UFO 50 was ROBBED of "Best Narrative" Awards. I'm Serious.

Hi! Welcome to the first and, if I get very bored very quickly, possibly last, blog post on this account. If you've clicked on my post, thank you very much! I hope the deliberately kitschy theming of the blog hasn't instantly put you off. I find it rather nostalgic and cosy, personally. Perhaps it needs more beige? Maybe a Frutiger Metro background? Though, I always found those far too visually noisy and unpleasant to read over.

Hey, here's an idea! Maybe I should host all the images used on this blog on TinyPic! That'd give everyone the authentic "browsing an old area of the internet" experience.

They say a picture speaks 1000 words. A TinyPicture? Well...

Anyway, to get back on topic, it is remarkably fitting that my first blog post (on a blog attempting to replicate decades old internet writings) is about a game that replicates the experience of video games that are decades old.

UFO 50? Narrative? 

Yes. No kidding.

In case you missed it, my Game of the Year 2024 was a retro video game compilation of almost 50 fully original video games. The few that aren't fully original are a remake of a 2004 flash game, a spiritual successor to a 2000's PC title, and one that's a greatly expanded sequel to a game jam game. Realistically, they're still original. I'm splitting hairs. It's a magnificent collection. An insane work of game design artistry. I could say a LOT about the confidence this game has in creating great ideas and even greater games. Mini & Max alone could be it's own purchase. 

But people have already talked about that side. I'm here to spill the beans on the other side. In short, UFO 50 has 3 "Layers" to it's narrative. These layers intertwine and interact with each other constantly as you play the game. 
Layer 1: The Game You Are Playing, Standalone.
Layer 2: The Collection of 50 Games, Referential.
Layer 3: The People Who Made the Games, Development.

For example, if you were to think about Game 1: Barbuta.

• Standalone reading is that it's an old school adventure game with cryptic puzzles, where a pint-sized knight saves a castle from evil with the use of obscure items.
• Referential reading is that egg related motifs are frequent throughout later games, such as the letters in Star Waspir and directly in Campanella 2. Also, enemies and areas from Barbuta appear in Mooncat.
• Development reading is that Barbuta was the game that convinced LX Systems to start making video games, and it is Thorson Petter's first ever game.

The "Scatological" reading of  Barbuta is this skull scares the shit out of me.

I suppose I should issue some sort of spoiler warning, as the most interesting way to experience the narrative is by playing the game yourself. Well, I'll issue increasingly larger warnings as we truck along. Not like the story is the only thing to enjoy in the game, right?

The Opening Act

Upon startup, the game is already telling you a piece of the story. Try not to get distracted by the incredible chipchune beat, and focus your attention to some of the on screen information. "UFO 50 RECOVERY TEAM" is one of the first pieces of text. On the right, there is a slideshow of lovingly compressed images showing them opening an old storage container, filled with meaningless items.... And a LX-III console in middling condition! What a steal! The team quickly set to work on getting the console to boot and function, and in just 7 short years, they have a working emulator set up.

This is the "fantasy" that UFO 50 sells. It asks you to set aside what you know in real life about Derek, Tyriq, Jon, etc. The LX-III is a forgotten console from the 80's. UFOSoft created these 50 games. If you are able to play just a little pretend, you can enjoy the story of UFO 50. As soon as you go past this screen, there is no further mention of these developers. No winks.

After an adorable intro cutscene with no later implications whatsoever, the player is taken to the game selection screen. It's quite an intimidating sight. Each game is it's own disc that must be undusted.

You're gonna need a few hours. I'll grab some snacks!

The sheer scale of this game is no joke. The largest part of the narrative is your own. Your personal experience playing these things! The first game in the collection, Barbuta, embodies many aspects of the experience as a whole. Being the first game was no accident. It's an intelligence test!

An intelligent player understands that the game is the oldest of the 50 via easily readable context clues, and also is able to comprehend that this, being a collection of genuine retro games, isn't going to give you games full of modern style sensibilities. A lot of people seem to wrongly attribute "retro" to exclusively graphics. Failing to understand these important and obvious facts often leads to reviews that look like this:

Let me guess... Falling ceiling trap?

