UFO 50 PC

UFO 50 is a set of independent games produced by five developers: Derek Yu, known from Spelunky, Eirik Suhrken (Skorpula), Jon Perry (Time Barons), Paul Hubans (Madhouse) and Ojiro Fumoto responsible for Downwell. The title was published on PC by Mossmouth, a company belonging to the first of the aforementioned devs.

Story

Although it is a set of very diverse productions, the developers have spun them around one concept. According to the story, there was fictional pulishing company operating in the 1980s, which had a number of previously unreleased games in its catalogue. It was decided to present them to the world as part of UFO 50. Interestingly, in order to make the story more credible, the developers imposed various restrictions on themselves and, for example, used only a unique palette of 32 colours. Thanks to this move, they managed to capture the atmosphere of those times, although at the same time they tried to maintain the modern approach to game design.

Mechanics

UFO 50 gives us access to fifty different titles. We can choose between platformers, shoot'em up titles, logic games or RPGs. All of them were created as if they were made in the 8-bit era, so they offer quite simple gameplay mechanics. Each of the games enables us to have fun in single player mode, and up to a third of the also in multiplayer (competitive or co-operative). What is important, the projects presented in UFO 50 are not just mini games, but full-fledged titles. Although they are a bit smaller than the commercial hits of the 1980s, it takes more than a hundred hours to complete them all.

Technical aspects

UFO 50 is a tribute to old-school games, so in terms of audiovisual setting we are dealing with retro styllistics.

Last updated on 28 December 2023