UFO 50: Retro With a Twist

Many independent game developers today aspire to create works that would hypothetically have belonged on legacy hardware like the NES or the Mega Drive. These retro homages are a dime a dozen, to a point where the nostalgic novelty of it all has started to lose its novelty. UFO, however, is different. On the surface, it's a collection of fifty 8-bit style video games, but it's so much more than that. In fact, each of these 50 games is so well developed and uniquely realized they all could have been released and sold individually.

And no, this isn't a retro compilation by any stretch; it's something far bigger than just another curation of retro homages. In fact, it is so big that UFO 50 takes place in a meta-historical timeline of its own. These aren't 8-bit games that could have been on the NES; instead, these are games that, according to this meta-historical timeline, belonged on an entirely unique platform.

In a timeline different but also not so different from our own, there was a humble little home computer console called the LX (likely inspired by Nintendo's Famicom Disk System). Released in the early 80s, this was the platform of choice for the developer and publisher UFO Soft. The company released 50 titles as floppy diskettes for the LX platform over the course of a decade, from 1982 all the way until 1989. Granted, not all of the titles were clear winners, but UFO Soft had diverse teams that knew how to get the most out of this elusive platform.

This is what makes UFO 50 so utterly fascinating as a release: the make-believe LX platform itself quite literally shines through with its unique graphical and technical prowess. There is no doubt about graphical and technical consistency here, as these games are clearly built with the specifications of the LX in mind. Not only that but games that were released later in the timeline look and perform better than earlier releases, demonstrating developer capabilities as they gradually got more out of the platform.

This attention to detail shines in particular for games like Campannella and Mortol which had sequels that improved upon their predecessors. These acute nuances shine through convincingly, and it really feels like exploring the rich library of a platform that could almost have convincingly existed!

The library here is eclectic and diverse, covering a wide range of genres. With everything from platformers to puzzle games and even RPGs, there's something here for all types of gamers to explore. Many of these are familiar retro renditions, particularly the shoot 'em ups, and many obviously draw inspiration from established Nintendo and SEGA classics but do enough to try something novel. Seaside Drive for example combines two SEGA classics into one unlikely fusion, taking the cruising flow of Outrun and combining it with the action antics of Shinobi. It doesn't sound practical, and yet, somehow it works really well!

Surprisingly, many games here are based on golf in some way or another, either as a sport or as a clever gameplay mechanic in a non-golf context. Waldorf's Journey in particular is a weird one as players lunge a giant walrus onto platforms, but after a while the gameplay flow almost becomes rhythmic. Whether they are familiar gameplay tropes or novel ideas, the library featured in UFO 50 are all well-thought-out games, even if some of them aren't exactly winners, and that's okay too.

A real highlight in the LX library (at least for me personally) is Rail Heist, which feels clever and fun, like something Atari could have come up with back in the 80s. Set in the Wild West, the main objective is stealth missions where an outlaw steals loot from a moving locomotive. Staying with the Wild West vibe, Grimstone is a really cool turn-based RPG largely inspired by Final Fantasy VI, and the Old West aesthetics give it a refreshing vibe.

If you allow your imagination to wander a bit here, it's fun to speculate what the LX and UFO Soft's library of games would have been like if it all really existed in our timeline. What would have been the must-have launch title? What release would have accumulated the highest lifetime sales? What title pushed the hardware to its limits? Although not an overt part of UFO 50's gameplay direction, this hidden implicit lore really does enhance the experience and immersion as you explore each of the 50 games in their chronological order.

UFO 50 takes all the indie retro gaming tropes and transforms them into a novel package thanks to an exceptional and immersive thematic presentation. Providing a library of games that, quite literally, exist in their own universe, it collectively encompasses an identity separate and distinguished from the usual Nintendo and SEGA tributes. UFO 50 shows that rather than going back in time, sometimes it's worth constructing your own timeline and inventing your own video game platform in the process. Why play by Nintendo's 8-bit rules when you can make your own rules?