Realistically, you cannot accurately review this game without putting some serious time into it. This is also true for very old games. 
The trick is that the later games generally are more advanced, and that UFO 50's games are generally a hell of a lot easier than actual 80's games. You have to be able to pass the gamer literacy test before you really earn the chance to truly enjoy UFO 50.

You don't even have to beat Barbuta to understand its importance in the collection. The way the game is built primitively is narrative through gameplay. Hopefully, you continue through the collection, experience more games, and enjoy most of them. But, early on, a couple of peculiar things will have stuck out.

Firstly, a "Garden". A cute house with no tutorial or context. Built directly into the game select menu. A small pig-like creature walks around an empty establishment, but it seems like you can help! Each game in the collection has a "gift" listed. What a fun little thing!

This little piggy stayed home.

Secondly, an eerily silent terminal. You can input 4 characters either side of a dash. Garbage data is printed on the right, alongside a filename. Maybe I'll try CUTH-BERT?

This little piggy saw something he shouldn't have.

Each game in the collection has 4 steps of completion. Dusting off, getting the gift, gold completion, and cherry completion. Imagine a Cherry completion as either a challenge run or a "100%" completion compared to a gold's "any%". Some reviews of UFO 50 will have you believe that that collection as a whole is insanely hard. This is not true. Some of the games are very hard to gold, some of them are easy to gold, hard to cherry. Some of them take a long time, some take a short time. Some of them are even dependent on what the individual player is skilled at. Each gold/cherry is equally "valuable" to the game, and the game tracks how many the player has achieved on the save file screen.

This is not the only form of progression the game has.

The player will likely open up the information panel for a game, which tells them what they must do to get a gift, and reveal a brief history tidbit about the game's fictional creation. quickly find gifts for the garden, filling it out at their own pace. By completing games, they may be able to spot terminal codes. These codes can be anything. Cheats, extra modes, fun additions. So, after a certain point the player feels confident they know what's really going on with the game. 

This is part of the narrative progression. The game slowly feeds you information about how the collection works by encouraging you to poke around. Hell, maybe you even found out how to change your file name and background theme. Anyone who's familiar with games from the 80's know one thing's for sure; They don't tell you anything about anything, but the player is conditioned to poke around themselves. This will be used later.

From 'Systems to 'Soft

Of course, I mention GAMES. A subtle way that UFO 50 tells a surprising amount of its story is through gameplay mechanics. I said I wasn't going into game design earlier on in this post, but that was a bit of a lie. Talking outside the game for a moment, it's interesting what Mossmouth decided to keep modern, and what they decided to deliberately draw from the past in order to portray different things happening in the company at the time.

Bug Hunter, the lesser talked about 2nd game of the collection (everyone's ALWAYS talking about Barbuta!) Is as primitive as primitive gets. Very limited animation, mostly no music. It's kind of like a singleplayer board game. Though, you can actually play it as a versus 2 player board game, and it works in a similar way.

At this point, you may as well let the bugs have it. They won.

Bug Hunter is very simple to make on a functional and visual standpoint. But, where it shines is in the gameplay design. As far as turn based strategy games go, It rules. A simple to understand, hard to master style of game. It could've been made on the NES. It is one of the most convincingly NES games in UFO 50, and few will consider it a miss or a waste of a slot. But, at the same time, it re-enforces the idea that UFOSoft weren't pushing the boat out on what the console could do.

The game doesn't follow a "quality of game design curve" as the games get newer, but instead follows a "complexity" curve, that sometimes has it's own dips! Take the 46th game in the collection: Combatants. This is one of the least popular games in the collection. A seemingly deliberately abrasive real time strategy game. Slow ally AI, overpowered enemy ants, and a weird control and command scheme. The 2 player's actually pretty fun, for the record.

Follow Me! Okay! Follow Me! Okay! Wait!

