As revealed in the Summer Game Fest's Day of the Devs presentation, the offbeat game collection UFO 50 is finally coming out on September 18. The quirky, alt gaming history throwback was originally slated to release all the way back in 2018, and it's a collaboration between several successful indie developers including Spelunky creator Derek "Mossmouth" Yu and Ojiro Fumoto, the primary developer of Downwell.
The surprising breadth of genres and art styles all bound up into one game with a retro pixel aesthetic just screams WarioWare to me, but the UFO 50 team is quick to clarify that these are not fire and forget "mini" or "micro" games like Nintendo's rapid-fire classic.
"Although the size of each game varies, every one is a complete experience from the title screen to the ending credits," they explain on UFO 50's official website. "Some are small arcade-style games, but there are also larger open world adventures and RPGs!"
That last bit, plus some of UFO50's screenshots and snippets from Day of the Devs, really pique my interest. One game looks like an Advance Wars/Fire Emblem send up with red and blue orc guys facing off on a grid, while another is a classico Wizardry-style first person dungeon crawler seemingly crossed with Punch Out of all things. There's even a point-and-click adventure with some old school LucasArts vibes rounding things out, and the UFO50 team says that some of the games will feature co-op and competitive multiplayer.
The framing device is that these were all made by "a fictional company that was obscure but ahead of its time" back in the '80s, like some kind of bizarro Konami or Capcom we all collectively forgot, with the games increasing in complexity over "UFO Soft's" run from the '80s to early '90s. It's a delightful conceit, and based on the Day of the Devs presentation, it sounds like there's going to be lore to dig up about UFO Soft among the games.
We won't have to wait long to get digging either: UFO 50 will finally arrive on September 18, and until then you can wishlist it on Steam.
