UFO 50

01. Barbuta

While I didn't think of it that way, one YouTube video highlighted that this game is as unappealing as it is as a way to teach you that you probably won't like every game in the collection, and that it's okay to skip out on some games you dislike and just browse through the other ones until you find some that you do.

There's a certain atmosphere created through things like the droning sound when a new screen loads, the minimalistic sounds, the lack of background music and generally the glacial walking speed that I like!

02. Bug Hunter

Strategy...

03. Ninpek

A simple 2D side scroller with nothing really outstanding about it. It's the first game that just was naturally fun to me as I felt right at home with 2D platformers! T'was the right amount of challenging, and it was quite nice first discovering new areas and seeing how they differed visually- and gameplay-wise (platforming and new enemy types).

It was also the first game I won a cherry at by "accident"! I was just intrigued that there was a New Game+ with new enemies and just played through that!

04. Paint Chase

A great concept that always felt tough to me on the first playthrough - I managed to scrape by most levels, although I always felt like I was just short of failure with how I was winning most levels with a score of just 5-10% and how little lives you're given.

The neat cutaway stories that teach you game mechanics before you meet them in-game were always nice, but also filled with the tension that now there's another thing you'll have to watch out for. In retrospect, this game throws a lot at you quickly when you just get through most levels in one go without going game over.

05. Magic Garden

It's the game that taught me that there used to be demo gameplay that played whenever you idled on the title screen. And this game's demo gameplay is quite helpful as it actually teaches you the rules and goals of the game!

The game itself is an evolution on the classic game Snake, where besides just getting more blobs to follow you, you can also drop them off at specific tiles to eventually spawn potions of the playing field that temporarily allow you to kill any obstacle that spawns over time on the playing board. You can also jump!

Simple and neat! The score you need to beat the game (200 "Oppies" saved) first seemed like a challenge in endurance, but the pace picks up the more oppies you save by simply adding on more and more to the field.

06. Mortol

I love the concept and execution.

When I first played it, I believed that if you went game over and lost every life, you had to start from the first level again, but no - you get to retry the current level as many times as possible with the amount of people you entered with. This felt remarkably forgiving for a game supposedly set in the 1960. If you were to ask if you could get softlocked when you manage to enter a new level with like 3 lives, fret not! You can replay each previous level to try reaching a new high score, with which you have more people available in the following levels.

I was also a bit shocked at how each level was able to introduce a new mechanic, and how existing mechanics like the bomb ritual uncovered new layers like igniting things, how the stone ritual can be used to block off water pipes and more!

07. Velgress

I always forget it's name. It reminded me minimally of Spelunky while playing it.

I had the luck of getting the triple jump upgrade in the shop before the 3rd stage, making it a breeze. I also just naturally collected every key in every run and don't know what would've happened if I didn't. I guess I would've only had normal completion instead of cherry completion, and perhaps the last stage would be locked away..?

08. Planet Zoldath

The limited inventory size makes me feel like you'd need to tediously walk back and forth a lot to complete it.

09. Attactics

Tactics, you say...

Oh no...

10. Devilition

Strategy...

11. Kick Club

A simple game where you have a soccer ball with which you must every enemy in a level. You can do a bit of fun stuff with the ball like slide into it to launch it at fun angles, but the game feels somewhat boring without much else getting added to the formular except for enemies with trickier movement. A big motivator is game overing and knowing that you'll need to slog through it all again.

At least the UI is nice, with the floating and rounded score panel with the life icons next to it and the confetti that pops up whenever you get an 1-UP.

• Score thresholds that give a 1-UP: 10.000, 25.000, 50.000, 75.000, 100.000, Probably more...
• The baseball enemies in USA World are a really good challenge!
• The player's freeze frame at the end of a level is fun.

12. Avianos

Strategy...

13. Mooncat

Originally a game jam game called ..and the mooncats with the concept being to design a game that only uses two buttons as input. Has an undescribable atmosphere to me, probably mostly due to the Overworld 1 track.

14. Bushido Ball

The first time I read that name I laughed because it instantly reminded me of german rapper Bushido!