I speak as someone who actually kinda enjoys this game. You have to play it very backwards. Combatants enthusiasts will tell you it's actually a game about learning cheese strategies to succeed, which, some will note, is an incredibly accurate experience playing certain 80's titles. This is gameplay that the game appears to be designed around, as Combatants has gone entirely untouched despite multiple updates to UFO 50 as a whole.

This level is an early game difficulty spike. My advice? Rushdown strats.

A full few-hour long game, functional, but also broken. Not even the game knows if the title is meant to have a space or not! It's also the same number as Dedant from Action 52.

Far back in the early numbers, there's a game that's pretty alright by all standards. The Big Bell Race, sitting pretty at number 19, will feel like Deja Vu for people who were playing the collection in chronological order. You'll be quickly reminded of game 17, Campanella, as The Big Bell Race re-uses the gameplay physics and level system, turning it into a multiplayer single screen racing game. It's incredibly fun, albeit incredibly short and not very difficult.

The music for this game is REALLY fun, at least.

It released SO soon after Campanella, which is listed as the studio's first big success as LX Systems. The history log tells you it was made in a mere 2 weeks... Reuses assets and physics... Oh my god! It's a cheaply made cash grab! 

Well I never! The Campanella series is RUINED!

Is it kind of bad to create an intentionally middle-of-the-road cash grab in the middle of your 50 game compilation? No. That rules. Considering the mission statement of telling a narrative through a studio's 50 games, this is the exact type of thing you could ONLY do here. This is taking advantage of the unique opportunities this format gives you. It's not like The Big Bell Race isn't a fun waste of 30 minutes, and a bit of a laugh with a friend. First game you see Slard in! Can't forget iconic character Slard!

"You'll need to pick me to survive in the Big Bell Race!"

Slard's main appearance is 25 games afterwards in Pilot Quest. A game that displays another interesting quirk of UFO 50. The way it takes genres that weren't invented until after the 80's and says "what might be different about this type of game if it was invented back here?" Pilot Quest is an idle game. 
Okay, fair enough. Idle games in some form have actually existed since Ganymede on the Commodore VIC-20, and the 2000's had games like Progress Quest. But, the exact type that Pilot Quest is pulling from is the kind invented in the early 2010's. Specifically in 2013 when A Dark Room, Candy Box, and most famously Cookie Clicker all came out.

Can't help but feel this game might be a loving parody of clicker games, but that's another story!

Pilot Quest has the essentials of the genre. A small thing to mash against that grants you a piddly but unlimited supply of a low-value currency, an ability to buy increasingly expensive means of generating the currency automatically, and usually different types of currency can be farmed directly or produced automatically. The parts Pilot Quest actually adds to this formula are pretty interesting. One of the things you can buy is meat, which fuels your ability to head to the Wild Zone.

The Wild Zone is like the Zelda 1 overworld if you were under some serious pressure to get in and get out. The idle stuff fuels your ability to play the fun half of the game. The more production you have, the more effectively you can explore it. The best part? Resources tick up whilst you play other games in UFO 50, so you can check on it between attempts at the other games. You barely need to actually wait.

If UFO 50 calls something "wild" you better be careful...

It does seem like the reason idle games weren't a thing in the 80's is that it was probably deemed very unlikely that people would turn on a video game console to watch something instead of turning on the television or going outside. I think focusing on the idle game elements singularly doesn't do it much favours. It's not just trying to do one thing! It's also being a sequel to a previous game in the collection! Adapting Planet Zoldath into a game that you beat over a long period of time instead of 30 minutes.

Pilot Quest is also a late-80's game, with the idea being they've become more adept at making advanced games. I definitely believe that many of the games look a little too good and run a little too well for the era, but that's probably because they wanted these to be smooth and enjoyable games that go beyond their advertised era. I think it's a reasonable sacrifice. 

The Story of Amy

This is when I must talk about the sweetest layer of storytelling. Let's hear it for Amy! If you've played UFO 50 yourself and have no idea who Amy is, you need to play the game more. Well, there's a good chance you've already seen her around. 

I suppose in terms of spoilers, this is my first actual spoiler warning. Mild spoilers ahead. Finding connections between games is a fun part of the game, though mostly inconsequential!

