The early ’90s were a fascinating time for the gaming industry and things like compilations or any kind of multi-game setup were a rarity. You would occasionally see things like Sega package a bundle of games together with a console like the Sega CD or offer up both Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 as free promo games on the Genesis, but larger-scale multi-game releases were rare. One noteworthy one was Action 52 on the NES, which got a healthy amount of play in magazines. It advertised itself as 52 games in one, and if any of the games were worthwhile, it may have been a solid value.
Guns Blazing
The games included, however, were so bad that they became the target of long-standing rage, both faux and otherwise via sites like Seanbaby and the Angry Video Game Nerd shining a light on them that allowed people who thankfully missed out on playing them in real-time to get an idea for how poorly-executed the concept was. The team at Mossmouth has created the compilations under the guise of it being a compilation of games for the imaginary LX game console and features a variety of titles that evokes the best of the GameCenter CX titles – only with far more variety offered up.
Sporting Thrills
There are run and gun action games with both an overhead perspective and 2D Contra-style viewpoint, regular platformers, maze games, point and click fun, a Pac-Man-style game with paint that evokes a bit of the Neo-Geo Pocket Color’s launch title Crush Roller and even a fantastic Pocky and Rocky-style game to enjoy among many others. One big key to UFO 50’s success based on the dozen or so games in it I’ve played so far is that they feel almost-exactly like NES and early arcade hits – right down to difficulty and the ability to offer a polished experience in little gameplay time.
UFO 50 Packs All the Genres Into One 8-Bit Package
Much like how classic arcade games had to hook the player right away or risk losing them, the same holds true here and every game contained in UFO 50 that I’ve enjoyed so far maintains a high standard of quality. There are no poorly-executed titles to drag the experience down and it’s clear that this four year-long passion project took a lot of time to ensure that a high level of polish went into every game.
UFO 50 is available now onSteamand has a 10% launch discount and a launch trailerhere.
