UFO 50

恍若由本不属于这个时代的外星飞船穿越时空携带而来的五十部八比特经典，UFO50无疑是一封写给怀旧玩家的情书。在独立游戏佳作频出的二四年，由创作了洞穴探险下井大战等一众佳作的开发者们联手打造的UFO50豪夺第十四届纽约游戏奖最佳独立游戏。然而对于一款游戏合集而言，UFO50不只是一款仅仅用于提供欢乐的文娱作品，它更像是一个精心构建的收录了五十款完整游戏的电子游乐场。初次打开游戏的玩家可能会误以为自己穿越回了那个CRT显示器闪烁的年代。设定之中一家名为UFO Software的八十年代游戏公司在当时发布了一张名为UFO50的合集卡带。开发者们完美复刻了当年的游戏美学：受限的三十二色调色盘；低保真的音乐音效；以及充满年代感的像素美术。然而这好似收割情怀的背后并非简单的复古，而是曾经一度流连于上个游戏世代的开发者们满怀敬意的重构。因为只要玩家们稍微体验本作就会发现合集中的五十款游戏每一款都有其特色的玩法机制，独立的标题画面与制作人员名单，甚至部分之间还存在着剧情上的联动。这种设计更使名为UFO Software的架空设定显得无比真实，以至于笔者时常陷入一种自我怀疑：或许在三十年前真的存在这么一个制作了如此众多超前经典的业界传奇，因为不为人知的原由退出了历史的舞台并逐渐消逝在了无数玩家的记忆中，直到某天一群心怀对热枕的年轻人们相聚并命运般地发现了一度被时光遗忘的它。他们殚精竭虑的构思修补，最终才将其复活成为了现在的UFO50。这乍听起来像是一段带有奇幻色彩的浪漫故事，但无端的怀疑究竟还是妄想。那么这款受到众多媒体赞誉的合集体验究竟如何？只能说本作所包含的五十款游戏在笔者看来难以取悦当今很大一部分玩家。对于玩法设计是否老旧的问题我们暂且放在一边，仅仅在操作上的复古感我想就有够让人难受。首先是游戏脱离现代化的手感，很多玩家习惯了当今丝滑的操作和容错率极高的引导，但在UFO50中部分平台跳跃游戏的操作手感刻意还原了那个年代的硬核特质容错率极低。比如合集中的类银BARBUTA就不存在现在常见的八方位，就连前跳后跳也只能通过组合键完成而非对跳跃和移动键的双重检测。同时也因为这种复古，UFO50中的游戏往往没有繁琐的新手教程，玩家往往需要通过试错来理解规则细节。这种探索的乐趣虽然纯粹也意味着玩家需要付出更多的耐心。所以如果你是那种非常热衷于独立游戏怀念那个对着攻略书完美通关硬核玩家，UFO50绝对值得一试。但如果你习惯了当今流畅的演出刺激的打击感以及如同一条龙服务的引导，那么这张来自怀旧游戏厅的邀请函肯定会让你感到劝退。Mossmouth制作组大抵也预想到了本作受众范围的微小狭隘，但基于复古致敬的理念他们也只能在游戏质量中奉上自己的诚意：均价不足两元的五十款游戏没有任何一款凑数；玩法类型包括但不限于平台跳跃肉鸽悬疑向解密清版格斗闯关等等；每个游戏从打开到通关至少也需要两小时左右……从这点来说，定价九十二元的UFO50或许是当今市面上最具性价比的小游戏合集套餐了 [h1][quote=] [table] [tr] [th] 欢迎关注 [b][u][i]U_U鉴赏家培养计划[/i][/u][/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [th] 关注U-U鉴赏家，开启精彩游戏之旅 [/th] [/tr] [/table] [/quote][/h1]

After 400 hours I'm ready to say it: this is my favorite game. UFO 50 is about the history of games, the design of games, the meaning of games, the essence of games. UFO 50 [b]is[/b] games. The 50 individual games aren't really the point; the fact of them is. And, at the same time: the 50 individual games absolutely [b]are[/b] the point! The whole is only able to be "about" games because it gets games so right. They've been lovingly, often brilliantly designed; they're there to actually be played. It's an art project about games in the form of honest-to-goodness games. The aesthetics and attention to detail are gleamingly excellent. They're a deliriously mixed bag, because so are games as a whole. Future developers, please take note: releasing games in albums rather than as singles — interconnected concept albums, at that — enhances everything. It makes room for sleepers and oddities and stubborn experiments, all sorts of spicy things that couldn't survive on their own. It encourages a curious and exploratory attitude in the player. It opens a door to a whole new level of depth for the artform. This was my album of the year. I can't wait to see where it leads.

