UFO 50 is a Masterpiece (Review)

[@jfmedits1577]

Im glad youtube has been recommending me smaller creators lately it's refreshing.

[@itswavelengths]

me too!!

[@john005_]

You are lucky. It is difficult to get yt to suggest them.

[@ChrisPriceforhumanrights]

Welcome! I'd say that he's not a small creator. More like it feels exclusive! Ha ha ha.

[@captaindodge]

Wild that brendon is pulling in audience to yt that have never heard of his podcast. So happy. He deserves it if he wants it!

[@enelhorno2024]

I loved this game, got hooked on Barbuta and Ninpek, pretty awesome. Ufo 50 is so detailed they even created attract modes for the games and the main menu.

[@Fachewachewa]

I deliberately went on the YT home to see what kind of UFO 50 video it would recommend, and I'm not regretting it. Great review!

[@dudegal]

I disagree that you should play these games in any set order. The beauty of having them all unlocked from the start is that you can play whatever looks interesting and/or fun. The conection between games will still be there and be just as interesting no matter if you play them from earliest to latest, from latest to earliest, or with no regard for chronology whatsoever.

[@CutMan567]

I love that there is that option, but I 100% am the type of nerd who is madly in love with the idea of playing a fictional companies games in release order and seeing for myself how they evolve and iterate. I just love that process so much and glad the game takes that into account as well

[@emperorznb]

This was a fantastic look at what makes this game special! I didn't put the connection between ITA's yearly console episodes and UFO 50s entire premise together until you brought it up but it makes so much sense why this would resonate for you on that particular level. Personally I'm a Barbuta sicko - started it thinking it absolutely was not for me until I realised I'd been playing it for 90 minutes and was obsessed with the secret things I was discovering about it. If nothing else this game excellently distils that feeling of being a kid in the 80s, slowly figuring out what a game is purely through playing it without the internet or anything else to help you - as someone who didn't grow up in that time period it feels pretty special to be able to experience that.

[@itswavelengths]

yes!! i’ve been enjoying these early days of small discord conversations with people trying to figure out the ins and outs and i’ve been EQUALLY enjoying not looking anything up or asking for help at all. it’s a really cool feeling to be totally at the mercy of the setup.

[@nickfarace9339]

I spent about an hour on it before moving on (I think I was pretty far along at that point too). I had to stop myself many times from thinking "lemme just go look this up" and I realized how important it was to not do so. Just kind of figure it out. So many OHHHHH moments about what I was finding.

[@AstonWildsteel]

Not only is it excellent at making you feel like being a kid in the 80s (again), Barbuta also is a masterful example of "less is more". Like many early NES games, it seems to come from a moment in time where developers have received more powerful hardware with lots of possibilities but have yet to fully realize that you can do more than just highscore chasers and single-screen games on it. The absence of music combined with having a black background throughout the game plus the simple gameplay feels very "post-Atari", but is nonetheless powerful at drawing players in, achieving a zen state or entering flow state with ease (without getting jolted out of it by Atari-typical colorful explosions). So yeah, I'm also a Barbuta sicko who underestimated it until I gave it a second chance and realized how well-crafted the experience actually is.

[@JH-pe3ro]

I have an experience with UFO 50 that is rare in that I'm personally acquainted with a few of the developers, and have observed the game being developed off and on for years. Now that it's released, I'm like...well, do I play these 50 games? While I've played a few, I haven't sunk hours and hours into it. And I'm actually leaning towards "nah". The reason why is because it evokes a kind of uncanny valley to me. It's painstakingly well-crafted and nostalgic, but when I look at the individual games, I see a collection of wink-nudges. I have some awareness of who *actually* worked on what, and see straight through the metanarrative text to " did their thing here helping to finish Derek's white whale. Ok, they took the formula in this direction. Cool, next one." So it's easier for me to watch other people's playthroughs than to play it myself. It'd be easier for me to accept it if I were younger or a little more distant from its creation, because that would give me reason to take it at face value. I think it's the sort of thing that, the less you know about it, the more intriguing it becomes, and the more you know, the more you're like "I sure hope other people enjoy it!"

[@Bash_McLane]

What a unique perspective, good share 👍

[@bumbo_igor]

you’re one of the only youtubers who’s uploads I actually look forward to

[@itswavelengths]

this is really kind, thank you!

