweaking or straight up creating weird and unique mechanics for their games. While obviously not on par with high quality NES or computer games of the era, those included have enough complexity that the player can spend ages figuring out all the subtle nuances to each of the titles, although several lean heavily on a single concept or randomised elements, which means replayability will feel more hollow than others in the collection. This is rectified by ramping up the difficulty, in traditional NES fashion, but without any modern niceties like save states, which will be off-putting for those of us who are not as skilful.

On that note, there are some games that are just too…similar to their inspiration; for example, Boshido Ball is pretty much Windjammers but set in Feudal Japan - and minus a frisbee - which I’m not saying is necessarily a bad thing, but just don’t go in over-expecting. Luckily, the multiplayer modes more than make up for that. Present in roughly half of the titles, players can either duke it out with or against their friends in local versus and co-op. This is a humongous bonus considering some games are objectively more fun with people, though it is only limited to local, so don’t expect online tournaments anytime soon.



Accompanying each of the titles, you can also browse a menu of information about the game, including controls, play stats and a fake history snippet of the development of each game. While I found the menus to be a bit basic, and I would have rathered a fake two to three page manual for each game, the information provided covers everything you need to know about what you're playing. However, there are also in-game achievements which will reward you with items for the mini-game that exists outside of the main 50. Essentially just a Tamagotchi style time-killer, it is a really cool addition to encourage players to finish each game to completion.

Otherwise, the attempt at authenticity is impressive. Each game has been carefully limited to only thirty-two colours, a chiptune soundtrack and a two button control scheme, meaning every title is playable on an NES or Famicom controller, if you can acquire an adapter. Fortunately, the drawbacks of the era such as sprite flickering and slowdown have been deliberately left out, so that gameplay isn’t hindered.

Honestly, for a fake collection, this can go toe-to-toe with any of the ‘real’ retro compilations on the market, and if you’re a fan of late 80s home console and computer games, this is an easy recommendation, especially if you like a lot of variety. How much you will like it depends on how deep your love for the era is. Even if you’re not in that demographic however, purely sampling all the different games on offer means that there’s bound to be at least one that will grab your attention. If not, there are forty-nine others instead.

 

[TheWanderer]

Bro I thought you will be praising Action 52 that I was readying my pitchfork. But this actually look decent enough I might try it out of curiosity. Maybe I'll even find something I like

 

[Spike]

This is cool I didn't know about it. Looks fun!

 

[DarcyT]

Bro I thought you will be praising Action 52 that I was readying my pitchfork. But this actually look decent enough I might try it out of curiosity. Maybe I'll even find something I like

It's not even really fair to compare them, considering UFO 50 is deliberately better by design. You probably won't find anything life changing, but you'll be hard-pressed to find something you don't like.

 

[DarcyT]

This is cool I didn't know about it. Looks fun!

The closest comparison I could make to UFO 50 (outside of Action 52 and the modern homebrew multi-carts) is the flash game scene around the mid-late 2000s. If you have a fondness for those games, then you're the right audience for this collection.

 

[TheWanderer]

It's not even really fair to compare them, considering UFO 50 is deliberately better by design. You probably won't find anything life changing, but you'll be hard-pressed to find something you don't like.

Yeah I mean maybe it's a good way to pass time or something