Puzzle games are like comedy, where planning requires meticulous care and know-how, while also remembering to make it fun and not torturous. If you haven’t guessed from that sentence, comedy is brutal to come up with. So are good puzzle games.
Of course, some developers make it look very easy when they hide their complicated backbone of gameplay within a Baku-Baku-like chaotic wrapper that delivers a puzzle battler that goes beyond all expectations, while also causing a mild case of addiction. Welcome to Andrew Morrish’s Unidentified Falling Objects (UFO), a game that simply asks you to stack, shoot, and collect stars while avoiding dangers.
So, call David Grusch because he needs to investigate why this game is so good, and let’s get right into this coverup.
The gameplay is not easily identifiable…at first
UFO is a familiar game, especially if you grew up in the great puzzle decade that we will call the 90s. The 90s thrived on puzzlers, such as Columns, KLAX, and a bevy of other addictive beauties. Anyway, the idea behind UFO is simple — falling blocks stack, you can kick them or shoot them, but you stand to score more points by stacking the same color and then shooting them into stars. You collect the stars and keep going with this wash-rinse-repeat for as long as you can to achieve the highest number of points. The baseline gameplay here is simple to pick up on, and, by itself, would have been rather boring. Thankfully, it’s not by itself.
Another layer of adventure gets added into this block-eliminating mix, where you must avoid spikes at the bottom of the gameplay area while shooting the blocks. Should you fall onto the spikes, your little astronaut dude will lose their first layer of astronaut clothing, akin to Arthur in Ghosts ’n Goblins…err…Ghouls…and Goblins…no, that’s not quite right. Ghosts ’n Goblins and Ghouls and Ghosts? Anyway, that Capcom game that we all hated on the Super Nintendo. Losing your astronaut suit and then losing your life is the losing reward given to the astronaut should he fall on the spikes two times. Or get smushed by blocks. Either way, death. To gain back the astronaut’s clothing, he can level up with stars which are represented by a meter to the left. Should the astronaut top it off, then his attire is restored. It’s like a beautiful juggling act that contains a second chance to keep going.
The addition of the spikes adds a solid layer of difficulty to the entire thought process of shooting blocks. You must avoid falling while shooting a massive number of blocks. Location, position, and gun-firing decision are three elements that come into play by simply adding danger at the lowest level of this puzzler. These alone create a solid obstacle that you must constantly take into consideration during gameplay. The spikes’ very existence makes UFO challenging and far more exciting gameplay.
Of course, the layers of fun don’t stop there.
The gameplay becomes more challenging when some of the blocks falling are evil weapons trying to kill said astronaut. If you can picture your worst day where you forgot your umbrella on a rainy day, locked yourself out of your car at the MARC station after it closed, and ate a bran muffin after drinking two cups of coffee…this is comparable to these falling blocks of weapons. At the same time, and unlike that scenario, these added block baddies create a supercharged challenge of fun to the gameplay. The baddies come in a variety of flavors, as some are giant falling metal platforms containing spikes on the bottom, while others might be rockets, dangerous space birds that spit at you, or some sad sack that looks like a slow version of Nintendo’s Chain Chomp. I just wanted to pet him during the entire experience, but he will murder you. Also, there are spiked blocks and cannons that fire at you constantly. There are enough evil blocks to keep you hopping, which seems to be the intention of the game. Moving and shaking, creating that high-sensation value in the process gets the blood flowing and the senses kicking in. It’s like a pleasant information overload where the navigation is easy but trying to keep up with everything falling around you is pleasantly insane. To fight off these blocks, the game simply asks you to kick a block against a metal baddie and shoot said block to destroy the baddie block. These are simple mechanics for a chaotic gameplay landscape. Another brilliant item to keep those strategic eyes fixed on.