[@andrewfbrown]

Velgress has me so bad rn

[@iguanasandwich28]

Velgress is so good but god do I suck at it lmao

[@sprucefruit]

Love the lighting and "set" in this one! Chill daytime vibes ☀️🛋️

[@adrianharrell-dz9hb]

Campanella 1 is so fun i feel like its super underrated. cant beat the final boss but the music and gameplay kicks butt

[@fukquro]

im truly addicted to campanella 2

[@adrianharrell-dz9hb]

@@fukquro i havent played 2 yet im so hyped tho

[@theDwightness]

Looove the new camera angle & background :)

[@cruuump]

bro got the ride on time and the nurture. fine, i'll agree with all your opinions.

[@necrosadotor]

now i feel like a true gamer mastermind, because i immediately went left in barbuta lol. didn't play for long though, will commit to it some time soon. cool vid

[@Webhead123]

You're right. UFO 50 is really an amazing piece of artistry. Sure, many of the games themselves are fun and interesting, but there is an attention to detail here that is incredible. Absolutely one of the best games of the year because of just how ambitious and deep it is as a whole.

[@cucumver8159]

Hell yeah brendon. The script and delivery here is just exquisite. Really hits that sweetspot between a friend shooting the shit about his favorite game and a well crafted essay thats both easy to read, and makes art (and life!) easy to get excited about. bra freakin vo!

[@cucumver8159]

Love the note about how revisiting this period of experimentation in game design gives permission to take bigger swings in control schemes, level structure, and character design. It both reflects so much about that time period, and calls into question the design aspects we just take for granted, or worse: unchangeable, we have in the present.

[@itswavelengths]

thank you for the kind words, and totally agree! it’s why i love when weird hardware kind of forces designers to break conventions, like the touchpad on the playstation or even something like the playdate’s crank

[@Hemogoblin117]

Haven’t got to watch the whole video yet, but shout out to the nurture album in the background. One of my favorite albums

[@itswavelengths]

it’s an all-timer

[@slosada3]

I was really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on UFO 50 on the next ITA. Glad I don’t have to wait!

[@itswavelengths]

we’re recording again tomorrow night so expect yet another big sappy plea for this game on wednesday 🫡🫡🫡

[@slosada3]

Night time recording? 👀

[@Katie-hj5eb]

Its a great game to play in groups, everyone talks about what they found and what games are like. All the games are extremely quality. Barbuta is actually one of my favorites so far, mapped the whole thing out and wanted to try and find everything.

[@percish]

reminds me a little bit of Immortality 😮

[@zacxlee8428]

Watching this channel evolve into new directions is hella exciting!

[@semidreamless]

ok. so. here's the thing: I don't think I would actually like playing ufo 50. but I can't overstate how much I love what ufo 50 *is* and can absolutely see myself spending many hours watching other people play and talk about ufo 50. (also, this popped up randomly on youtube and you started talking and I was like wait a second I know that voice, I was just listening to ITA on my commute home)

[@freddraws]

Ooo hello Brendan loving your stuff recently. I also loved UFO 50! 🎉

[@itswavelengths]

thank you so much!! and do you have a favorite from the collection yet??

[@freddraws]

​@@itswavelengthsI really like the metroid one where you can flip onto the ceiling. Tbh I'm also not very good at them! They have the authentic 80s hardness 😅

[@itswavelengths]

oh yeah that’s one of the ones i have marked off to finish eventually, i love the connection between that and warptank

[@davey0110]

Very well done review. Best castlevania is circle of the moon because I played it as a kid.

[@iglian5918]

Enjoyed a few of your vids due to the algorithm putting em in my feed but had to subscribe once I noticed the Ride on Time vinyl in the background, now I know you’re a real arbiter of taste

[@MapleMilk]

This game is gonna go triple platinum when steam sales come about because it's already a steal at 25 bucks and then even 5% off it's gonna be irresistible I say this because I got Spelunky for like 3 bucks or something and that game is probably the single piece I instantly point to as an example of "brilliant game design" You can play Spelunky for 1000 hours and only feel the beautiful frustration planned by the game developers in the first place UFO 50 will be that but absolutely more because from what I'm seeing at least 5 of these games have that same tier of brilliant design that Spelunky had Can't wait to play it

[@JayKang11]

OK, will install emulator for my son...

