Several indie developers behind games Spelunky, Downwell, Time Barons, Skorpulac and Madhouse are creating the 8-bit wonder known as UFO 50, according to the trailer available on the Mossmouth Games official YouTube channel.
More specifically, UFO 50 is a collection of 50 new different games, both single player and multiplayer (all of the games are single player, and some of these games will be multiplayer). As mentioned before, all of the games will be in an 8-bit pixelated format and features games like side scrollers, fighting games, shooting games, top down games and plenty more (well, since there are 50 of them).
“Our goal is to combine a familiar 8-bit aesthetic with new ideas and modern game design sensibilities,” it says on the official UFO 50 website.
Although having 50 full games seems quite extraordinary for a collection, the developers behind UFO 50 say that these games are not mini games, but full-fledged games according to their FAQ on the official UFO 50 website.
Also, UFO 50 has it’s own story, which is unique for a game collection such as this one.
“The story of UFO 50 is that the games were all created in the 80’s by a fictional company that was obscure but ahead of its time. They’re all connected by a unique 32-color palette and other restrictions we decided on to make them feel more authentic,” it also says in their FAQ.
As mentioned before, one of the more notable titles that one of the developers worked on was a platformer named Spelunky. Spelunky was released back in 2012, and was a platformer that gave the player total freedom to do whatever they want (underground, since that is the setting of the game). Along with the regular version of Spelunky, an 8-bit version (similar to UFO 50′s game design, but it looks more modern than the theme they were going for in the game collection) was released named Spelunky Classic.
Spelunky received extremely positive reviews for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, according to Metacritic. It received a score of 90 on PC, a score of 87 on Xbox 360, a score of 83 on PlayStation 3, and a score of 88 on PlayStation Vita.
“Excellent randomly generated level design and very high difficulty. There is no doubt that Spelunky is one of the greatest 2D roguelike platforms ever created,” said Ragequit.gr in their review of Spelunky (they gave it a score of 95). You can find the full review of the game here.
Another notable title created by one of the developers was Downwell. Downwell also uses an 8-bit style and is a platformer, where the player uses super-powered boots to continuously move further, well, down a well. It was released back in October 2015.
Downwell also got mostly positive reviews according to Metacritic. It received a score of 81 on PC, a score of 85 on PlayStation Vita, a score of 80 on PlayStation 4 and a score of 91 on iOS.
“The variety makes the frequent deaths more palatable and I would probably buy a custom dedicated handheld that just played this game,” said Destructoid in their review of Downwell. You can find the full review of the game here.
It seems that a trusted team of developers are working on UFO 50, and honestly it looks like a pretty cool concept to bring back to modern times. I also wonder how the developers will incorporate the story aspect into the game, since there is an actual story behind the game collection.
The release date for UFO 50 will be sometime in 2018 on PC, then will be released on platforms at a later date. The cost of the game and the actual release date have not been announced yet.
Featured image via UFO 50‘s official website.
