An Unconventional Way Of Playing A Fake Retro Game Collection Made It Something Much Greater

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Today, September 18, 2025, marks the one-year anniversary of UFO 50. We’re taking a moment to share how following the game each week for a year has truly resonated with us.

Okay, so UFO 50 totally blew my mind. It’s this crazy ambitious project – basically a collection of 50 fully playable, retro-style games, all linked together with sequels and this really cool, overarching story. I reviewed it last year and honestly, it ended up being one of my favorite games of the whole year. It’s just unlike anything I’ve ever played.

Despite everything, I didn’t expect UFO 50 to keep appearing in my life with such predictable frequency. Ultimately, this set of deliberately old-fashioned games has turned out to be a surprisingly valuable and continuous learning experience in game design.

I tried out all 50 games for this review, but I didn’t finish them – not by a long shot! I played each one long enough to understand what it was like, get a sense of the different types of games available, and really focus on a handful of my top picks. That gave me everything I needed to form a first impression and write a thorough review.

I also discovered a similarly ambitious project from the podcast *Eggplant: The Secret Lives of Games*. This podcast, hosted by independent game developers like former journalist Nick Suttner, had been doing in-depth analyses of indie games for years. When *UFO 50* was released, they decided to play through every game in the collection over the course of a year, calling it a “book club” format. Having seen Nick Suttner on the 1UP Show, I was interested in hearing a more detailed discussion of each game, so I started listening.

After a year of playing, I’m certain this is the best way to experience UFO 50: one game at a time, with thoughtful discussion in between.

Okay, so the first episode focused on this game called Barbuta, which is a really old-school metroidvania – it looks super simple! Honestly, almost everyone who starts playing it has the *exact* same experience: you take one step to the right and instantly die. It’s kind of hilarious! There’s no explanation, no tutorial, nothing. You just start in a room facing right, and because we’re gamers, we naturally try to move from left to right, and boom – instant death. It’s a funny little quirk of the game!

The game doesn’t hesitate to punish you for mistakes, and that really sums up what these games are all about: constantly challenge your expectations, be careful, and learn how each game wants to be played. Honestly, it’s also quite funny – if you can appreciate a sudden, harsh lesson delivered with a bit of playful intent.

The Eggplant podcast offered a really insightful and clear look at game development – it truly felt like it was coming from people who had firsthand experience. I immediately became a regular listener, determined to follow along each week. Even if I didn’t finish every game they discussed, I wanted to spend some time understanding what made them work, beyond just what I’d experienced as a player. It reminded me of attending sessions at the Game Developers Conference. What made it so interesting was that it wasn’t aimed at players; it was developers talking to each other about the work of other developers, giving me a rare peek behind the scenes.

Spending a year exploring the game UFO 50 opened my eyes to the surprising ways board games have shaped many classic video game genres. I discovered golf mechanics appear in games far more often than I expected, and the game cleverly blends 1980s game design with the style of early 2000s online flash games. Interestingly, UFO 50 also seems to be having a deep conversation with ideas presented in Bernard Suits’ 1978 book, *The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia*. While those with formal game development training and familiarity with Suits’ work might already know this, it was a completely new insight for me. I’m sure I’ll continue to uncover connections and apply these lessons for years to come, and this is just a glimpse of everything I’ve learned.

Now that the ‘UFO 50’ podcast has finished, it’s become clear how much the story focuses on the bigger picture behind the scenes. While playing the games for review, I noticed hints of a larger conflict within the fictional UFO Soft company. Knowing the full story of this doomed studio now adds a lot more depth and meaning to the entire experience. There are surprising twists in the overarching narrative – not within the games themselves, but in the story *around* them – that I would have missed without digging deeper.

I’m even more impressed with UFO 50 than I initially was. It’s not just a collection of 50 original games – many of which are excellent individually – but a single, cohesive game experience. All 50 parts work together to create a larger statement, offering a thoughtful look at game design, company life, the joy of playing, artistic creation, and more. UFO 50 aimed to tell the story of a fictional game studio, and it succeeds brilliantly. It provides valuable insights into the work of real developers, the nature of art and artists, and the difficulties of balancing creativity with commercial realities.

I’ve really enjoyed consistently listening to the UFO 50 podcast each week, and I’d suggest it to anyone who likes podcasts. But even more than that, UFO 50 is best experienced with others. The UFO 50 subreddit is a great place for lively discussions about game rankings and modifications. Plus, many of the games have inspired dedicated speedrunners. They recently even organized a charity event called Cherry Rush, where top players worked together to achieve perfect ‘Cherry’ completion – a mark of true mastery – in every game in the collection, all in one weekend.

So, there’s this game called UFO 50, officially credited to a developer called UFO Soft, but the real story is it was mostly made by Derek Yu – you might know him as the creator of Spelunky – along with Jon Perry and Eirik Suhrke. Honestly, when I first heard about it, it sounded cool, but after spending a year really digging into it with other fans and learning how games are *made*, I’m even more blown away. It was amazing to see how the developers themselves thought about the game, not just as a player or someone writing reviews. It was a really unique experience, and I don’t think I’ll forget it anytime soon.

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2025-09-18 17:41