[@xenos_n.]

The flashing Shirukens let you shoot faster/more (by holding down the shoot button, not tapping it continuously).

[@its_just_matt]

Well said. I've now dropped everything I'm doing and am saying "this thing rocks!"

[@jojodelacroix]

Thorson Peter arguably should've been fired. Dude was a masochist.

[@andersc6593]

First time seeing your channel. Loving UFO50 so much. Thanks for making this! You remind me of an unscripted, more human Tim Rogers.

[@iz_abelle]

incredible video, subscribed! cannot believe this channel is so small right now, but keep it up and that will change!

[@ChincerDante]

ufo 50 is like a golden shotgun, you are going to get hit by at least one of those golden pebbles, there is no way you can hate half the games in there, let alone every game

[@danyukhin]

I've been hype for this game since its announcement and I'm so happy

[@SafetyServbot]

My literal thought while watching this was, "Oh he's a Porter Robinson fan and he has a video game podcast? I bet he has some dogshit opinions on Symphony of the Night." But the rest of the video was so good I was almost able to ignore the reveal. I'm ribbing here though lol keep up the good work this video was very refreshing to see after spending a few days with UFO 50 and absolutely adoring it. I like how personal your take on it felt. ❤️ This is definitely a game that the people who connect with it will never forget

[@gogogo8448]

The ninpeck shuriken icons increase the amount of shurikens you can have on screen at once.

[@Khronos06]

Hey friend! The shruikens add more stars you can shoot so more stars on the screen, goes from 1 to 2 to 3. Can level them twice. Such a great game. Also amazing video brother!

[@alvin_row]

You can hold the attack button in Ninpek, and ninja stars allow you to have more than 1 ninja star on screen at once.

[@enklaev1933]

I'll wait for it to get on switch

[@Ceruledge03]

I need this game on switch!! It looks so cool

[@1gnore_me.]

man, it's actually crazy how many people I've met born in the 90s, whose first experience playing NES games, was on an emulator their dad installed on their computers. either that or a modded xbox. maybe this is all a simulation after all.

[@NormalTheBand]

One thing that took me out of the Immersion was I grew up playing game 47. Its a real game that appeared on Newgrounds 20 years ago. You can go and play it now. Just felt really off encountering something I was familiar with

[@TaintSmack]

NJ sicko shout out, My funcoland was on rt 1&9

[@jared_biz]

stellar review! i'm still unsure if uto 50 is for me personally but it looks like one hell of a collection. it's also very funny that it actually is a gamification of into the aether's season premiers! it's like they made this game just for you.

[@stublag]

I’m just here to say that I agree Aria of Sorrow is better than Symphony of the Night. There are dozens of us!

[@HoshJawkins]

Great setup Brendon, really digging the new sunset chat vibes!

[@mattoquinn3884]

I was just looking for UFO 50 stuff - I wasn't expecting this video to be so well made lol Subscribed!

[@SuperLlama42]

Really seems to me like the old Action 52 Owns project, but actually finished and more consistent design and graphic-wise

[@SodaPopBot]

Ayo, Ride on Time vinyl?

[@heikkint]

Love those Barbuta videos dropping every day where people beat it faster and faster. This game collection will yield interesting stuff to look into for a long time.

[@itswavelengths]

i have been watching the speedrun community with GREAT interest

[@Ensign_games]

this game is to indie games as Spore was to simulation games Sure Spore did not change simulation games that much but it was over-ambitious, it had a lot of detail, and it is well loved

[@kvrt_black]

This video is SO good, it's exactly the kind of video I was looking for on UFO 50. It really captures the lore and pieces it together in a cohesive manner that was like a nudge in the right direction for me to get my UFO50 journey started. Also, F*** Barbuta lol

[@kevinchester0533]

Great video, really enjoying UFO 50. Night Garden is my standout at the moment. Subscribed.

[@SwissyChief1265]

Hey! Awesome video! So far having fun with this game, and will definetly keep at it... 50 games is a lot of content to get through...

[@daythanvonschwerin7783]

Been playing ufo50 and it’s just clicked in all the right ways for me too :) I keep on coming back to Barbuta with new ideas about its items and get a lil further each time. Currently addicted to Mini and Max though, it’s such a cute way to have an open-world!! P.S. very nice homages to action button with the delivery and music, his next generation is already upon us

[@dtomvan]

Barbuta makes me ragequit a whole lot. Have been trying to get through it for about an hour now but my faint little heart cannot do it without losing patience.

