UFO 50 - Not Knowing Is Half The Fun

8/16/2025

On August 7th, a Nintendo Indie World Showcase revealed that UFO 50 would be available same-day on Nintendo Switch systems. This excited me, as I missed the original wave of UFO-mania last year, and it was something I really desired on the Switch specifically. I saw many Bluesky comments from users who thought it was already on there. So, yeah, sounds like a match made in heaven! I, for one, had no idea that the game was only 25 US dollars. That was enough to entice me, and on August 8th, I began diving in.

Let's just start with what's most captivating about UFO 50. You might be aware that the collection is a fictional chronology of one game development studio. So far, I've been completely shocked with the craft and thought put into this. I'm sure there are a ton of things I've yet to discover. Within the relatively small sampling (maybe 18) of the games, I've had moments of joy, noticed some repeat design quirks, and even some...melancholy?

I'll have to spoil the big one that had my jaw on the floor. The game Barbuta opens with an amusing beginner death trap. Losing all your lives will start you back on this screen, and Barbuta is the first game listed in the collection. I don't think it's a stretch to imagine a lot of people have played Barbuta for at least five minutes.

Deeper in the collection, Mooncat is described in the menu as a spiritual successor to Barbuta. The vibe is what's most similar. It's completely silent. Absolutely nothing explained, to the point of almost feeling dreamlike. Not far into Mooncat, you quietly walk by the ruins of the Barbuta opening screen.

This really opened my eyes to the kind of storytelling that a compilation game could actually have. Sincerely, I have never seen this kind of thing done before. This would be an awesome thing in real life, if we took the UFOsoft developer history as reality. The fact that someone thought of something like this for a compilation of FIFTY games is actually more astounding to me!

In general, UFO 50 thrives on the joy of discovery. Yes, it is also fifty games that are broadly fun to play in the immediate, but it's the feeling of "Ooooh, okay" and "OOOOOOOOOOOOOH SHIT" that permeates the experience. I've found myself yelling "Aha!" fairly frequently. Each game has a visible control layout before you boot it up, but oftentimes this is the only real explanation you'll get it, at least in the games I've tried. In other words, you just don't know what's gonna happen, and that's a lot of fun.

There's a focus on mastery after that discovery phase, too. A game cartridge will turn gold when you beat a game, and that condition is outlined for you. Then there are cherry challenges that demand some sort of perfect play, like no continues, a huge score, or completion in a time limit. The relative simplicity of each game invites doing this, but the sheer number of games, in my mind, discourages obsessively completing every challenge on every game. If you do so, that is amazing, but I think most gamers won't feel a tremendous amount of pressure to do everything.

As if all that wasn't enough, about half (ish) of the games feature local multiplayer! This is a high-value feature for any game, let alone this many. Bringing UFO 50 to my friends, we had a blast with Bushido Ball (note: I wrote Bushido Blade first, oops) as we started settling into mains.

The ultimate highlight of multiplayer (and maybe UFO 50 as a whole) was the entire group in awe at Avianos. This is a turn-based strategy game with versus play, dinosaurs, and resource management. I'm absolutely awful at these kinds of games, but my buddies (who love Civilization, and such) and I were laughing and smiling for two and a half hours as we discovered what Avianos is. We were all shocked at the depth, and have frequently called it "dinosaur game" since that amazing play session. Brontor was praised many times that day.

It was Avianos that had nearly everything for us. We went through our discovery phase: "Is there combat in this game? What happens when you fight frozen enemies? Which resource should I go for?", and such. The bird war between my friends was dramatic, and I think we'll have to have a tiebreaker round next time we meet up.

One more game ties it all together for me, specifically. Pilot Quest has a passive/idle resource gathering aspect to it. You can accrue these resources while you play other games in UFO 50. I couldn't think of a feature more perfectly suited to my taste! I did create Deer Clicker, so you know I love my idle games. The Zelda-like action parts are just okay, but having something to check on every so often is great. This is simply how my brain works, and I'm dead certain there is SOMETHING in here that will activate your neurons in a way only you can understand.

I originally had a bit of a notion, perhaps a fear, that I wouldn't be blown away by UFO 50 as a lot of people were last year. After all, I like retro games; I've played my fair share of 80's games (so I think!) and arcade classics. This is old hat to me. Wrong. UFO 50 is very deserving of all its praise, far beyond any value it may have as a long-lasting, bargain priced game. UFO 50 is genuinely inventive, while allowing simple (some more simple than others) games to shine. While many games seem to frontload explanations every mechanic, interaction, and damage formula to curve frustration, UFO 50 simply trusts the player to figure things out for themselves. The pick-up-and play quality of these fun games is simply enough.

I'm gonna go get my ass kicked at Big Rock Island, now.

- Jane