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What's good in UFO 50?

RT-55J

space hero for hire
(He/Him + RT/artee)
I played Velgress last night. It's Upwell. It's an entire game with Kid Icarus's rachet scrolling, with appropriately Tanaka-esque music. It's stars a not!Samus (love 'em all), and every single block is variety of crumble block (which reminds me of my friend's recent SM hack da crumblah). You have infinite HP and canonically never die --- you just fall back down. Rather than just letting the screen's edge cause a game over like a proper vintage game, you are constantly being persued by a spikey rolling pin because it's funnier. The window for buffering your next jump input is infinite. (I think all of this stuff is funny in one way or another.)

The shopkeeper is cute.

I only made it to stage 3 once, where I promptly got owned, but I think I'll come back to it (especially if it's only 4 stages).
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Finished Vainger. It's a perfectly serviceable Metroidvania, but I wouldn't chalk it up as a titan of the genre or anything. Fun but ultimately lacking a real spark compared to the best games of yesteryear.
 

Isrieri

My father told me this would happen
<06 Mortol> I've seen concepts similar to this done in old flash games and in newer indie titles. Not quite like this, where your limited lives double as ammunition for the 3.25 skills you use in the game. This is a wonderful title. I find I turn into a perfectionist while playing because I keep resetting the same level trying to get out with as many lives as I can.

<07 Velgress> I fell in love pretty quick with Velgress. The control is fluid and the gameplay forces you to jump in a weird fashion: I'm used to trying to control my jumps precisely in a lot of old platformers but because you're constantly scrolling up, to maintain your mid-air control you actually want to hold the button as long as you dare because it makes you floatier. It is an extremely punishing game that requires the quickest and twitchiest reflexes to master (or a LOT of practice). Dying in Velgress is a right pisser, a real punch to the gut. I've gotten about 50 coins in the starting area and honestly just grabbing coins is fun enough. So what if I can't get further than the second stage?! First level's music is better anyway.

<08 Planet Zoldath> I don't have an itch to get my hands dirty with Zoldath apart from the 2 minutes I spent dying in swamps. It looks like a Zeldaesque adventure but it doesn't quite feel like one. I think Pilot Quest is either the spiritual or actual sequel to this so I suppose I can expect a lot of hunting down materials. I appreciate its inclusion with regard to UFO 50's in-universe software history... for lack of a better term. I don't know what you'd call that sort of thing. Fictional history?

<13 Mooncat> I don't think a game like this could hold its own outside of a collection of short titles. But it is an amazing lil' work of art that consternates and charms in equal measure. Definitely in my top 5 and I'm really glad this saw the light of day. I find everything about this really beautiful from the weirdo characters to the beautiful music and background art. I've only found two secrets: One led me to an egg in the clouds and the other led me backwards to the room that looks like Barbuta's first screen which... must mean something right? The game wouldn't just send me back to that room for no reason right? Mysterious little adventure, this. I'm growing to really like the Barbuta universe. I still wonder what the deal is with the intro sequence. That's not the same fried tempura friend you play the rest of the game as.

<15 Block Koala> I don't have much to say, and only finished the first two stages. I might give this another try down the road but pushing blocks around while not being able to pull them, in a game about manipulating blocks, really irks me for some reason. It pays homage to NES classics like Kickle Cubicle and Clu Clu Land but I never liked the latter game much either.

<16 Camouflage> This is a pretty nifty lil' idea. The levels are nice and bite sized and could probably have passed as an early arcade title. Its a little simplistic for my taste: I only feel up to maybe finishing one stage and trying out another before I get bored and want to go back to something else, but I think of all the games this has a lot of potential for a sequel. Camouflage Deux.

<20 Warptank> I think I'm only about 5 levels in but this is a really good one. I think if you are insterested in game design this is a really good example of both doing much with little, and simultaneously making due with self-imposed limitations. The controls are as simple as it gets but instead of adding more abilities or under-the-hood systems (like defense points or a shield powerup for example) the breadth of the game is actually navigation. The layouts don't look very complex but because of how the warp works the process of getting around is a more involved than at a glance.