15. Block Koala

Difficult, even near the beginning! A medium part of that difficulty comes from the core mechanic (how these numbered blocks interact with each other) not being explained and generally seeming a bit arbitrary until grasped. The other difficulty comes from the puzzles themselves.

16. Camouflage

Nothing too special. The starting and ending cutscenes are pretty neat, but the gameplay can feel monotonous, with not a lot of depth to it. The map track is nice, though!

17. Campanella

Quite fun! The cherry challenge was also quite fun! (once I grasped what I even had to do and how the coffees even appeared (Spoiler: By touching an invisible trigger tile hidden on every stage))

18. Golfaria

Just a really cool original concept! (Open world top-down golf game with upgrades)

19. The Big Bell Race

Quite a simple game. Uses the same fun control scheme as Campanella. I really liked the detail of the spaceship turning into a smiley once a race ends as it feels wholesome in a way.

20. Warptank

A game I first played with a wrong mindset fixated on just beating it as fast as possible. I also got frustrated once I discovered that there were hidden coffees in every level and couldn't find them in any other level (they're really devilishly hidden most of the times, but there's a hint in every level to help spot them once you beat the final boss).

• The choppy way the camera scrolls did me in / felt weird for the first couple of levels.
• Hint related to finding all coffees: It was neat figuring out that the flower that appears in every level after you beat the final boss hints at the location of the secret coffees. What was even neater is that I started noticing this flower in a different game (Mooncat), which helped me find secrets there as well, which is just such a cool meta-progression thing!

21. Waldorf's Journey

A game where you need to launch yourself across platforms, similar to games like "Jump King" or the "Learn To Fly" flash games. The theming is really fun, the game can be quite short and there's a bunch of stuff to collect and consider on your way towards the end. While I haven't touched it after I've beaten it, I am still motivated to try and get the cherry here.

22. Porgy

A longer, more slower-paced game about exploring a large underwater map and gathering upgrades. I first listened to the game's soundtrack before playing, which features a banger called Abyss. Since the Abyss seems to be the last area, it's a bit of a motivator to complete this longer game.

After playing it for a while though, it just becomes a drag because you keep having to go back to base every 2 minutes. This gets even worse because the way gets longer the further you get and the deeper you go. Towards the end of the game, ~1/2 of a trip is just spent for the way to & from the last area and it's incredibly annoying!

23. Onion Delivery

Both good and bad. Memorizing the city and being efficient at cruising around it is satisfying, but every bonk against walls feels really punishing, especially because it is so easy to do with the quick and imprecise controls as well as destroying any sense of orientation as your car rotates in a seemingly random direction. Each day having a different hazard seems like a fun idea, but as a beginner they sometimes seem like unavoidable damage unless you've already played for a while and aren't bonking against walls every 10 seconds.

I do at least like the idea of continuing to improve in the game and to see if I can beat the next day at least (Day 3). I also like the idea that your health only regenerates when you're driving at top speed for a little while (or reach a target) to encourage reckless and more chaotic (and therefore probably fun/intense/challenging) behavior.

Then again, I also dislike that your car always starts off driving to the right and that you always have to slowly turn around when your first goal is to the left (which is something that feels like it happens 75% of all days because my mind fixated on this during my first time playing).

2026-04-04: I actually played it again when it caught my nephews eye (he likes cars and gravitated towards any cartridge with a car in it) and I got better and liked it more! The process of memorising where each place is in relation to where you are and slowly mentally mapping out the city (which I now also found out loops seamlessly) is very satifying! As is curving around the city flawlessly. Thus, this game got bumped to rating '4' from the previous '3'.

24. Caramel Caramel

A shmup with a mildly neat camera gimmick tacked on. I first played it in co-op with my 6-year old nephew, and even I couldn't beat the first level after 15 tries! It was still fun though, and watching the gameplay demo that appears when you wait on the title screen taught me about fun details like that photographing certain background objects causes them to spawn bonus points and change their appearance. (for example, photographing the donut planets in the background of stage one causes them to spawn them as well as change their appearance so that they've been taken a bite out of them).

• I have no idea if the cookie mid-boss from level one can even be defeated.
• I noticed a secret letter N you can photograph towards the end of level 1. Probably a multi-level task one needs to accomplish.