Amy's first appearance is as The Host in Party House. If you've played Party House, You likely didn't know that you can idle on the scenario select screen to activate the game's credits. This is how you can find the codes VIPS-ONLY and MAKE-GLEE, which allow the player to create and play custom scenarios, but more importantly, there's who the player is playing as! The whole time! You never even get to see her in actual gameplay!

Does this look like the face of mercy? I party... HARD!

Then, instantly followed up by the next game, Hot Foot. She finally has a name! And, a younger sister? Hot Foot's full of wild interactions and connections, if you ever want to look for some yourself, it's a great place to start. If you can get a good grasp of the gameplay. I can't!

Not pictured: The number of times I had to reset the game to get this interaction to play.

Then, over in Fist Hell, here's "The Party Queen" herself, making her grand return. Her special ability to charge power throws is very fun, but rarely useful. Would've been nice if she used that ability to remove Wild Buddies from parties about to get noise complaints.

She has power throws because she's great at THROWING parties.

An unexpected turn of events is in Night Manor, where the protagonist is possibly one of the Old Friends from a party that went VERY, VERY wrong. Of course, it's not impossible for there to be a different Amy who hosts parties. But it's a UFOSoft game! They love their cameos and references!

Then, finally, in Mini & Max... I think this speaks for itself.

Remember Amy's baby sister? This is her now. Feel old yet?

I suppose the important question is what does this add to the narrative as a whole?  Surface level, these are just amusing references to make a player point and smile at their monitor. Thing is, many people won't notice these on their own. Keep in mind, you might play these games hours or days apart from each other. The way I have presented it here, is of course, not how you'd experience it. They're a reward, and encouragement, for being perceptive, that offers zero gameplay advantage.

Of course, the other bonus is that of the game's individual narratives are strengthened by knowing these little pieces of backstory. Party House is a much funnier game when you realise Mini is locked up somewhere in the back, potentially having an adventure! Does a party go wrong? Perhaps an upset friend ends up in Night Manor!

And there's a reason I chose to talk about Amy. The best ratio for "most appearances" to "least amount of spoilers". There are others I could've talked about, and some of them are coming later, but there are too many across the whole game to fit in just one post. This is because I want you to look for these connections yourself!

Eh, what the hell, another example wouldn't hurt! Overbold being a sequel to Velgress is obvious to most, especially if you play all the games in order. I'd say even if the two games are almost entirely different, it's a lot more compelling to have an adventure continue! Alpha can't catch a break.

Where UFO 50 GETS-REAL

We're out of the low spoiler zone. Welcome to MEDIUM spoiler territory. This is the part where the seemingly unrelated facts I spent a few hundred words typing start to come together. We're talking about the development knowledge a player will begin to accrue. The easiest way to do this is through the 50 snippets of info that can be found in the panel for every game. There are other ways to do this, as well. Ways that a player may or may not find!

Many games have messages that are far from impossible to locate. They tend to require doing something a little bit strange or specific, but there's enough of them that a player is almost guaranteed to run into at least one of them naturally. It definitely helps that the game encourages experimentation!

Hidden messages from early in the collection are generally more lighthearted and fun. Some of them are in-jokes we have no context for! If you let Barbuta's roaming skull into the game's opening screen, something strange happens.

Some of them are straight up just easter eggs. A game over during the bonus round areas in Ninpek gives you a unique message to mock your lack of skill!

Some of them are just developers doing some good ol fashioned ribbing. A playful bit of banter between friends never hurt! Gerry Smolski didn't work on Velgress, instead spending his time on Planet Zoldath. Both released within 2 months of each other. Perhaps there was a bit of good natured competition at this point.

(I wanted to get all the screenshots for this article myself, but I didn't want to gather at least 31 of each material for this easter egg. Credit goes to the UFO 50 discord's Write-Up V2 Document for this one)

The playful, personal messages are very charming, and display a form of grizzled friendship between Benedict Chun and Gerry Smolski that seems very organic and real. We all take silly jabs at our best friends, sometimes.

