This is game of the year

[fakename]

I played other stuff for about a month, and coming back to this now I'm just in awe how good it is. Stuff that didn't click before is just clicking, and there's so much I want to play. It's also helped me open my mind more to real retro arcade games and NES and stuff like that.

[Sturm]

Yeah, I waited for a sale and picked this up during Black Friday and now I'm kicking myself for not buying this back in September. It's such an amazing collection and I love how they tied it together with the meta narrative.

[Adoru]

It is, no matter what majority of Steam users thinks.

[Sturm]

Originally posted by Adoru:

It is, no matter what majority of Steam users thinks.

Its rating is overwhelmingly positive on Steam. People who play it love it. The issue I think is just a lack of exposure and coverage. The fact that its been such a strong year for indie titles too certainly didn't help. Balatro and Animal Well sucked up so much of the oxygen and attention earlier in the year that I feel like UFO 50 got lost in the crowd.

[Adoru]

Originally posted by Sturm:

Originally posted by Adoru:

It is, no matter what majority of Steam users thinks.

Its rating is overwhelmingly positive on Steam. People who play it love it. The issue I think is just a lack of exposure and coverage. The fact that its been such a strong year for indie titles too certainly didn't help. Balatro and Animal Well sucked up so much of the oxygen and attention earlier in the year that I feel like UFO 50 got lost in the crowd.

Sure! I just was hoping it would get to at least one of nominations this year, which didn't happen and I'm a bit disappointed. It's probably lack of coverage to blame, yeah.

[fadeinshadow]

The issue is the difficulty. These games are too hard for casual players. More frustrating than fun.

[DO_THE_FORTNITE]

Nah this game is extremely overhyped. They do a really good job at emulating old NES games but that isn’t particularly a good thing because almost the entire NES library is trash, at least to people who never grew up with it. (Me) The retro theming feels really forced and many of the games could’ve benefited a lot without it in terms of easier control, there’s no reason for every game to use the exact same control scheme. The graphics are amazing in every game and I really like the lore of this alternate universe and fictional company, especially the meta game/ARG, but much like the rest of the game it’s inaccessible to casual players.

That being said, if this is your personal favorite game of the year I have no problem with that, there are plenty of people who will love this game but it just isn’t for me, I was expecting something completely different.

[Sturm]

Originally posted by DO_THE_FORTNITE:

Nah this game is extremely overhyped. They do a really good job at emulating old NES games but that isn’t particularly a good thing because almost the entire NES library is trash, at least to people who never grew up with it. (Me) The retro theming feels really forced and many of the games could’ve benefited a lot without it in terms of easier control, there’s no reason for every game to use the exact same control scheme. The graphics are amazing in every game and I really like the lore of this alternate universe and fictional company, especially the meta game/ARG, but much like the rest of the game it’s inaccessible to casual players.

That being said, if this is your personal favorite game of the year I have no problem with that, there are plenty of people who will love this game but it just isn’t for me, I was expecting something completely different.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but personally I couldn't disagree more. My experience has been the total opposite of yours. I went into the game really skeptical as I usually do and I was blown away. I adored Balatro but UFO 50 is my GOTY hands down after really digging into the game(s). I love the premise, the aesthetics, the music, the variety and the quality/depth of the games. And while I would have liked to see perhaps a stronger meta narrative tying them all together what they do have is subtle and interesting.

The game(s) certainly is challenging and as a casual player myself I doubt I'll cherry 1/3 of the games in the collection but it feels fair. Half the difficulty is just learning the rules and the nuances of the games themselves. For example, Waldorf's Journey felt impossible at first until I discovered the items and than it became a piece of cake. The games reward practice and the effort you put into them. Old school NES games could be a lot more unforgiving.

Also, if you're looking for a different movement scheme try Mooncat lol

Out of curiosity what were you expecting from the game vs your experience and have you given them all a try? The first few games can be rough and I think that's by narrative design, there are definitely more accessible games in the collection. My personal recommendation to you is Night Manor, its such a fun and old school point-and-click horror game.

[Doctor Gitgud]

The game seems insanely overrated and overhyped to me. The reviews are pure hyperbole. They would have you believe that this is the equivalent of a long-lost 8bit console library of all-time greats with games that would stand on their own as individual releases.

Let's be real though. Most 8-bit games are bad and not worth playing today. The ones that are still playable are the best of the best: Mario 3, river city ransom, Super Dodge Ball, Excitabike, Blaster Master, Etc. These games are nowhere near that quality. Most of them are mid at the absolute best.