Let me say that I do find UFO 50 impressive and I respect it. The 50 games containing in here are, for the most part, very different from each other. Sometimes they are tried-and-true game styles, sometimes they are interesting amalgamations of different newer genres, but always wrapped up in an 8 bit NES artstyle. It's got a good soundtrack and I am sure a lot of effort was put into this. I tried out all 50 games, some for longer and some for a bit shorter. I played through a few and got quite far in some others, while others I could only play for 5 to 10 minutes before realizing they aren't for me. But my biggest problem in UFO 50 is that it doesn't really do what it's description suggests it does. Several times it mentions incorporating parts of modern game design into the aesthetic of the mid to late 80s. And they do, for a few games. But I think my problem is that most of the games that UFO 50 contains could be ripped straight from an NES, including some of the very big problems with games from that time. Problems like awkward controls, limited movement or "oops you died 30 minutes in, replay the entire game", coupled with many of the games just being so incredibly slow, which hurts restarts even more. Luckily a lot of the game do have a save function, but the other problems still persist. Many of the games feel frustrating and outdated to play, and couple that with some of the hard gold goals (and sometimes insane cherry goals) it seems like an endless struggle. There are some really good and interesting games here. I really liked the Camouflage game and it was just the right length too, and a few others I played through fully because they were very engaging. There are also some interesting ideas even if some of them aren't that fun to play, like that one dinosaur strategy game. But then there are also some games like the Paint Racer game, or the Zoo puzzle game, that are just either awkward to play, or just waste your time, but most of all are definitely not designed with any "modern game design" in mind. Many games just control badly, or have bad navigation, or just feel genuinely like NES games with all the pros and cons that brings along. Out of the 50 games, I would say that I maybe genuinely liked less than 10, and maybe found another 10 or so somewhat interesting - but the rest I just couldn't get into no matter how hard I tried. Now I get that might be a "me" issue, but like I mentioned, I just don't believe the description of "old aesthetic with new design" really applies to the majority of the games, regardless of how much I liked them or not. Some of my favorite games were the ones that tried to combine modern game styles with NES aesthetics (like that weird Pilot idle game) but even those have a laundry list of issues. Most of all, for any game I did genuinely like, I also can think of a similar NES game I could play that I like even more. And maybe that is dumb criticism for an indie game collection, but even so. If I wanted to play NES games with crusty controls and limited movement, I could just play those and have a more fleshed out experience with some genuine nostalgia. I will again say though, I applaud the effort and it's nice to see it resonates with so many people. It just didn't really win me over and I can't really recommend a game that I liked less than a third of and that I feel, despite all effort, didn't really meet it's own stated design goal. Many of the games don't feel like old games with modern design - they just feel like old games. Regardless, it's cool and I am sure there are at least a few games in here that anyone would like - but given the size of most of the games and the fact they're generally not all that complex, I don't know if that's worth 25 dollars. On a sale, though...maybe!

