izigame.me

What a long wait for this one, eh? Announced like eleventy billion years ago, this grand collection is finally here, and I've been quite excited for it. Now, this one is kinda hard to review in the usual way... What I want to do here is to give you a sense of what you'll really be getting here, because looking around, I've seen some complaints here and there about it, and it seems like some might be going into this not quite knowing what they'll get.
The main thing to understand is that these are meant to be *true* retro-style games. Properly emulating what games were genuinely like during the era that each one was released (mostly). And if you didnt grow up with the NES (or similar systems from that time period of 8-bit consoles), these might seem rather strange in many ways.
On Steam here, there are a lot of games that claim to be retro-styled, but in reality, that often just means the graphics... everything else about them is often very modern, and the size of the games is often quite big. Often games like that have the sorts of mechanics in them that you really didnt see back then (often due to technical limitations, or design concepts that hadnt yet been realized), and so on. Retro STYLE, but not truly representative of what actual retro games are like.
That's not what this is. You arent going to go into each of the 50 games and come away with like, a 20 hour experience with 80 levels and checkpoints and inventory systems and blah blah blah, for each single game. That just aint what it was like back then, so that aint what you're going to get here.
Just as an example, one of the games is called Magic Garden. This is an arcade-style game, using the traditional "snake" mechanic of things trailing you, and having you grab things to build that up and then dropping them in marked places to get big points, avoiding enemies and such the whole way. This all takes place on a single screen, and... that's it. That's the game. It gets progressively tougher as you go, and if you crash into anything bad, it's game over. That's the extent of it. Play to score points. To many modern gamers, this probably sounds like it aint too much, but understand, this is seriously what a lot of games were like at that time. This, back then, would have been released as a single, full-priced cartridge. If you're not familiar with things from that time period, head over to Youtube and look up games such as Balloon Fight, or Clu-Clu Land. Games of a similar scale, and indeed, they were full-priced products back then. A game like Magic Garden, in this collection, very much takes after games like those.
Similarly, you will run into elements that might seem very archaic, or things that the industry sorta left behind a long time ago. There's one game that is soccer themed, sort of, and has you jumping around single screen levels, kicking the ball at enemies, which turn into food items when defeated. This takes after the original Bubble Bobble, a very erratic platformer that used this exact design style (but you blew bubbles at enemies instead of launching a ball). In a lot of modern games, you cant *really* lose. Not truly. You can always reload or go back to a checkpoint or whatever. But many games werent like that back then. In this particular game, you've got a couple of lives, it only takes one hit to kill you, and when you run out of lives, it's game over. True game over. No checkpoints, no reloading, no continues. No saving the game either. If you want to beat this game, you're going to have to do it in one sitting. You're either good enough to do it, or you arent. Unlike a lot of modern games, where you can pretty much always win eventually even with low skill because a real game over condition never happens.
However, as you go chronologically further into the collection, the games start to get more advanced, less arcade-y. Bigger, more expansive. Heck, there's a full-on JRPG in here. Yet, even still, they will often use mechanics that might seem odd at first. There's one game that is a horror-themed point and click adventure game. A genre that isnt particularly uncommon even these days, but again, this is trying to emulate that old era, so a lot of the bells and whistles meant to smooth things out are not here. Controls and UI and such are exactly as awkward as in old games like Shadowgate, and even that screwy room map from that game makes an appearance here (though it's just slightly less confusing than Shadowgate's map thing) as does loopy monsters just abruptly filling the screen, often leading to a quick death that comes out of nowhere.
At the same time though, there are some things that are not quite accurate to that time, and typically for good reason. For instance, that JRPG has mechanics in it designed to reduce the hyper-grind that JRPGs back then were known for, because that element of those older games was just notoriously irritating to the point where, if kept in here, it could absolutely suck the enjoyment out of it. Stuff like that. And a bit of modern design trickles in at certain points. Like in that garden game, enemies will very clearly telegraph where they're about to move, keeping things always feeling fair... which wasnt how things often worked back then. Accuracy is great and all, but not if it just produces supreme irritation when it really doesnt have to.
Creativity is also very high here, a lot of design concepts that are different yet familiar. One game, Mortol, is this odd sort of puzzle platformer with a strange twist: you need to die a lot, in specific places & ways, to progress. But the mechanics that dont involve you drowning yourself or something all feel like they were taken right out of an old platformer, as does the general feel of the level design. That soccer game is another example. Plenty of games used the format it uses. But that method of attack? I cant think of a single thing that did anything like that. NES games liked straightforward shooting or melee attacks. That soccer ball sure aint that, and it makes for a much more dynamic experience here (which often was not the case back then). Yet the game as a whole still feels accurate to the thing it's taking after.
The other nice thing though is that, while accuracy is high, it does not try to unnecessarily emulate the many technical issues that often plagued older games. NES games in particular were known for getting more than a bit loopy if there were too many sprites around at once (and that number really wasnt very high). But that aint the case here, you can fully expect lots and lots of STUFF going on, often with big, vibrant sprites.
One thing to keep in mind is that for the most part, these games are short. Well, short by modern standards. By retro standards, they're pretty typical. On the NES, even many "big" games can be beaten in just a couple of hours (with RPGs typically being the exception). However, replay value factors in here sometimes in ways that didnt really happen back then. Some games use procedural elements for instance, which just didnt happen on consoles back then.
I'm not quite sure what else to say here... it's hard to review a whole collection of stuff! But I've loved every game I've tried so far. That bug hunter one in particular is as addictive as caffeine.
UFO 50 is clearly a love letter to an era of gaming that is long gone, yet still loved by many. As someone who grew up with and still plays old games, I'm very, very impressed to see such a high quality thing here, that truly feels authentic in ways almost no modern retro-style games manage, yet still having important differences where needed, and a level of creativity that didnt happen back then. A very, very impressive design... and I've only gotten started with it. This game wont be for everyone, it's clearly aimed at a certain type of player. But if it's your sort of thing, you're going to freaking love it... I know I do.