<22 Porgy> Look at the cute submarine! Y'know what this reminds me of? Startropics crossed with Jaws. Anybody else ever play Jaws? I've only found fuel tanks and angry starfish so far. Will probably treat this like a Pilot Quest and go on another dive every now and again when I'm up for it. It kind of feels like fishing.

<25 Party House> Card based games like Slay the Spire never interested me because my first question always is "Why would I want the stinking menu options and strategic elements to become a resource?" But Party House got me to see the appeal somewhat. They aren't literal cards of course but since each guest invited is random, and because the goal is to acquire points and cash instead of something more immediate like battling an opponent, its actually really fun to sus out what combinations can maximize that score. You're always running a risk of the cops showing up with bad hands, and the endless mode I'm finding very difficult when there's nothing to manage trouble. Its really addicting, but I can't quite put my finger onto why. Probably because its chill and laid back and because the party-climber is really satisfying when she shows up. Little things like cute sprites and good sfx go a long, long way.

<27 Divers> RPGs are games that, of all genres, thrive on information. Divers goes out of its way to give you almost none whatsoever. The consequence of this is that I don't find it fun to play and can't conceive of making any progress without lots of grinding and going back and forth from the starting area; like Porgy if the enemies were brutally difficult. Yet, I also admire the game for this really bold choice. I read elsewhere that this game above all others in the collection felt like it was developed by aliens. The presentation is very utilitarian and not a little creepy. Tools and items have limited uses, your three elements are Zap, Wet, and Coral, and the enemies don't appear to follow a coherent gameplay sense. What I mean is that in Final Fantasy say, a flying enemy might be vulnerable to wind. Maybe you can damage a zombie by attacking its arms. To get Cagnazzo to not tsunami you, you have to zap him with lightning. There are coral enemies in Divers that will damage you if you attack them with a spear, no matter the element. However attack with a shield(?) and they won't counter you. How do you deal with an anemone? Why is everything so expensive?? I think the game wants to invoke some horror of the deep in you. The bizarre presentation playing a sizable part. I don't enjoy playing this but I am facinated by it.

<29 Vainger> I appreciate metroidvanias but for me to want to invest time in completing one, I really need a strong desire to want to explore the world it offers. Metroid Prime and Castle in the Darkness are examples of that, and this is a great game that crosses Metroid with Metal Storm for a unique spin on things. However that burn to want to see more hasn't made itself manifest.

<31 Pingolf> The reason I really like Campanella is because movement requires quite a bit more finesse than games with gravity and solid ground. Your UFO's hitbox is teeny-tiny and when you get a feel for how fast you fall and how much thrust it takes to stabilize, you feel too cool for school as you whiz all around the levels slashing at circles and looking for coffee. Pingolf shares that same satisfaction because you can dunk the ball in midair and each shot is much more involved than your standard golf game where everything after the swing is dead air.

<32 Mortol II> Feel free to call me a poindexter but I think I like Mortol I better. I'm not trying to argue that this game isn't cool as heck, with an interesting idea and great execution. I am saying that I don't have infinite time like I did as a kid, and this is definitely a 'make-your-own-map' kind of experience. Its a long and involved puzzle that will take many cracks at the bat to unravel. Its a really cool game but I prefer the ordered puzzles of Mortol I. I do think this is probably the best 'sequel' game in the collection. It does everything a good sequel does: More of what you loved, but bigger and better. More abilities, a bigger world, and crazier challenges with the same mechanical strengths as its predecessor. I also have to give it credit that it is the best game at making a long and satisfying experience out of just a few elements.

<33 Fist Hell> I didn't grow up with double dragon and most beat-em-up's I've played were arcade titles. So this is pretty difficult for me, but I really like the presentation and the fact that you're throwing trashcans at a zombie horde. Probably best played with a friend. I don't know if there are special moves you can pull off. Your base moveset feels a little limited.