Hey, look! It's the orange couch from the Warptank history section! What does that text mean?

That's a lot less jovial. A fair bit less playful, too! Well, perhaps it's just a non-sequitur. Not all of these are gonna be easy to understand! Let's play some Mortol II to chill out! Who'd say no to a quick round of that?

Messing around! I was trying to test the limits of what the LX-III could handle. Ignore the weird text.

This section's getting a little depressing. How about we lighten up with a bit of UFOSoft trivia? I think it's quite charming that the little Daruma enemies in Ninpek were clearly part of the inspiration for Pilot's visual design.

If you're the type to say "Something is definitely going on here." instead of treating these pieces of information you get as odd jokes, seeing your first easter egg (of which there are many) might get you on the hunt for information. Where else is information, but the history panels the game provides for you! Without beating games and seeing credits sequences, this is one of the only place a player will be introduced to the names of the developers... Eagerly, you'll look.

Well, if they take their search down to the final row. They might notice something...

Last, last, LAST call for spoilers, everybody!

Someone who's played enough UFO 50 to know what that little dash between two four letter words means is ready for what comes next. If you've read this article and have a memory span longer than 4 minutes, you'll also know. But the terminal's response isn't exactly cut and dry.

Ehh, whatever. We'll just figure it out later. Let's just go chill out with some Mini & Max. One of the best games in the collection, and an incredibly charming time. If you own UFO 50 and haven't dusted off pieces of the later half of the collection, you're definitely missing out! There's so much to explore, and even in this spoiler-ridden article I refuse to show all of it's incredibly adorable setpieces, items, and moments. I'll just show you ONE room from the early portion of the game to give you a teaser.

Here's my best Nintendo Power impression:
"In the latest game from UFOSoft you'll find yourse-

WAIT A SECOND. Cut the impression. It must be time to open up the terminal! 

Fun fact. When I first played Mini & Max I found this without the GREG-MILK code.

Well, then the hint hunt is on! To try and keep this article on topic, I won't cover it from start to finish. This isn't GameFaqs. Figure out the hint clues yourself. Or, scroll down past this innocuous Barbuta screenshot to see where this all leads.

Really take it all in. It's odd, honestly. It manages to look so primitive yet incredibly pleasant.

So, after a round of hints, you will find yourself at one unique code. Now, something often joked about with UFO 50 is that Action 52 has more games. But something I always found interesting about the game's title is that 51 is the number generally associated with UFOs. With Area 51, right? It's a bit of an odd choice, but the game select screen makes it clear that 50 was the intended number.

Possibly because in an interview, Derek Yu said he had to scrap a game called Godsblood.

No matter, with 50 games on your plate already...

I hope you left room for desert.

If we're still using the food metaphor. Think "Gateau", not "Cupcake"

Typing this code into the terminal places you in a dim, grimy basement. You know it's a basement because the bottom of the screen tells you as such. A small, upset looking creature sits in the middle. Where are you? Who are you?

UFO 50's secret trick is only effective because it's not advertised. Don't tell people about it to sell the game to them.

It's time to find out:

How the Sausage is Made

I'm going to assume if you've scrolled down to this metaphorical basement that you either know what happens in "EXEC-MIAS", or should go, right now, and play through it. You'll know when you completed it. For the sake of structure, I will be quickly recapping the events of the game, but there will be plenty I won't talk about. Because ideally you should play it yourself.

You quickly find an LX-I, a box containing unreleased magazines, and a box that releases Gerry and Boby Smolski from hiding in the basement of UFOsoft. After fiddling with the breaker box and finding a disc, you get to play a prototype of Paint Chase, before you must find more clues through more games.

Then, you'll find yourself in the lower corridors of UFOsoft, talking to the people of hardware development, fresh LX-III units are being shipped to "Murzbach Preservation Industries", and people from up above are coming down for freelance therapy. A clumsy caretaker leaves their keys, allowing you to unlock the garbage and retrieve a old LX-II, who the tech people helpfully revive, as you retrieve, and play, a prototype of Campanella, letting you access another set of hints for the hunt.

