The dust has settled, /v/. Lets admit it: The shmups in this collection fucking SUCK and are easily the worst part of it.

I've only played a couple STGs (DoDonPachi, ZeroRanger, Eschatos, the Frantic and Reactance series-es back when Flash was a thing, a couple in arcades like Raiden 2 and R-Type, Einhänder, Drainus), but I generally tend to enjoy what I've played of the genre even if they're pretty tough games.
Star Waspir is... not enjoyable. One quarter of it of it feels like the game gets too ridiculous right out of the gate with its enemies and the sheer speed at which their bullets move, which makes it difficult to adapt to the game when it's immediately throwing snipers at you. Another quarter is the visual design, because Star Waspir's visuals manage to make me feel like I'm getting eye strain while playing and I'm not sure I can articulate why entirely.
The other half is the power-up system. I've kind of come to expect gimmicky chaining systems for score multipliers as just part of the genre (my personal favorite multiplier gimmick is graze mechanics like in Frantic), but when you're doing chaining gimmicks for power-ups, then things have been taken too far. The power-ups aren't even "permanent until you get tagged" either, they're either time-limited or breakable, which just makes the whole system feel bad to engage with since what you get for the effort doesn't feel as impactful as it really should if they're meant to only last a few seconds. Even 1943, which had time-limited power-ups, has them deliver a significant impact and gives you some actual time to use them.
It's a shame, since I like the other STG I've played so far in the pack (Caramel Caramel).

It seem to me to that the devs felt obliged to put games in the shmup genre because they were quite common in the 1980s, but without really knowing how to do it.
Xevious from 1982 is more advanced n terms of game design than all the UFO50 shmups.
I also think that shmups are too “pure” a genre, and the UFO50 games don't try to hide the fact that they're indie games (and not “retro” games), and because indies apparently can't make games without adding gimmicks, UFO50 shmups have become too gimmicky and silly.
And finally, Star Waspir is probably the worst game of this kind I've ever played, at least considering everything from 1982 onwards.

/v/ Anonymous Sun 24 Aug 2025 18:13:13 No.718971241 ViewReport
It seem to me to that the devs felt obliged to put games in the shmup genre because they were quite common in the 1980s, but without really knowing how to do it.
Xevious from 1982 is more advanced n terms of game design than all the UFO50 shmups.
I also think that shmups are too “pure” a genre, and the UFO50 games don't try to hide the fact that they're indie games (and not “retro” games), and because indies apparently can't make games without adding gimmicks, UFO50 shmups have become too gimmicky and silly.
And finally, Star Waspir is probably the worst game of this kind I've ever played, at least considering everything from 1982 onwards.

The game seems insanely overrated and overhyped to me. The reviews are pure hyperbole. They would have you believe that this is the equivalent of a long-lost 8bit console library of all-time greats with games that would stand on their own as individual releases.
Let's be real though. Most 8-bit games are bad and not worth playing today. The ones that are still playable are the best of the best: Mario 3, river city ransom, Super Dodge Ball, Excitabike, Blaster Master, Etc. These games are nowhere near that quality. Most of them are mid at the absolute best.
For example, there is a shmup called Star Waspir. I have over 50 shmups in my steam library, and there is not a single one of them that I wouldn't prefer playing instead of Star Waspir. Nor does it compare favorably to NES games. This isn't Gradius or Life Force. Even Star Soldier is a lot better. If I bought Star Waspir for 40 cents (its pro-rated cost), I would refund it.
I went through about a quarter of the games within the refund window and Avianos was the only one of those that was any good (and it was way lacking in content). I doubt there are much more than 5 good games total in the whole set, and you can easily grab 5 (or more) games on steam for less than 20 bucks total that will be much better than those and not have to wade through 45 games of crap to find the good ones. This probably would have been better as a 16-bit collection where the bar to make a good game isn't as high.

I still dont know if the guy who made the UFO 50 porn was from the threads back then, but he did good work