<34 Overbold> The funny thing about Overbold is that I keep wishing that I could use a Twin Stick setup. It would have been real nice if they gave an option for using two controllers to move and shoot. I've heard this game is real short. Just a few rounds in the arena before the big boss. The game tricks you into thinking that you have health but practically everything one-shots you unless you invest in medikits or more max hp. But to do that well, you have to keep upping the bet and it is real tempting to try your luck even though you know you'll get overwhelmed. I'd love a version that had more stages with some palette swapped foes. That's a sign of a good game, right? I wanted to make a quip about how they should have called this game 'Cowards Never Prosper' but then I realized they called it Overbold. Ohh! I get it now!

<35 Campanella 2> I don't actually know what the goal is here. Dying when outside of your ship is so easy that each try is cut short unexpectedly before I can get anywhere with it. Upgrades and health seem hidden away in the caves, with a little side-scrolling segment to break up the ufo surfing. I actually didn't realize there was fuel in Campanella, I found that out here first. I'm intrigued by what is here.

<43 Elfazar's Hat> When I booted it I had a grin a mile wide as I realized "YESSS ITS POCKY & ROCKY!" I don't think I'm using the powerups quite correctly because they don't feel as helpful as they ought. You can get a minor powerup by matching two symbols, and a major one with three. Yet they don't help too much because one death will lose everything you've gotten and its hard to build an arsenal back up. The sprites are beautiful and I love the art direction here. In fact, lets just praise the art in all of the games.

<44 Pilot Quest> I completed this a couple days ago and I'm a little conflicted. I can't figure out if I enjoyed my time with it; never had this mix of action and idling. Most of the resources you need to upgrade things at the base and help traverse the world need to take in-game time to complete, so you quit the game and go play something else until you have those resources and go out for a few excursions in the wilderness to explore the dungeons and find your ship parts. It isn't a game based on skill and is supposed to be a laid back experience. When I could hoard enough meat to spend sizable time out of the base is probably when I liked it best, but apart from going into the dungeons and activating warps anything you acquire out in the wilderness apart from meat is so negligible in the grand scheme it really doesn't feel satisfying. Leaves me feeling ambivalent.

<46 Combatants> WAAAAAAAY too slow. You move like slugs, and this makes your fellow ants unsatisfying to control and a chore to accomplish any task. No sir, I don't like it.

<47 Quibble Race> I know this is supposed to be a betting simulator, and Bongo pegged it as an information game, I think of this as a party game. It feels like a minigame right out of a Mario Party. There's a little more to it than just picking a bug and praying of course, but I think this sort of experience is best had on the couch with your buddies than against CPUs.

<48 Seaside Drive> REALLY FUN. I was addicted to Downwell when it came out, and Seaside Drive shares that same elegance in simplicity. You have the same three buttons as Space Invaders: Left, Right, and Shoot. Yet charging your shots through drifting and needing to wiggle through shots while also needing to aim adds up to being really really fun. This is great. I love this. You know why this game is amazing? Because when you shoot at the truck debris it slows it's falling momentum from the force of your bullets. That's what video games are all about.

<49 Campanella 3> The controls are pretty intuitive and easy to pick up. What trips me up are the bullets. I don't think you actually see enemy shots fly into your bounding box before splitting off. There's a crosshair that appears, and then the bullets are instantaneously in your danger zone. The enemies proper don't work that way - you see them careening toward you in the distance before they change color once they reach your box and can harm you. Much more natural.

<50 Cyber Owls> I couldn't figure it out - "Wait is this Ninja Turtles? No wait, this is Battletoads. But isn't this also Cheetahmen?" Then I realized that all of those are the same thing, and Cyber Owls realized that before I did. Ending the collection with a game that could pass for a Capcom arcade title in their golden years was the right move. Each of the stages offers a completely different genre scenario and control scheme but from what I can tell its just the one stage for each character before you move on to some final stage I haven't gotten to yet. This is a title that would benefit from being a little longer so you have more stages to cut your teeth on. The rescue missions are tricky and I can't get the hang of them so I think my only option is to get really good at the main stages so I can skip straight to what comes next.


