4/5 ★ – QuickPlay's review of UFO 50.

UFO 50 is meant to be like picking up a box of cartridges from a yard sale, coming home with a random assortment of little-know titles. Personally, it reminded me more of hopping onto an online game website from my childhood, like Miniclip or bonus.com. However, there’s no slop here. There’s an intentionality to each of the 50 games, jank and all. Folks have warned that Barbuta (game #1) makes a discouraging first impression, and they’re right. For most players (like myself) the first gameplay experience of UFO 50 is immediately getting crushed by a surprise falling chunk of stone ceiling. For better and/or for worse, it demands a lot of you. It’s a collection that requires brainpower. Not only are the puzzle and tactics/strategy games among the best, but there’s an intentional opaqueness to all of the games. You dust off a new game to first just try to comprehend what is going on and what you’re supposed to do. It’s akin to WarioWare, though with obviously much larger games and no time crunch. The initial confusion (if that’s even the right word) is part of the experience and part of the charm, but one you have to be ready and willing for. Many of the games are challenging, and with such a plethora, it’s easy to jump off and try another. It’s hard to be disappointed by the collection, but also hard to go back to many of them. When I was just a few games in, I wondered about UFO 50’s staying power. For the most part, I went in order, trying out each game until I got a game over. As of writing, I’ve now given all 50 a college try, but have yet to beat any. Ultimately, it’s an impressive endeavor with plenty of standout games, but with all that’s available within and without UFO 50, I don’t know how many of these I’ll want to ever come back to.