Afterwards, you'll be placed in the employee bathrooms, right across from the main offices of all the artists, directors, and programmers who made the games you've been playing for so long. It seems that Joy Akebi misplaced her wallet! Which you can go retrieve from downstairs, bring back, and bring the new music track to her brother. Once you do, Ian Spinzer, the manager is mad about how late the 50 game project is, and how long it's taking. Instructed to write a list of notes, you return to your cubicle and create a list to give to him. Then, you find the prototype for Godsblood hidden in the trash of the empty cubicle, and pop it into an LX-III.

Finally, after the final part of the hint hunt, you start in the games room, and are able to reach the top floor, the executive lounge. You get the honor of talking to Winston Nemuru, who's ever so excited about the completion of Cyber Owls. He talks very highly of a woman he's crushing on, and her son who loves owls. Then, the CEO of UFOsoft, Tao Nemuru, greets you in his office. He asks you how the game collection is going, reminds you of how good the game collection will be a shining light in the dark winter ahead. Whatever that means, and reassuring you that there must be a way to make this 50 game collection fun to make.

Then, he says the most important line of all:

The date is 24th of July 1989, You are Greg Milk. Long time UFOsoft employee, who has watched the company grow and prosper. Now? It's basically dead, and the swansong of the studio is in your hands.

What's it all really about?

EXEC-MIAS, or Miasma Tower, is the glue that binds the other 50 games together. Why does Bug Hunter feel like a board game? Because Chun & Smolski designed board games before they made video games. Why is Combatants janky? It's the one game designed by Tao Nemuru, who doesn't make video games. An investor-CEO in over his head.

Even the "in real life" scrapped game Godsblood is scrapped in universe. I think one of the interesting things about it is that small references and homages to that game still exist around in the collection. For instance, Val, the protagonist of Godsblood is a playable gambler in Quibble Race. 

Having no game to having a gambling addiction... Not sure which is worse!

The more you look at the different scraps of information given to you by the game, and combine them with this 51st game, the more remarkable it is that they kept it all consistent throughout the entire 50 game collection. Usually when a game has a "Meta mystery" story, it's the game's entire thing. Meta-narrative things like Petscop, Inscryption, and Undertale are known for their stories about themselves, and whilst that's a fine approach, I personally found UFO 50's storytelling more impactful.

Because none of the scale is faked.

They're constructed entirely around their meta-narrative. You can't experience them without encountering it. It definitely creates a tighter experience, as it allows you to talk to anyone who's played the game about the narrative and they'll be able to talk to you about its self referential metanarrative elements. Everyone gets the experience. But, at the same time, I can't help but feel like the effect of "discovering hidden layers" to something is very slightly cheapened if the layers aren't hidden at all. 

UFO 50's metanarrative is just one of the many feathers in its cap. Not only do you not have to participate in it, most players actively will not. This means if you're someone who chooses to seek out the history, not only does it feel like unearthing a mystery, it IS unearthing a mystery. It IS something that most players won't bother with. This is what I mean by the scale not being faked. All the games, as described by the metanarrative, are full. They exist. They are more than narrative fuel. Whether as rare easter eggs or design choices, each game naturally engrains narrative strings. 

The story has little impact unless you've actually played and enjoyed the games. One of the ways it intentionally messes with the player is by talking about planned sequels in the prophetic perfect tense. You will quickly realise they aren't talking about sequels that are going to be later in the collection. You aren't getting the 3rd game starring Space Pirate Alpha. Pilot? Him and his sister Isabelle aren't coming back for another Campanella. Rakshasa 2 is lost to the sands of time. 

The nature of this meeting room tells you all you need to know about late 80's UFOsoft's work atmosphere.

It's interesting commentary on the relation a player has with the developers of a game. It's an unfortunate truth of the industry that games that we love were not always developed in the best environments. One of the things that makes it tick is how mundane and grounded a lot of the dialogue is. Normal enough to not spell things out too much and feel natural, but not too obvious. Whilst writing this post, I replayed Miasma Tower again, and noticed character details that I'd missed the first time.