Now, to tame some of the rapidly falling baddie blocks, the gameplay features some buffs and motivating unlockables that quietly ask you to keep getting better. The buffs are in-game, as some of the metal baddie blocks contain items such as an added one-off shield or maybe a cherry that doubles the number of stars that pop out of successfully destroyed blocks. There are twelve buff types to choose from in these falling metal blocks and the only requirement is to get a hittable block attached to one and destroy it to open the metal block. The buffs, while not overly impressive or powerful, are good enough to balance the insanity of the game’s overwhelming need to throw everything at the player at once. Again, this is pure chaos, and the buffs help to tame that a bit.
The game also features unlockables that could be new astronaut suits, guns, or capes. These items can be unlocked and used as you progress through the game. Each item comes with its own power/capability that either adds something positive to the player experience or makes it more challenging. For example, the red cape that you start within the game allows the astronaut to float temporarily. That is probably the most valuable possession in terms of getting used to the chaotic gameplay. Floating across spikes and avoiding enemy drops are easily achieved through this item. It’s a nice addition to the gameplay and shows how well thought through the game was in its design phase. Staying with capes, you can also unlock wings that make you dash across the screen, which is wonderful for avoiding massive amounts of falling blocks, but the wings will not allow you to float. With every unlockable item, you get a positive to the gameplay and a negative, which adds some layer of weird strategy to such a simple game concept. The battle puzzler is deeper than it looks, folks.
Now, let’s talk about the infamous rub or caveat regarding those unlockables. The unlockables are difficult to achieve. I don’t mind things being out of my reach, but these are blatantly tough to get and it almost seems like they’re purposely done this way to extend the number of hours a player might spend on the gameplay. It’s weird because I would play this game simply for the scoring aspect regularly. Making unlockables easily accessible won’t deter me from coming back to the experience. It’s good enough as-is.
Anyway, the game provides you with objectives to achieve that equal diamonds or cubes. The harder the objective is, the more you gain, and the objectives can get downright difficult at times. For example, the first big diamond win I had was scoring 1000 points. The points aren’t easy to come by as stars are worth singles and massive blocks are worth massive points but create more danger and easier ways to perish. The highest score I have achieved so far was in the 2000s. That took me quite a few hours. The next objective up from 1000 points achieved is 4000. Then 12000. And the hits just keep on rolling. The pace and production of the game are lopsided when compared to how you can earn these diamonds and cubes. You need these winnings to unlock more levels and to unlock more goodies. While I get that maybe the game wants you to work for it, at times it all seems unachievable considering how much chaos comes with the gameplay. While I’m not ready to throw this puzzler into the Souls category of difficulty, it can become frustrating when you’ve done everything right and had a good pace but lost it all with one simple mistake which means no reward. It would have been better to have more objectives with lower thresholds than fewer ones with more. This is the only scratch on the beautiful surface of this game.
Overall, the gameplay in UFO is a beautiful chaos that becomes addictive the more you play it. Do I wish it had more achievable pieces and parts to make it a bit more motivating to spend hours and hours with? Absolutely, but the gameplay is good enough to overshadow that lone issue. The mere strategy the chaotic gameplay creates is breathtaking and makes a good hook for players to return to it.
Other odds and ends
If you need more out of this game, it stretches a bit further with what it brings. While I didn’t get a chance to play multiplayer because no one consistently was online on the Nintendo Switch, which people probably need to change after reading this review, the lack of MP was replaced with a challenge mode. The challenge mode is where your astronaut is given a simple task to achieve, such as restoring a spacesuit or scoring X number of points, and you gain goodies from achieving said tasks (and there are many). The challenge mode also has a good knack for its properly pieced-together difficulty increase. You get more challenging tasks to achieve as you finish one and start another. It’s a rewarding experience that adds another beautiful layer to the overall gameplay.
On that note, let’s wrap this sucker up.
Conclusion
Unidentified Falling Objects (UFO) from developer Andrew Morrish is an addictive battle puzzle experience that balances a chaotic falling block battleground with an upgradable astronaut that can handle the insanity. While it doesn’t work in all areas, it does enough to warrant multiple playthroughs.