25. Party House

I quite like the fun theming and soundtrack of it all! And even though it's a strategy game, I'm somewhat compelled to play it sometimes!

26. Hot Foot

No thoughts yet...

27. Divers

No thoughts yet...

28. Rail Heist

No thoughts yet...

29. Vainger

The gravity flip idea is a bit neat, but the game otherwise doesn't bring too much to the table that held me for long. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for a Metroidvania.

30. Rock On! Island

No thoughts yet...

31. Pingolf

A game said to merge golf and pinball. Didn't notice too much of the pinball influence except the bumpers, but I really liked the slopes and the way the golf ball interacts with them! Some visual ideas like the dot matrix at the bottom and the crowd fading in from the background and clapping when scoring a hole are also quite charming.

• The feature where you can dunk the golf ball once per shot is such a cool idea as it gives a bit of control but still requires skill to press at the right time!
• I wish there were more stages... HOLY DOUBLE SHIT!!!
• Some SFX like the standard "the golf ball enters the golf cup" one are satisfying!

32. Mortol II

A game I first tested out with my nephew, but quickly quit due to his lack of patience. The concept of having 99 lives with which you slowly progress through a map is quite intriguing!

33. Fist Hell

Side-Scroller Beat 'em up. Not really my type of game – Just ain't that fun for me.

34. Overbold

No thoughts yet...

35. Campanella 2

Quite a neat game! It's a mixture of flying around in a UFO in a level avoiding enemies and 2D run and gun stages. Both compliment each other although I find the "flying around"-part definitely more interesting as the run-n-gun stages can start to feel samey.

After my first play session, a dissatisfaction gnawed on me as sometimes levels felt like they generated unfairly, with longs stretches of nothing costing you fuel while one screenful is packed with two caves and 6 stars. It also felt punishing flying through two thin stretches only to end up in a room with the locked exit and like 1 star, meaning you'll have wasted a lot of fuel only to know that you need to waste double the amount of it just to find the other stars and then get back to the exit.

I solved this conundrum of bad RNG by changing my playstyle. I don't spend time dedicated to hunting enemies at all as most only drop pocket change and there are way more efficient ways to earn it (besides money not being that much needed). I also started landing the ship more to preserve fuel while scouting out the area a bit more.

36. Hyper Contender

No thoughts yet...

37. Valbrace

No thoughts yet...

38. Rakshasa

No thoughts yet...

39. Star Waspir

No thoughts yet...

40. Grimstone

No thoughts yet...

41. Lords of Diskonia

No thoughts yet...

42. Night Manor

The point-and-click "Scissor Tower"-esque horror game. Definitely interested in this one!

43. Elfazar's Hat

• I like the idea of collecting different cards for specific upgrades, but the mechanic feels a bit lacking to me

44. Pilot Quest

This game's spin on idle games. Once you start this game and get any upgrade that automatically produces something over time, it will keep generating that resource even if you're playing other games within UFO 50 or just idle in the main menu (but not if you close UFO 50!). As such, you might want to play this game as soon as possible so that you can start the grind early and not have to idle with the game open if this is one of the last games you play. Even then though, I believe that would rarely happen as there'll probably be at least some games you'll want to complete or 100% in the meantime.

One neat twist of this game is that the resources you acquire help you with an adventure game portion where you explore a planet on a timer! You have a basic attack, enemies that hit you remove time from your timer and you can gain resource you would've needed to grind/idle for. If the timer runs out, you'll faint and loose everything you found, so you need to plan in time for the trip back to the entrance!

Also, the base camp has a really good track playing in the background.

45. Mini & Max

No thoughts yet...

46. Combatants

No thoughts yet...

47. Quibble Race

No thoughts yet...

48. Seaside Drive

2026-04-23: Played with my nephew first. A nice shooter with nice GFX, theming and gameplay. I plan to only play this game together with my nephew so that it'll be a bit more special once we manage to beat Stage 3 and get to see what Stage 4 is like.

49. Campanella 3

No thoughts yet...

50. Cyber Owls

No thoughts yet...