For example, there is a shmup called Star Waspir. I have over 50 shmups in my steam library, and there is not a single one of them that I wouldn't prefer playing instead of Star Waspir. Nor does it compare favorably to NES games. This isn't Gradius or Life Force. Even Star Soldier is a lot better. If I bought Star Waspir for 40 cents (its pro-rated cost), I would refund it.

I went through about a quarter of the games within the refund window and Avianos was the only one of those that was any good (and it was way lacking in content). I doubt there are much more than 5 good games total in the whole set, and you can easily grab 5 (or more) games on steam for less than 20 bucks total that will be much better than those and not have to wade through 45 games of crap to find the good ones. This probably would have been better as a 16-bit collection where the bar to make a good game isn't as high.

[FLGibsonIII]

You have already seen the reason why this would never win GOTY in this thread. When a game is too hard for some players, it is an instant write off. Additionally, most gamers are not open to new experiences. They want the same thing again and again because it provides comfort to them. Ultimately, many of these people just want to be rocked to sleep like a baby. Games like UFO 50 never stood a chance.

[Kitsunin]

It is absolutely an INSANELY good game. I didn't buy it for too long because a collection of 50 games couldn't possibly be that worth your time, right?

Yeah no, the RPGs are awesome experiences. The arcade games are insanely addictive and make you want to chase high scores even once you've cleared them, with amazingly satisfying difficulty curves that make you feel awesome. The puzzle and strategy games have wicked depth.

Every game I at first thought was just OK started to feel amazing once I got used to it. Ninpeck and Fist Hell both didn't seem like great example of their genre, but once I got good enough to clear them I gradually realized that I couldn't get enough of them. In general, I don't even like arcade style games much.

It also uses NES graphics with the maximum punch possible. The gunshots in Grimstone feel mega satisfying and every game follows in that way.

[Bobit]

I think most of the puzzle and strategy games are very unique and good, like Braingoodgames. The story games, maybe less so but it's a new story. Started in gamecube, never played NES.

[Kitsunin]

Originally posted by Bobit:

I think most of the puzzle and strategy games are very unique and good, like Braingoodgames.

I had the same thought!!

[Ninian]

Originally posted by Kitsunin:

It is absolutely an INSANELY good game. I didn't buy it for too long because a collection of 50 games couldn't possibly be that worth your time, right?

Yeah no, the RPGs are awesome experiences. The arcade games are insanely addictive and make you want to chase high scores even once you've cleared them, with amazingly satisfying difficulty curves that make you feel awesome. The puzzle and strategy games have wicked depth.

Every game I at first thought was just OK started to feel amazing once I got used to it. Ninpeck and Fist Hell both didn't seem like great example of their genre, but once I got good enough to clear them I gradually realized that I couldn't get enough of them. In general, I don't even like arcade style games much.

It also uses NES graphics with the maximum punch possible. The gunshots in Grimstone feel mega satisfying and every game follows in that way.

Friend, you embody the ideal goal of this game I think. Getting people to try new things and reignite the spark of joy of exploration from the era this game evokes.

Seriously, good on you and I hope to follow your example.

[sgt johnson]

It's good to see a new generation finally getting to experience Onion Delivery; definitely game of the year, with UFO 50 a close second.

[tcassat]

UFO 50 didn't fulfil my expectations, despite being an impressive collection. 50 games is insane and the amount of work the guys had to put in here is mind-blowing.

But honestly, this game only made me frustrated seeing the way critics and consumers really interact with games. A perfect analogy for how I feel is a scene from an episode of South Park, where one of the oldfarts sees the kids playing Guitar Hero and he gets excited thinking he could share his guitar hobby with them, but as soon as he shows them the real guitar, the kids just say "so what?" and go back to the game, because their interest wasn't in the guitar, but in Guitar Hero.

I see UFO50 as a collection of 50 indie mini-games with a limited colour palette, and that's it. I can't delude myself that I'm playing retro games from a parallel dimension, these games literally feel like indie games from the 2010s-2020s in every respect, from gameplay to amateurish art style. Just copying some famous sprites from the 1980s-1990s didn't do much to create a simulacrum.

But what really frustrates me is to see how much people praise the project excessively, even though a huge number of the games are worthless if removed from the collection (imagine buying Star Waspir as a full game on Steam, lol), and at the same time retro games of much better quality are ignored, or sometimes massacred by the reviews on Steam, coming from people who I imagine, as soon as they leave UFO 50 which is a famous project made by celebrity devs, suddenly become super demanding and start posting negative reviews on games that make UFO50's indie mini-games look like amateur projects.