Fifty Days of UFO 50: Day 2

 [Typing the number two felt a little different there, didn't it? Just wait; that number is a pretty far cry from fifty, isn't it?]

The first outing with Mossmouth's UFO 50 was a rather slim day of contrasts; breakneck shooting and dodging giving way to stodgy movement and fragile precision. Two drops in a pretty big bucket, and I revisit each of them briefly just to make sure those impressions were accurate.
One of these days I'm going to have to try the red or gray Star Waspir ships/pilots, [and also get much better at shmups in general, jeez.]
I'm also going to have to pry myself away from Barbuta and its mysteries to make broader progress today, but here's a bulleted recap:

• Six eggs, only six mistakes permitted makes me think this is a knowledge challenge as much as it is one of execution
• Certain enemies relenting when they take one of your lives is an interesting design detail I don't think I've seen before. While thematically odd, I like the transparent mechanic more than opaque examples of mob AI quietly nerfing itself in the name of dynamic difficulty
• Very "early industry" amusing to see a 4-digit currency counter on a system where you gain and spend money 50 or 100 at a time
• Likely intentional, someone knows just how to make games feel bloody ancient
• The lack of feedback when you hit something with your sword and the way only one sound effect can play at a time also feel like very deliberate withholdings
• I've bought some Trash and an Umbrella, but still have no idea what they do
• If I'm actually the pink map square, then what the heck is the dot

[Some of this is veering dangerously close to what the "let's play" format started out as; before video was nearly as easy to record, edit, and share, spaces like Something Awful were filled with threaded prose and screenshots designed to evoke the feeling of watching someone play a game in the reader's mind. The cautionary tone is because you're not sure if that's working, and it's too early for the project to become mired in any specific pattern.]

This being a Derek Yu joint, I've been anticipating secret Easter eggs, and my first brush with mystery comes in the form of discovering the LX console's terminal; eight characters, cut in half by a dash like a password from a game without battery-backed saves.

I input the only string the game has given me that really fits thus far, "GAME-OVER" and get a stern "INVALID CODE!" in reply.
The garbled hash drops a single hint - "TRAP.UFO" so I make a mental note to keep an eye out for unidentified flying objects, traps, or an opportunity to capture a flying saucer for some sort of code. There are these small, enticing ways to make games feel like they're occupying more than just the immediate reflexes and brain power it takes to operate them; tiny charms or post-it notes that stick with you between sessions and beyond play.

As interesting as it would be to take a completely tortuous and unintended path like playing each game in release order until the feeling of mastery allows me to move on, the format of this blogging project cannot abide my completionist bullshite, so the time has come to just try several in turn and blast through some first impressions!

Bug Hunter (1-2P, Puzzle, Strategy) "The moon quarry has a bug problem and you've been hired to fix it."

My analysis-paralysis is immediately overwhelmed by the sheer amount of strategic options available. This is the first UFO 50 game I've played that doesn't necessarily feel like it could be a small standalone indie title on Steam outside of the collection; I'm reminded of the wildly experimental mobile roguelikes of Michael Brough, like Zaga-33, 868-HACK, and Cinco Paus.

I found out about how anti-energy interacts with held energy the hard way, now I'm wondering if all types of energy explode the same way, and if anything crazy happens when one type of explosion hits the other, and now the bugs mechanical complexity is evolving so quickly!

The deckbuilding aspect of overwriting expended moves to take extra actions in a round while thinking about what you may or may not need later is doing that "neuron activation" thing that simultaneously impresses and exhausts me.

Next!

Ninpek (1-2P, Arcade, Platform) "It's ninja time! Run and jump to reach the end of the world!"

Hooray for platformers! I'm initially put off by the auto-scrolling nature of the game, but quickly see how it's more than just pressuring the player; the upgrade and scoring systems need opportunities to be limited. This is an interesting take on the high enemy and hazard space that lots of games used to occupy, but the power of a double-jump mechanic would have blown the doors entirely off platformer game design if it had actually appeared with this much air control and flexibility in 1983, (the fictional release date of this title!) They're having fun with it, but are clearly prioritizing engaging design over the fiction here.

I like the way you respawn as a "shooter ghost" that can safely clear the way but can't pick stuff up until you jump into your next life, but didn't push to see how long they'd let me invincibly fly around like that before forcing me back to platforming...

That's WAY too many onigiri, next!

Paint Chase (1-2P), Arcade) "Rev your engines and color your way to victory in the local paint racing competition!"

Ah, that explains why this doesn't have the "Racing" tag...

It's actually more like Splatoon by way of Pac-Man, strangely, coloring the grid and overwriting the enemy team's progress on a timer.

I was surprised they let you just clobber the other vehicles like you're perpetually in "power pellet" mode, but there's certainly plenty of room for hazards and restrictions in later levels.

Excellent little dramatic UX push on that scoring goal bar fill rate; I see you slowing the progress down as it nears the goal, only to speed up again and blow past during that window of uncertainty, (like Splatoon, your coverage level isn't checkable in real time prior to the results reveal!)

Felt like a bit of a trifle at first blush, but there's little one-beat comedy cutscenes between levels like some classic arcade games used to have; didn't even realize I'd missed those! The only modern games with similar energy that spring to mind are the Traveler's Tales LEGO outings. "Tell a visual joke in under 10 seconds" is a prompt that could lead presentation down some interesting paths; the gags probably won't be headier than a chuckle, but you're not exactly wasting the player's, (or your own dev/animation) time shooting that shot!

Next!

Magic Garden (1P, Arcade) "Stop the jealous witch Cloverana from sabotaging your garden!"

I had a surprising and difficult-to-articulate reaction to the title screen and tutorial/demo playing out for this one; some sort of mood misalignment gave me a saccharine shock.
No, it's simply too cute to be abided at this time, and I couldn't bring myself to actually dive in this time...

[You're underestimating the work again.
Trudging linearly by fictional release date is going to make the project feel less like a form of self-expression and like even more of a challenge than it already is. Shake up the pattern.]

The fact that individual games in the collection can be "faved" and given a little user-assigned heart icon should have clued me in to the fact that the game menu can be re-arranged earlier. It was sorted by Chronology by default, but moving the cursor off the game grid popped open a filter interface that let me shake this shack up by Multiplayer, Alphabetical, Epic Play, Quick Play, Thinky Play, Reflex Play, Most Played, My Progress, My Favorites, Random, and... what... the...

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