I'm saving Grimstone & Night Manor for a rainy day. I want those to be a surprise once I spend enough time with the other titles.
 
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Isrieri

My father told me this would happen
Wow, I am just getting absolutely destroyed by the last level of Rock On! Island. This has probably been my favorite game of the collection so far, despite the fact that I've failed this level like 10 times.
I know, right? I only tried it once and said "oh no, i'm gonna need like a whole day set aside for this." I figured out a nifty trick: two campfires next to a chicken instantly cooks it next round, so you can spend any meat gained in-round in those cook spots before the count overflows at 99.

Man, no else seems to love Barbuta on as many levels as I do. That game slaps! Easily my favourite game that I've played thus far. Just so incredibly satisfying to slowly suss out all the rules and secrets, and once you do figure everything out, you feel like a wizard.
I do like Barbuta though. Its just a game that you need to be in the mood to set aside some time to enjoy it. The pace is very slow and is all about secrets, and to enjoy that you need to have the space to let your mind wander and get curious. My recent playthrough I found a fake wall and dug out a secret passage, and bought a pin at the shop. All that progress got lost when I had to go to work, but I sure did get excited when things started to click into place.

Rail Heist is a really good stealth game --- a great fusion of old and modern sensibilities.

I really wouldn't mind a level editor for this one.
Totally agree. I'm realizing that the best games of the collection are those I wish there was more of. Rail Heist I couldn't stop playing once I started. A level editor would be amazing for something like this. Imagine something like Ultimate Chicken Horse in this style!

Less satisfying is game #50, Cyber Owls.

(In my opinion, if they really wanted to bring these 5 game styles together, they should have flipped the script: have the DROD-like levels be the meat of the game (and maybe squad based?), and then have the different types of action be Archon-esque dressing.)
Yo that's not a bad idea. I haven't played anything like the rescue stages before and I think the fact that there's a lot of pressure for screwing up is what keeps throwing me off. The characters' stages are more pick up and go, so if the script was flipped you could have the best of both with less the pressure.

magic garden - hits just right. feels retro in the right way but the game ending and the scoring encouraging you to fill the screen with garbage in a way that makes the game get super intense is really fun. it's pretty fun to get in the zone and play safe too, even
I recently finished this as my first cherry. I didn't expect the game to actually end and it made me sad because I wanted to see how far I could keep it going.
 

Destil

DestilG
(he/him)
Staff member
I spent an hour and a half with Barbuta with very little progress to show for it only to immediately realize what one item I did get could possibly do and where that would help. Now I can't try until I'm home..
I did see what the moving dot is... is this a Derek Yu game?

Ninpek could have not existed pre 1985 but "we like double jumps" seems relevant to establish early. It absolutely has a 1983ish feel aside from the controls.
 

RT-55J

space hero for hire
(He/Him + RT/artee)
I'm working on a map of Vainger and discovered something m*ssed up: the screens in the first sector are the same height as the game's resolution (216 pixels, or 13.5 blocks), while the screens in the other sectors are 8 pixels taller (224 pixels, or 14 blocks).
 

Destil

DestilG
(he/him)
Staff member
Man, no else seems to love Barbuta on as many levels as I do. That game slaps! Easily my favourite game that I've played thus far. Just so incredibly satisfying to slowly suss out all the rules and secrets, and once you do figure everything out, you feel like a wizard.

Well the bats don't help....

Destil said:
I spent an hour and a half with Barbuta with very little progress to show for it only to immediately realize what one item I did get could possibly do and where that would help. Now I can't try until I'm home..
I was right!
... well I opened up 3 more rooms at least. Hurm.
 

Bongo

excused from moderation duty
(he/him)
Staff member
Got the cherry in Mini & Max yesterday, and I must say: this game is ridiculously cool.
 

Destil

DestilG
(he/him)
Staff member
Yeah, it'e my most played now. One of the cooler retro platformers in a while.
 

