UFO 50

Playing this collection to completion was quite the 6 month journey, and I would actually recommend you DON'T do what I did, which was cherry each game in chronological order. I think the best way to play is to try each game for around 30-60 minutes, and if you like it, mark it with "favorite" and come back to those games and beat them. There are some absolute gems in this game, where if even 5 of my top 10 were in their own bundle it would be worth it. I won't name particulars, because part of the fun for me was clicking on the next game and finding out if it was good. Weirdly enough, while I would recommend beating many of the games, there are very very few games I would recommend "cherrying" because of how many of them can turn from an incredible time into extreme frustration and repetition. I think if you're interested in arcade/NES/SNES style games that sort of use hybrid-ideas to make older genres feel fresh, you'll get your money's worth out of this collection even if you don't finish everything.

This is one of the best purchases I have ever made in my entire life. Bar NONE. If you are looking at this and don't want to read the rest, that's the take away. Buy this game. This is not only a collection of 50 full games. It's a game about history. About stories. First, it's a story of video games throughout 80's. The graphics, gameplay, aesthetics, and even design decisions mimic that of games through the 80's. By playing this game, you are effectively experiencing a simulacrum of our real world's history with how console games changed over the course of about a decade. From weird and obtuse games when consoles were first coming to homes (though admittedly the IRL devs made these games much more friendly than, let's say, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the NES), to intensely fun games that you will intuitively understand the moment you pick them up. It's also a story of individuals. You can look at the credits of every single game and see the (seemingly fictional) names of certain developers come up over and over. You can see how their skills developed, and how their (fictional) careers progressed through the years. An artist in one game may end up becoming an art director twelve or so games later (the equivalent of 3 or 4 years of in-universe time). Eventually, you may find that some of your favorites just happened to be made by the same lead developer, and then you start searching for their next game in the list. Again, art imitates life. As you play you may also notice some songs repeat between games, or games that reuse certain sprites or characters. That's because the (fictional) developers for these games reused assets, not only to save time because they were under a (fictional) crunch, but to also hint to you that some of these games are tied to others, either direct or spiritual sequels. The (fictional) UFOsoft grew and grew over the course of a decade, but it also became more demanding of its developers, pushing for games to get released in time for Christmas, cutting games that were deemed to weird or niche, and slowly losing it's best (again, fictional) developers. Once more, art imitates life Finally, it's also a story about you. You, the player, sitting through each of these games. You can pick up any game in any order, and the game keeps track of various statistics for each game. Not just play time or achievements, but how many times you've played a certain character, how many easter eggs have you found, or what's the longest you went without dying. Games you haven't touched stay covered in dust, and games you've played at least once are a bluish-grey. Meanwhile, a game you've rolled credits on turns gold, and ones that you've completed a challenge on turn cherry-red. After a few dozen hours, your collection will literally look different from everyone else's, because odds are you got hooked on a certain combination of games that no one else has. Reminds me of having shelves upon shelves of physical games. My friends could come over, and we'd pick up some game I never played without them. And then I'd go to their houses and see that not only did they also have the same game, but they of course played it all the time. Our boxes would look different, and no not because they had some special edition (special editions didn't really exist and we were too poor for the ones that did). My box would be covered in dust (or even some hair) and theirs would be worn and the box art would be lighter where they always left it out. And then I'd look at their collection and see an old game I'd never heard of, and then I'd try it and hate it, but it would stick in my head, and I would just have to pick their brain. "How do you get past this first boss? What do you mean there's a secret warp at the top right of the third stage? How in god's name did you put 26 hours into this game, I got fed up after 20 minutes." And now I imitate myself. Conversations I had 2 and half weeks ago sound like ones I had almost 2 and half decades ago, as if I'm mimicking my own history. Don't just buy this game. Share this game, this story.

Avianos is 4X in an espresso format. It takes everything that doesn't work (repetitive unit micro management, building the same stuff over and over, etc) and just trims it down until you're only left with the good bits. It still has depth, a campaign, various tactics and counter tactics, and you still get that lovely feeling of painting the map in your own color. It's also just plain funny; birds praying to dinosaurs and using magic to move mountains. A must play for any fan of strategy games! Oh right, there's also 49 other games in the pack. Pretty sure they're good too.

For better or worse, the store description is accurate that these are small games with modern design elements that look like 8-bit era games. They all look like they could run on the NES but most don't feel like NES games. I've tried about 40 of the 50 games and finished 2 of them. Your mileage may vary but none of them are really clicking with me. The majority of the games are strategy, puzzle, and rpg games with not much there in the "Reflex" category that best describes the 8-bit era games I grew up on. If your fondest NES memories are playing games like Super Mario Bros, Double Dragon, Contra, and Ninja Gaiden, there really isn't much here for you.

49 of the 50 games being good or even great is a pretty solid acheivment, but im not gonna spoil witch one is trash, finding out is part of the fun

A few interesting game, a lot of annoying ones.

Just TWO of these fifty games, Avianos and Party House, are worth the full asking price. I'm having a ton of fun playing them couch co-op and chatting about strategy with my buddy - and have about 20 hours in each. I can't recommend this pack enough. It's a bit overwhelming to start, and each game is deliberately obtuse when you first load in, but it's super rewarding to do so and there's something to enjoy about pretty much all of them! Except for like, Combatants obviously, and the koala block pushing game, and Campanella 2, and I'm not a big fan of Velgress, and Bug Hunter makes me wish I was just playing Into The Breach, and Barbuta is deliberately unfun of course, and the Big Bell Race is f*cking stupid and annoying, and the tactical owl game can suck on my fatty. But Magic Garden is cute and family friendly so you'll enjoy this one with your kids.

I was really looking forward to this. It was well recommended, and I grew up on the NES, but I hate this game. I've played 38 out of 50 games and there's not a single one I want to go back to. Modern retro games should get the aesthetic and pick up and play about those games, but not the worst elements, like clunky controls, and bad game design. I wasn't expecting them all to be winners, I was just expecting like 5 out of 50 to be fun, and none of them are. Oh btw, pretty much every game I've played here has been 1 life and you're out. As brutal as NES games were, you almost always got more than 1 life, and these are all pretty much 1 hit kill games. Also, a big percentage are 8 bit puzzle games....so if you like those, maybe this is for you.