Even the way it's accessed makes sense. Greg Milk is the guy tasked with compiling UFO 50 together, he's trying to find a way to make it fun whilst in a miserable part of his life. What better way to vent frustrations than to make a hidden expose and homage to the last years of his job at UFOsoft? It's hidden enough to not be found by the people it was created to insult. It's not like Ian Spinzer or Delia Pace or Winston Nemuru were actually gonna look into the compilation deeply. It's not like anyone was ever going to be able to.

Because of that bastard, Tao!

Tao Nemuru is a very unique antagonist, who operates far outside the realms of a regular villain. An invisible menace who has already won by the time you're able to learn about him. He's also the reason you have any games to play. Unlike every other final boss in UFO 50, he is unbeatable, sitting atop his collection of rare videogames.

He is represented as a Grasshopper, with many of his personal subordinates as ants and other insects. An homage to the Ant and the Grasshopper fable, where hardworking ants prepare for the winter, whilst the grasshopper who spends his time singing and dancing dies in the cold. The fable is about the value of hard work and intelligent planning. However, it's been a controversial tale for centuries, with some people believing the ants were needlessly cruel, leaving the grasshopper in the winter to die.

"Would you fellows be interested in testing Campanella 3?"

Bernard Suit's 1978 book 'The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia' expands the philosophy of the unfairly treated Grasshopper into a worldview; In a utopian society, where work has been eliminated by progress, play will become vital for human existence. Games, in essence, are a self imposed challenge. A seemingly needless difficulty we choose to partake in for recreation. 

Tao Nemuru hands out a copy of this book to every single UFOsoft employee, and appears to have taken the point of view of it to heart. He values videogames incredibly highly, saved UFOSoft financially, appreciates Greg's archival work tremendously, authorized accounting to give hefty wages to employees, and again, was the person who oversaw the creation of UFO 50. Because of this, some believe that Tao could be partially misunderstood. Maybe he's a philanthropist in over his head.

This recently discovered easter egg has sparked discussion. Is Tao as bad as we think?

But in that case, why's he the only guy with full credits in the last few games? After Combatants, people who's surnames aren't Nemuru are only credited by their initials. It could be an attempt to stop developer poaching, a common tactic in the early video game era where rival companies would contact and steal employees with the promises of higher pay. Perhaps Tao's a bit of a strategist.

I suppose T. N. didn't have the same ring to it.

Okay, but the blatant nepotism is a tad indefensible. Yeah, perhaps Winston Nemuru happens to be a talented game developer, but how come he's only ever credited on roles that other people are also doing? I suppose he did direct that Cyber Owls game. Though it's clear that he only got a chance to do so because he's family. Most other game directors were either there from the start, or from the LX Systems days.

I think my answer is that he's an egotist. Making choices and moves that may benefit others, but are all for the goal of making him feel more important. He appears to be polite because it does nothing for him to put people down. Especially not the people making the rare prestigious titles for The Nemuru Collection. After all, he hired Ian Spinzer to do the angry yelling for him and keep people in line. He doesn't have anything to worry about. 

Okay, it's been long enough. Let's talk in depth about Cyber Owls. If you were the type to play the collection in chronological order, this will be the final game you open. My, what a different vibe it has to the other 49 games. Especially after you just played Seaside Drive and Campanella 3 back to back. Even when it was obvious the company was being bankrolled, they were still making games with their heart and soul poured into them. Cyber Owls, on the other hand, feels like it's trying to market itself to you. It's a bit TMNT, a bit Thundercats, a bit Biker Mice from Mars...

They even have Dim Sum as their "iconic favourite food"; Like the TMNT and pizza.

If you've played Action 52, it's also a bit Cheetamen. An homage that I'm 99% sure is intentional.

The big thing is that Cyber Owls is a very corporate IP, designed for merchandise and general marketability. To use a modern phrase: It's entirely soulless. It has the highest production value of any game in the collection, by technical aspects it's a very impressive work. Creating 5 different gameplay styles isn't easy, the music has higher quality samples than most of the others in the game, and the graphics are colourful and comic-booky!