Lokii

(He/Him)
Staff member
Moderator
Bushido Ball is so much fun! Who knew that silly ol Pong would benefit so much from an injection of the Yamato spirit? Cherry seems impossibly out of reach though, and that's to say nothing of the terrifying implications in the options menu of "fast" and "hyper."
 

Destil

DestilG
(he/him)
Staff member
I do think the LX could have used a shoulder and/or utility (select/wtart) button. All the up + button inputs are pretty authentic but some of the games could really used it.

I know the terminal menu butto kinda covers it but I wouldn't hate a few of the later games having shipped after a revised controller or something.
 

Destil

DestilG
(he/him)
Staff member
Pilot Quest is my first game down!

... and I guess I can do it all over for the cherry.
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
Pilot Quest is my first game down!

... and I guess I can do it all over for the cherry.
FWIW, NG+ does add one minor new mechanic, and Pilot Quest uses a bit of random generation to shuffle up item locations, forest layout, cave contents, etc.

(Which I discovered quite early on when my friends and I started comparing notes and nothing made sense.)
 

Destil

DestilG
(he/him)
Staff member
Madhair I need a list of required ZX Spectrum games to play to appreciate these. Bug Hunters has to be in theat mold, right? Just based on the pallet...
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
Bug Hunter has been another of my faves. One of the quicker/easier cherries, since I wrapped the game in one 2-hour session, but it was a fun couple of hours.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
These are the games that I've spent the most time with to date, here's where I'm at:

GAMES THAT RULE

Party House - I just love the goofy characters and their many interactions. Had a great time clearing this and will probably go back for the cherry eventually.

Rock On! Island - Another super charming game, but don't be fooled, Rock On! Island's got hands. You'll need a really solid understanding of the mechanics if you want to finish this one. Took me something like 8 hours to get the gold, not sure I have it in me to get the cherry but I'm considering it.

Camouflage - Straightforward but well-designed tile puzzler with good music and some fairly tough stages. I'm not a puzzle sicko, so the difficulty was pretty perfect for me, but I could see some people wishing the game was longer and/or more difficult.

Night Manor - I actually haven't played this game yet, but my son did and I watched a lot of his playthrough. Excellent spooky vibes, fun classic adventure trappings, but the game is actually much more forgiving than the ones it references. My son got the gold clear, but I'm tempted to play it myself and see if I can get the cherry.


GAMES THAT ARE PRETTY GOOD BUT HAVE SOME ISSUES

Porgy - This game is surprisingly brutal at times, but I found it compelling despite the frustration. Making your health meter also your run timer is a weird decision (one that is mirrored in the next game!), and it was really maddening to find a bunch of stuff, only to lose it all half a screen away from base when your fuel runs out. On the other hand, it also makes it super satisfying when you succeed and bring all that loot home with you by the skin of your teeth. I think the whoe game would be more fun if you just moved a little faster, it would reduce the frustration and time lost when you died. Got the gold in this one and I'm kind of ready to stop playing, but I'm close to the cherry and I might grab it before my son decides to erase my progress and try for himself (since we are sharing a single save file).

Pilot Quest - On paper, I love everything about this game. An idle game/resource management sim that has action segments inspired by StarTropics? Heck yeah! But in practice, both halves feel a little undercooked. There isn't enough depth in the resource collecting to maintain my interest for long, since the economy is pretty simple. And the action stages don't reward exploring enough - any time you hit a dungeon, your best bet is to make a beeline for the boss, get the item they are guarding and head straight home. I finished the game and it seems to have a second quest, so maybe I'll poke around and see if things are any different a second time through.


Still very excited to keep playing and try more titles. UFO 50 is easily my game of the year so far and I expect to be playing it well into 2025. It takes everything that I loved about games from my childhood - the mystery and discovery, the willingness to experiment with genres that hadn't been completely codified - and marries them with a modern understanding of game design. It has lots of pointy corners and friction, but for the most part I find it really adds to experience and makes each game more memorable. Just an outstanding collection, it's really pretty amazing that it exists at all.
 