[@HansAlRachid]

Man I wish I liked this collection. I gave it an honest try, but I found every game I played frustrating and annoying in that special way only the NES was capable of. Games on that system have an abruptness to them that can make failure uniquely painful and this collection emulates that quite well. I grew up on that console, but I'll always prefer the systems that followed it. I'm sure the collection is good, the various devs are all highly talented after all, but I just can't seem to make it click for me. Oh also, great to see more people covering it, too - around release there were way too few videos on it. I hope the game ends up being a huge success for all involved.

[@Duad]

I've honestly been waiting all week for you to talk about this on ITA

[@w7w7w7w7w7]

Great video!

[@CANDYBREAKER3000]

I was surprised to be struck by Night Manor so hard that I ended up spending 2 hours to finish it fully when I was planning on finishing trying all 50 games. Most of the ones that interested me, I thought "ok it will be easy to come back to this." Not Night Manor.

[@Peeingstickymilk]

Funcoland was the best I used to go all the time to buy games for my inherited sega genesis too!

[@travesssmalley]

Omg, i’m so glad you mentioned Party House!!! I’ve been loving it!!

[@bennett_quack]

Great video and overview! UFO 50 is a great addition for any travel I have to do on my steam deck in addition to all my other retro games.

[@Khronos06]

Also I noticed that they reuse assets and sounds from ealier games, soooo cool

[@zebbie09]

Ahhhh Bach Brandenberg! Thanx for the review. Definitely checking this out.

[@danyukhin]

great video sib, thank you for what you do

[@PointEndClick]

This video is awesome.

[@ShinyCutiefly]

Watching northernlion beat mooncat on stream sold me on this game being the next thing i buy lol

[@windchimes8764]

chill vid

[@spikevincent1990]

Brendon is the hottest guy in gaming 🥵

[@featheredicarus]

Im shocked by how many of these games i really am loving. Pilot Quest, and Grimstone have been standouts, but my favorites section is also over 25 titles lmao

[@Khronos06]

Also I just noticed on the tree on the title screen is says slow-down....terminal code maybe?

[@rainbow_mess]

my friend on discord told me about your UFO 50 review since I was just talking about it and I also got extremely addicted to party house (I just streamed it for two hours beating all the scenarios lol). I really wish it was on phone by itself somehow. such a fantastic game ...

[@PeepoActual]

Great video my man, keep it up

[@jawyers]

Thorson Petter was right!!!

[@kiiro772]

cool review, and interesting podcast!

[@binnieb173]

Wasn't the first twin stick fps Alien 3?

[@JimEngland]

UFO 50 feels like a nostalgia bomb but in such a weird way because these games didn’t exist in the 80s It like breaks your brain

[@duxzu]

Release the LX Mini, you cowards 😂

[@tomasbreunig4950]

In ninpek if you hold the attak button after grtting a ninja star ypu trow two ninja stars instead of one

[@shavingrabbid]

trying so hard to be tim rogerz

[@MattHorton]

This is so damn creative

[@itswavelengths]

tysm matt 💕

[@latinochico]

Too much of your face not enough ufo 50 gameplay

[@Nathrakus]

I disagree. I liked watching him

[@DavidWerking]

No. No it's not. All those games are crap. Most reasonable people look at what the games are before they buy it and a ton of these are very simple and sports related. Retro graphics does not make a good game alone. Even the really complicated ones like the RPG's have completion times of about half an hour. You're paying 22.50 for maybe a half a bucks worth of content. Shareware it.

[@BrettLevin4096]

What you meant to write was, “It’s not for me.”

[@thepixeler1869]

And in fact, I thought you were gonna be right. Even as someone who was watching the development of this game; who was somewhat excited for it, I was worried all these games were going to be super derivative and boring. It thought they would be. But then I actually tried it and I can say for sure you're wrong

[@alvin_row]

Either bait or a sad person who's unable to enjoy games at all. Maybe find a hobby you're actually able to enjoy.

[@unionize_me]

Why are you here?

[@DavidWerking]

@@BrettLevin4096 How did you ever leave Newgrounds?

[@jpmezart]

what's the game at 31:16? i must have missed it