But, at the same time, it's far more shallow compared to the standard you will have come to expect from UFOsoft. The setup for the game is far more conventional than most of the other games in the collection, and the message of the game... I'll talk about that in a minute. Whilst they have a cheesy charm, the character archetypes are a bit run-of-the-mill, and gameplay wise it's far more unfocused and scatterbrained than the rest of UFO 50. One of the most impressive parts of Cyber Owls is that it manages to hit all the right notes for the continuity whilst not actually being a terrible experience, and feeling like an earnest enough attempt at a game despite the inbuilt cruddiness. 

The "Play Engineers" did a fantastic job, all things considered.

Now, the game's message. It appears to be pro war? Yes, the game over screen, which is unusually eerie for this game, doesn't appear to be a fan of nukes, but Cyber Owls thinks governmental powers dispatching enforcement squads is the coolest thing of all time. Would definitely look to Fist Hell and Avianos as examples of how UFOsoft normally handle these sorts of subject matters. Wait, there's an Avianos reference in Cyber Owls? It's either far in that game's future or complete nonsense because Humans are also around.

GETMEOUT of this nightmare!

Seems like Winston Nemuru doesn't get what makes UFOsoft special. After all, it seems he's mostly making this game to try and get Vanna Servo to like him, which is kind of sad. But, at the same time, also kind of funny. It almost certainly didn't work, especially judging by the kind of guy he is according to Miasma Tower. 

Let's compare this to Seaside Drive for a moment. If you've played all the games in UFO 50, answer this question in your head: Did you enjoy Seaside Drive more than Cyber Owls? Data compiled from surveys, forms, and comments sections tells me that "Yes!" is a common response. Seaside Drive's not got the setpiece action of Cyber Owls, it hasn't got 5 hundred million gameplay styles. No grand terrorist-stomping scheme! Just a guy driving to his gran's for some tasty pies with a simple, pleasant graphical style that keeps everything clear. All under 1 tightly refined, satisfying and fun gameplay style.

"Why are CUBES attacking the player? This game needs more story!" Words spoken by nobody,

At the very least, I think Mossmouth are trying to tell us something about what makes a game GREAT. The whole collection is about ideas. This small indie dev team was able to craft a LOT of gameplay ideas and execute all of them at a very high quality standard. No game in the collection is without fans. My favourite game in the collection is Divers, and many people HATE that game! I just spent a bunch of time insulting Cyber Owls, but playing it a bunch for this article has increased my appreciation for it quite a lot! It manages to be fun whilst simultaneously making a clear point about scope and originality.

I mentioned the layers of storytelling at the start, and quite frankly haven't leveraged that side in the 2nd half of the article, but I'd like to again re-iterate how impressively difficult it is to design entire games; Entire playable experiences that are salient and fun in their own right. Whilst also making them fit into a larger scope storyline outside of the game, and making a real life point about the nature and corruption of the video game industry. They made it look effortless. It's not always been easy to put into words, but it's a narrative that's impacted me far more than most games. More than most games centered around their tale.
 

Decouple yourselves from the standards of storytelling! Poignancy can be found everywhere, as long as you seek it with eager eyes.

In the story, we don't know where anyone went post-Ufosoft. There's a coldness to UFO 50 at times. A lot of the games have weirdly creepy elements to them. Ninpek has a river of blood. Mortol is about ritual suicide. Rakshasa begins with the death of the protagonist. Some games have surprising twists in their endgame that change how you'll see the game forever. Have you beaten Waldorf's Journey or Campanella 3? Some games stay consistently cheery or consistently creepy throughout! It keeps you on your toes, none of it cheap.

There's so much I could keep going on and on about. The scope of the game is, quite frankly, absurd for 20 dollars. I hope as the years go on and more people are able to discover this narrative (perhaps thanks to this, who knows?) more people will appreciate what it does. There's still plenty of time! I have more golds and cherries to get on my main profile, so I'll still be booting up UFO 50 for a long, long time. I hope you will be, as well.