RT-55J

space hero for hire
(He/Him + RT/artee)
I've been trying Velgress for half an hour or so for the past few days and managed to Cherry it on my second ever attempt at Level 4.

It's kinda weird how the power-up economy in that game can give it a very similar sort of inverted difficulty curve as Kid Icarus (beyond all the other more obvious similarities).
 

RT-55J

space hero for hire
(He/Him + RT/artee)
Planet Zoldath is a bizarre, grody, janky, disgusting little thing. A proc-gen mini-zelda with sensibilities somewhere between a Micronics game and a roguelike. (Maybe the closest point of comparison would be a Zelda randomizer, but for a third-rate game that you never played before.)

I love it.

Pilot lands on the planet with nothing on his body except for his spacesuit, three HP, four empty wallets, two empty inventory slots, and a hunger for three map pieces. Your 3 HP is not enough to survive contact with some enemies (and if you die the planet gets re-rolled).

Those inventory slots are all Pilot'll have for the entire game. Press one button to use an item, press the other item to swap your active item, or hold that button to drop your active item. The item economy in this game runs on classic Dizzy system, by which I mean that if you find a new item then you drop the item you currently have in place, to pick up later.

The planet is full of various kinds of aliens. Some are friendly and will talk to you. Some want to barter with you. Some offer hints. Some speak another language and require a translator (which takes up an inventory slot). Most aliens are unfriendly, however, and attacking friendlies is an easy way to make unfriendlies. Which species are friendly and unfriendly is randomized every time.

There are a lot of different items and they all have interesting things to discover about them. You got gun's, boomerangs, boots, translators, some weird pulse generator, bombs, and a bunch of other stuff. There's even a transmogrification gun you can use to turn monsters into little birdies. It's shot can also even rebound so you hit yourself. I love it. It's my favorite.

There's at least one dungeon generated into each map.

There are faux scrolling glitches every time you flip between screens.

I played this for 40 minutes or so. I had a good time. The furthest I got was collecting 1 of the 3 macguffins. I have no interest at the moment to figure out how to game its resource economy (4 currencies!!). The criteria to cherry this is to beat it within 20 minutes. Speedruns of random seeds are apparently between 5-10 minutes. Maybe I'll come back to this someday.
 

RT-55J

space hero for hire
(He/Him + RT/artee)
I've finally given Barbuta a proper shot, making a fastidiously detailed map on paper as I go.

I "only" explored 44 rooms before getting a game over, but I know enough to say that this is a wonderful, wonderful little game.
 

spines

cyber true color
(she/her, or something)
i cherry'd combatants. when i was playing stage 3 and 4, i thought the game was awful, and the mechanical underpinnings of how to win don't resemble the game's apparent design. that is to say, it's not a macro rts, you can't win by playing long-term economy, and workers are borderline useless as a result (i think all units deal melee clash damage at the same rate, but because of the health gap it is *hugely* disadvantageous to participate in it to any degree you can avoid.)

yes, it's dumb, you have to cheese the AI and exploit anything you can to have a chance at winning, and this becomes obvious by the time there's a level where you have to pull your guys the instant you get control so that you don't lose in the first 5 seconds once all your units get clashed. funnily enough, i think this design ends up telling a story. not in a "it's bad for a metanarrative reason," but in the sense that because this is ultimately such a simple game (two unit types, the AI micro behaves in super predictable ways although its macro strategy varies a lot by level) that it feels like the real-life developer was trying to distill rts into these basic concepts and then had to think of how to make it into a game once it got so janky. because of that, the levels after the intro actually end up being a pretty weird range of unique scenarios, and sort of a puzzle...how do you cheese the game enough to overcome this absurd disadvantage? once you do that, the game starts to feel pretty manageable; you beat the gimmick and then easily crush what's left afterward

except for the optional levels. i think the one at the top of the map isn't too hard because it boils down to the core principles of how to win fights, but the one near the middle is incredibly brutal and even ignoring your economy almost entirely at the start to get the spider actively fighting still leads to the AI building up a ton of guys and killing it...while that's happening you might be able to build up a force that's around half the size and pick off the last workers so that you can win a last stand battle. maybe. it's really hard to pull off.

