I played around 10 hours of UFO 50 when I got it, and even though I liked a lot of the games it kind of slipped of my radar after this.

This week I’ve been giving it another go and I have some THOUGHTS to share:

  • Avianos is something I immediately closed down because it felt like a bit of a headache, but now that I’ve been playing it I am astounded by how well it is designed. An absolute masterpiece in strategy, playing it is immensely exciting. It has so many intricacies and interacting mechanics while still being rather simple and limited in scope. Phenomenal game.

  • Magic Garden I liked the first time around, but now that I’m going for high scores I realize just how meticulously designed it is. This feels like an all time classic arcade game from the likes of Pacman and Tetris. Perfectly crafted mechanics and gameplay loop, with interesting risk-reward mechanics and tough but fair difficulty.

  • I’m finally starting to click with how the Campanella controls (because of The Big Bell Race of all games), so those games are starting to open up their magic to me too.

  • Moon Cat is a beautiful example of learning to play a game from scratch to mastery. A lot of people absolutely hate the controls, but to me it felt amazing to go from complete incompetence to muscle memory of all the moves.

COOP corner:

  • Bushido Ball is extremely fun to play in coop with a friend. Just a great and fun grind, though slightly overshadowed by…
  • Hot Foot: this is one of the best sports gaming experiences I’ve ever had in my life. Funnily enough, I used to play dodge ball quite seriously a few years ago, and it’s absurd how much of the real experience is captured in this arcade 2v2 version of it. My only criticism is that it NEEDS a real 4 player 2v2 mode. This would result in some of the best nights ever for my friends group!
  • Seaside Drive: this felt like AAA UFO 50, just an amazing run from start to finish with great asymmetrical coop.

About half of my games are still dusted, so I think I will be dipping into this collection for the rest of my life. What an incredible achievement!