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The perfect video game for 2024
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The perfect video game for 2024

UFO 50, an incredible collection of new faux-retro games isn't just a throwback.

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Stephen Totilo
Sep 20, 2024
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UFO 50, my progress so far. Screenshot: Mossmouth, captured by Game File

There are reports online that the extraordinary new PC game UFO 50 is an excellent tribute to gaming’s past. They say it’s a portal to the pixelated paradise of 1980s gaming. It is also a reminder, per reliable insiders, that games released during the Reagan administration—or at least made to feel like they were released back then—had a learning curve shaped like a wall.

These are all all accurate descriptions.

This new compilation of 50 games, developed by an all-star team of modern developers who have masqueraded as the fictional 1980s game studio UFOSoft, is an exceptional fictional time capsule.

Many of its full-sized action, strategy, puzzle and adventure games are terrific (sorry, I didn’t care for the sports ones). And the games’ technological progression and design evolutions from the pretend-1982 games to the pretend-1989 ones are a marvel, since it’s all made up.

But there’s something else to be said for UFO 50.

It might be the most 2024 video game anyone can play this year.

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