the last level is great. the fact that you can't see away from your guy gives a pretty interesting feeling of tension if you die with a huge force all the way across the map, and then on that level i also started hearing the sounds of a spider munching on a queen right after i died, and had no idea which one it was. it's something kind of unique. i can say the way i felt as i ran for like 40 seconds to rejoin the squadron wondering what was happening on the rest of the map because i was only hearing the sounds was pretty unique. it's a pretty small game. i know it's bad, but it's worth it.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Got two cherries last night, Party House and Overbold. Party House has been one of my favorites since day one, and fighting my way through 5 random scenarios only confirmed that. The game oozes charm, with little stories emerging as you build your rolodex and get to know the characters within. And mechanically it's surprisingly balanced, with only a few characters that I would consider to be overpowered (climbers and bartenders, what's up?). It probably helps that my 5th win come down to the wire; with a single door-open left in my last game, I had about a 1-in-6 chance of getting the character I needed, otherwise my streak would have been lost and I would have had to start all over. By sheer luck, I pulled it off, cementing this game's position near the top of the heap.

I only picked up Overbold a few days ago, but it instantly shot up the charts to become another of my favorites in the collection. The gameplay is challenging, if straightforward ,but the push-pull of "make the game harder to earn more money" is really addictive. You're constantly trying to balance greed vs your ability to actually handle everything the game is going to throw at you as a direct consequence. Getting the cherry basically requires you to have banked a certain amount of money before the final wave, so you have to play an even riskier game than usual. I could tell this was a good one because I would consistently fire up a new run less than a second after dying, no matter how frustrating the death was. Good stuff!

I'm still working on getting the cherry in Pilot Quest. I like the game a little more now that I understand how it works, but even so the mechanics aren't anything to write home about. This one takes a while, so make sure to start it early, since it requires that you spend time playing other games in UFO 50 to advance.

Not 100% sure what game to get into next. I could go for the cherry in Rock On! Island, but that's going to be a serious challenge. I've heard people say Mini & Max is really good and the level or two of Mortol that I played were pretty interesting. Much to think about.
 

RT-55J

space hero for hire
(He/Him + RT/artee)
I can't stop thinking about Barbuta while at work.

The density of that little map is incredible.

It just occurred to me that a direct sequel to the game (not Mooncat) would be an isometric platformer, like a Knight Lore or a Solstice.
 

spines

cyber true color
(she/her, or something)
I can't stop thinking about Barbuta while at work.

The density of that little map is incredible.

It just occurred to me that a direct sequel to the game (not Mooncat) would be an isometric platformer, like a Knight Lore or a Solstice.
you're so right about that last part. i'm not sure how you figured that out, but it's true. hahaha.
Planet Zoldath is a bizarre, grody, janky, disgusting little thing. A proc-gen mini-zelda with sensibilities somewhere between a Micronics game and a roguelike. (Maybe the closest point of comparison would be a Zelda randomizer, but for a third-rate game that you never played before.)

...

I played this for 40 minutes or so. I had a good time. The furthest I got was collecting 1 of the 3 macguffins. I have no interest at the moment to figure out how to game its resource economy (4 currencies!!). The criteria to cherry this is to beat it within 20 minutes. Speedruns of random seeds are apparently between 5-10 minutes. Maybe I'll come back to this someday.
i hammered out a zoldath clear in my first sitting (about an hour and 20 minutes...the winning run was about the back half of that). the tall player sprite and trial and error process of trying to figure out how the randomness shook out this time reminds me of playing through an area of golvellius. i should go back for the cherry, i liked it a lot more than i expected.

