UFO 50 Review – An Essential Collection For Every Gamer, Not Just UFO Soft Fans

When I was six years old, my father noticed the wild new craze taking the world by storm and added a Nintendo section to his video store. But before he could start raking in that Nintendo game rental money, he needed to clear shelf space and enter all of them into the computer system, which meant that my brothers and I had a massive stack of Nintendo games to play for a week.

This is one of my oldest, most joyous, memories. Now, with the release of UFO 50, everyone will be able to experience that moment for themselves. I’m pleased to report that in spite of the cynicism that comes with age, UFO 50 was able to deliver those same tingles I felt decades ago.

UFO 50, as the name implies, is a collection of 50 games. Each of these games was developed by UFO Soft (formerly LX Systems) for the LX game console, of course. What? You haven’t heard of the legendary UFO Soft or the LX? Well, that’s because UFO Soft and the LX are a fictional framing device that help to provide UFO 50 with a cohesive feel.

You have access to all 50 games from the onset, each game comes with a brief summary, a tiny blurb about its (fictional) development, and an instruction page that will give you the controls to help you get started. However, you will be primarily going in blind. If I had to guess, I would say that UFO 50’s creators want you to be a little lost.

Seaside Drive (#48) is a thrilling entry into the shmup genre that binds you to the bottom of the playfield, as your vehicle is a sports car instead of the typical spaceship. Every time you move to the left side of the screen, your car will drift. This builds your power meter and enhances your weapon. It is super neat.

Much like it was in the olden days, there is a certain magic in discovering the ins and outs of an 8-bit era game. Rock On! Island (#30) felt impossible to me at first, as I didn’t know how to position troops along the path that leads to your base, which is pretty important in a tower defense game. Pushing through that initial confusion to grasp that ‘aha!’ moment is part of the charm. But Rock On! Island is a novel approach to a tower defense game, and not every game is as likely to befuddle. Star Waspir (#39), as an example, is a very solid, but pretty traditional, shmup. Which is to say that there are plenty of games that will immediately click.

Speaking of Star Waspir, it is worth noting that ‘traditional’ doesn’t mean ‘unoriginal’. This is a shmup with three selectable pilots, each with their own firing patterns for both their main attacks and alternate attacks, as well as unique upgrades for each. The power-up system is completely unique: you have three available slots, and depending on the combination of pickup you snag, you will be rewarded with different power-ups or effects. It plays great and the mechanic feels familiar, yet novel. That is the story of so many games in this collection. Every entry that feels familiar also adds its own twist.

Night Manor (#42) is a grizzly point-and-click adventure that sees the player wake up, locked in a makeshift prison cell, looking to escape a masked murderer who hunts them through the halls of a dilapidated mansion. It is a shockingly effective horror title and a welcome addition to the collection. Easily one of the most tense point-and-click adventure titles I have ever played.

So this next part of the review is where I feel I should throw in the cliched ‘but they can’t all be winners’ refrain. But while I certainly don’t love every game equally, no individual game struck me as being outright bad. Magic Garden (#5) is a snake clone with added mobility options and the ability to cash out when you have built up a long enough line, Quibble Race (#47) is a horse racing game where you can influence the races through nefarious acts, and Waldorf’s Journey (#21) is a surreal platformer where you try to launch a seal across floating platforms to reach the other side of the stage. While these are some of the simpler games in the collection, they are still great fun in short bursts.

I think a game like Barbuta (#1), a brutal adventure title where there are secrets and traps lining an expansive dungeon, may be a little too opaque for some gamers, but that is the beauty of UFO 50: there are an abundance of different experiences, so if one game doesn’t strike your fancy, you can move on to the next and see if it suits you any better. Barbuta is able to be perplexing because games like the aforementioned Magic Garden, or Star Waspir, are so approachable.

One more aspect that I wanted to touch on with UFO 50 is the sense of UFO Soft’s progression as a developer this massive collection provides. The fictional history isn’t just a framing device, the idea of what this developer’s legacy would look like has clearly been thoughtfully considered. The best example of this is found in the Campenella games.

The series starts with Campenella (#17), which is a game where you pilot a ship and navigate single-screen stages lined with obstacles while clearing enemies in the process. The controls feel a little like Joust, where you will be tapping the booster button to propel your precarious craft. It has a great sense of precision to it. Campenella 2 (#35) keeps the ship’s control scheme and feel, but gives players the ability to land their craft and explore on foot – adding a touch of Blaster Master to the mix. The stages now scroll as well, and the scale of each has greatly increased. Campenella 3 (#49), on the other hand, switches genres altogether and becomes a pseudo-3D rail shooter, not unlike Space Harrier. It reminds me a lot of how Panoramic Cotton departed the shmup genre to be a rail shooter. It is a massive departure, but it is a great title in its own right.

Porgy (#22) sees you manning a submarine and exploring the ocean in a bite-sized Metroidvania that has a great suite of upgrades and provides a very steady difficulty throughout its runtime. It is a simpler entry in the genre, but it may be one of the best Metroidvanias I’ve played. It is fantastic.

The progression between each game feels organic. The first Campenella game is an earlier UFO Soft title, so it features a simpler, laser-focused design. Campanella 2 expands everything and feels like a more confident, feature-rich game. Meanwhile, Campenella 3 is one of the last UFO releases, and you can see the developers itching to shake things up. If I close my eyes, I can picture reading angry posts online about how Campenella 3 isn’t a ‘real’ Campenella game. This type of progression adds a real veracity to this trilogy, and you’ll find that it runs through the entire UFO 50 collection.

There is so much more to talk about. I barely mentioned the numerous, beefy RPGs, or Onion Delivery (#23) being a nifty, top-down reimagining of Crazy Taxi, or how there is a fantastic Pocky & Rocky style game titled Alfazar’s Hat (#43). I didn’t mention that there are beat ‘em ups, strategy games, stealth titles, one-on-one vs. games, and an exciting reinterpretation of Pong that goes toe-to-toe with Windjammers (Bushido Ball, #14).

Sitting down with this collection is stepping into an alternate timeline, and having 50 timeless 8-bit gems dumped into your lap. The level of variety, and the incredible quality of each game, make UFO 50 an absurd value. For anyone looking to experience the magic of video games, I can’t stress enough how excellent UFO 50 is. It is an out-of-this-world collection.