A stunning achievement and, for my money, the most surprising, addictive and incredible game of the year. UFO 50 is actually a collection of 50 games, all released in the 1980s by developer UFOSoft. The thing is, however, that UFOSoft never really existed. Instead, they're new games, a wonderful smorgasbord of games of different genres – role-playing games, platformers, side-scrolling action games, games where you explore interesting worlds and find nifty upgrades, and more.
Immerse yourself in UFO 50 is a wonderfully stimulating and sometimes invigorating experience: you encounter the familiar and the unfamiliar, games that require you to step back and consider their various elements as you engage with them. Some players found this frustrating or even called it evidence of poor game design. I couldn't disagree more. Maybe it's because I'm old enough myself to vividly remember the games of the 1980s and remember that in that era, encountering mechanics or systems you didn't like was commonplace understood immediately. For me, this process is often part of the fun; It feels like a real process of discovery, tinkering with a game until it becomes clear how it works and what it asks of you. It's a kind of discovery that's become pretty rare in games these days, but UFO 50 embrace it.
Of course, that wouldn't matter much if the games were over UFO 50 weren't good enough to make all the experimentation worthwhile, but they are. My particular favorites include: Grimstonea JRPG with an Old West theme; Valbracea first-person dungeon-crawling RPG that switches to third-person action for combat; And BeardedUFOSoft's “first” game, a slow-paced, mysterious adventure supposedly from the early '80s. Every new discovery in Bearded was a wonderful revelation, and completing it (without searching the internet for clues) was my most rewarding gaming achievement of the year. Besides, I also loved some of them UFO 50The airiest and most accessible action games: Cyber owls combines the thematic weirdness of games like Battle toads to a range of gameplay types, from top-down, Metal gears-like infiltration Bad boys-Side-scrolling punch 'em up style; And Seaside Drive immerses you in glorious summer vibes as you shoot down everything from gunships to giant, flying magic sharks as you race down a coastal road in a red sports car. UFO 50 is a thrilling reminder of how diverse and creative video games can be, and it's the one game this year that reminded me more than any other why I love the medium so much. – Carolyn Petit