(it's no golvellius though)

re: party house, climber is a really strong card, but i feel the combination of high cost and long ramp makes for a short window to be able to buy them that's not necessarily always available (though it grows quite a lot if you have some synergies like grillmaster on the table). my personal picks for best cards in the game (aka, the ones i get all of every time i see them) are wrestler and cute dog
 
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RT-55J

space hero for hire
(He/Him + RT/artee)
you're so right about that last part. i'm not sure how you figured that out, but it's true. hahaha.
Process of elimination. : P

Something like a Zelda 2 or a SotN, with smoother controls and scrolling, almost seems obvious, but the spiritual difference is immediately apparent (though Faxanadu or Legacy of the Wizard might work as templates).

I was also thinking of what a "Barbuta 3D" would be like, working my way backwards from Dark Souls (lol) to Zelda 64 (nope) to Virtual Hydlide (yesssss), until I reached the convergence point of isometric gaming. The pacing, density, clunkiness, and even walk-cycles were close enough that I couldn't disagree with the idea.

I also concluded that the ideal Barbuta MMO would just be the original but with hundreds of little guys exploring an unfathomably larger castle.
 

spines

cyber true color
(she/her, or something)
and now i cherried party house, there's some concepts i have thought of but not explored since this game has a few things that are so powerful they end up feeling like the equivalent of dominion's "big money"...really simple strats where as long as you don't get super unlucky busts several times in one run you can probably win with very few ability uses. in particular, i think wrestler, cute dog, and grillmaster/athlete are cards you can't ever regret buying...basically anything that is always worth 2 currency and has other benefits instead of downsides is going to be super powerful though, and will slot into your deck nicely unless there's too many things with higher priority or similar effects (e.g. 8 grillmaster+athletes is extreme overkill)

introvert is the unique build-around of the game, and while it's not always appropriate it's probably the most interesting strat that doesn't involve obscure combos you would generally not prioritize. my "A tier" would be cards that pretty much never fail to be good, but cost a lot, like bartender, stylist, writer, or climber. those have plenty of synergies (especially among other cards you should always get) to push them up to the core of a strategy, though. below that would be cards with good stats but with downsides (trouble/money cost) or inconsistent benefits like the guard dog, or ones with game-winning power like magician that water down your deck for most of the game.

the "brings more guests" effect is the worst penalty in the game since it functionally makes your house [x] spaces smaller...i think it should work this way, but it's so dangerous that the cards with it should all cost less. i view them all as virtually always strictly inferior to equivalent cards with trouble. celebrity, especially, should be cheaper than gambler (which, as it stands, is a bargain in a lot of sets and could survive being a pop more)

when buying V(I)P cards you should pick the "better" one first, and choose the cheaper one if it's your fourth so you can start trying to win or earlier if it's going to be hard to get enough of the better one. 3 djinns in the deck is basically a guaranteed win (you just have to draw one before you're in danger of losing), so never scrimp on those if you can help it. but overall it's mostly just a "you shouldn't make the average guest worse too early" thing.

since the amount of extremely strong guests is pretty high it's rare that you get a seed with none of them, but i rolled one on my fifth streak run, and not just that, but it had other weird properties, since there weren't any trouble reductions at all nor extra trouble to get...and there was also no card with a green 2 or 3 on it, only bartender. but there was also grillmaster and photographer so that was enough to build a money engine designed around taking pictures of bartenders for 1p$4 and rerolling the house to get more chances at it before cashing out the actual hand (as well as avoiding the "have to stop the party with 4 guests halfway through the game" effect more often). this ended up decent for expanding the house, but my popularity wasn't growing much, and the "good" VP was superhero, who costs a lot...so i realized i did need to buy mascot and the extra old friends. this was around round 13, and ended up one of the most powerful engines i've ever built, because i ended up winning with 4 days to go, buying out and drawing the 4 superheroes in just 8 rounds. really cool combo, and thematically fucking hilarious. i guess we had the instagram deal to promote a liquor brand or something

(greeter is the funniest card flavorwise. greet the introverts. greet a werewolf. greet the next greeter)
 
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