It’s kinda insane that this is a game that exists, not the fact that there are 50 well constructed, thoughtful games in this collection, but because of how so much of what’s going on here feels laser targeted towards my interests. This is a game for cats with game system autism, I’m in heaven, a constant event of me getting excited every time I load into another game and see even more of some of the coolest, most clever spins on basic game design I’ve seen in a long time. If that’s not enough, it also taps into something more niche and abstract that time and time again is such a core aspect of my love of games, iteration and design progression! The thing that tipped me over the edge to actually check this out was being told that there was a fictionalised sense of this progression told through the framing device of this all being based around recovering a bunch of old games by the fake studio UFOsoft, indirectly telling the story of a game studio throughout the 80s and their various innovations. While the prospect of a 50 game multicart But Good is already a heck of a selling point for most people, this additional aspect of crafting context around them all makes everything done here even more of an unbelievable undertaking in my eyes. In a more broad sense I think it’s a little difficult to know what angle to approach talking about this game, as while there are a lot of ways I’ve seen it be discussed, they often fall a little flat in terms of what I’d prefer talking about. Mentioning the sheer scope of the package in any greater detail doesn’t really add much in my eyes, nor does the idea of averaging out the quality of all 50 games to come to some final conclusion, especially when that leaves out a lot of individual bits and pieces that makes the pieces combine into something far grander. Overall what really amazes me here is a lot of little things that contribute to making a collection of 50 games, disparate in tone, style, and even design sensibilities, end up feeling like a cohesive whole that towers above the sum of its parts. It'd be disingenuous to say that I liked everything here, but that frankly doesn’t really affect how it all comes together, I still love the fact that there are those missteps that are able to exist alongside so many other wonderful experiences, their existence often contributing to my love nonetheless due to still providing something fresh and exciting to ponder, to return to and pick apart, even if my conclusion is still that I’m not a fan. There are so many games here after all, it’d be ludicrously unfair for me to deem this collection flawed just because of those small lulls. The most beautiful part of this game for me is the fact that basically every game requires a lot from the player, a genuine sense of engagement, never any big moments where you can fully autopilot, and this is the most important aspect of UFO 50 on the whole to me. There is never a point in which I felt as if the game was allowing me to get by only half paying attention, every game in general is worth paying the proper attention to after all, this package just emphasises that idea! It helps that there are so many different appeals to be found within each one as well, nothing here feeling as if it’s especially rigid and predictable in what’s being expected of you, constantly testing how rigid your line of thinking is as you’re constantly adapting and discovering, both mechanically and in one’s mindset. There are constant seams and throughlines to be found with each title, ones that only uncover themselves as you play more and come to understand the unique dynamics at play, those discoveries leading you back into revising previous notions as each discovery about how a game can work leads into a broader understanding of how it could apply somewhere else as well. This is a beautiful celebration of friction-laden, “dated” game design, with the modern design elements touted in the game’s store page descriptions not referring to making an older aesthetic more approachable, but instead, crafting ideas that only could exist with the context of many decades of video game development. This hits me so hard because it’s a case of feeling as if these older titles, often pushed to the wayside for requiring more attention, patience and experimentation to properly understand them, ultimately being respected and celebrated, rather than being made “better” through smoothing out all the rough edges. While maintaining this, seeing the way that such basic game elements get broken and reformed and recontextualised throughout UFO 50 leads to a constantly fresh feeling experience by today’s standards at the same time, not content with worship of a previous generation, but using it as a foundation to further expand upon. The charm of this is further emphasised to me through the way that there is not a single console from the console generation of the NES that would have the capabilities of being able to run most of these games, further adding to the feeling of the LX being a unique console that perfectly fits within this entirely fictionalised scenario with UFOsoft to begin with. So many things that are displayed here feel as if they were designed with the intent of representing an amalgamation of the broader capabilities of the era, embodying certain artstyles while pushing the envelope a bit across the board, knowing exactly how authentic to make things without it ultimately feeling too cumbersome. It’s a love letter to preservation, to the artists behind each of your favourite games, a reminder of the process, there’s so much more here than simply the appeal of it being inherently insanely impressive to make a fantastic giant multicart. Video games, regardless of how disrespected and maligned some of them can be, still deserve the time of day, they still deserve to have that honest, earnest look given to them that seems increasingly rare in a generation of games that eagerly vie to continue sanding themselves down to achieve a sense of instant appeal and gratification. The medium is beautiful, there are so many illuminating interactive experiences to be found out there that just require that bit of time and one’s own perspective, unmarred by those surrounding perspectives that continuously treat any friction as something strictly negative. With just a bit of patience, there’s a world of games out there for you to fall in love with, seeing the foundational points of whole genres, ideas being iterated upon time and time again, scrappy ideas that really push your own thinking and sense of logic in the most curious of ways, even those less immediately earth shattering bits in between these titans of the medium, it’s all wondrous. UFO 50, while not being the progenitor of any of this itself, reminds us to keep this mindset of discovery and patience to allow us to see so much more than before. Time and time again it hones in on those deeply satisfying breakthrough moments that can only happen with proper engagement, it’s never easy in the collection to see an immediate sense of appeal, you’re just hit with game after game of intimidation as you try to understand how any of it works, some genuinely deranged in how they’re handled, and it’s all the better for it. Ultimately, UFO 50 embodies so much so close to my heart that even in a hypothetical world where there were more games here that I really didn’t like, I still couldn’t justify this being anything other than one of the best games ever. Pick up an older, intimidating game, treat it with the respect it deserves, try to understand it on its own terms, you might find something meaningful, something more fun than you expected, maybe even a wholly unique experience that you never would’ve found without taking that chance, Play Forever. 10/10

There are 50 games in here. You will likely find one that is worth the price of the entire collection. Give it a shot. I recommend Party House.

For those on the fence It's essentially one of those 100 games on 1 cd from the 90s. There are cool ideas. It's not a souless cashgrab. I can tell the devs poured their hearts and souls into this. It's also not very fun. Even if you want the member berries just track down some old roms. Many of the games feel like shallow clones of better games, one was a pocky and rocky clone with way less interesting visuals and enemies. Another was a contra clone, another an adventure island clone. I think you would have more fun just playing some of the great retro games that are out there already. Is it more than the sum of its parts? Not really since you will probably find 2/3 of the games lacking. And for the many rebuttals I read about how "it's 50 games!" 50 saltine crackers are still dry and bland even when you get a lot of them they don't force multiply into filet mingnon. There are amazing games out there in the retro era just get a list of some people's favorite and try them out.

I knew I would like it, I didn't expect to absolutely love it. As a collection it does an amazing job of feeling like an actual historical artifact. The team do fantastic work balancing throwback game design with modern indie best practices. The result is uneven, but I respect every "bad" design decision made that plays into the era or context of development at the fictional game dev studio. The highs of the package are so very high too, with games that not only look and sound gorgeous but also manage to do something interesting design wise within the very restrictive parameters of the collection's fiction. Top 5 games: campanella 1 porgy night manor ninpek mini and max

every game is a hit perfect on steam deck- battery lasts a long time when playing this