As much as I would like to keep this to a lean two titles per row, Velgress deftly shattered that endeavor. Just a few titles away from moving on to the second batch of 10, UFO 50 throws this upward-bounding banger at us, introducing one of the most fast-paced and modern platformers of the collection.
I was tempted to diversify my initial recs and go for something like Bug Hunter or Attactics, but that wouldn’t be true to myself. I appreciate the heck out of those games, but they didn’t grab me in the same way something like Ninpek or Mortol or, in the case of the latest rec, Velgress did. In fact, when all is said and done, this might just be one of my favorite games in the whole collection.
Once you get past the brief story setup, Velgress opens with a simple declaration: It’s time to climb! As the music kicks in with a spirited melody that has major “level one” energy, you immediately feel a sense of urgency kick in. Below you: A screen-spanning steel roller covered in deadly spikes. Above you: Sweet escape? That’s pretty much all you need to know, and even though Velgress is in no way an auto-scroller, its rising threat lends it a familiar gravity.
As the space pirate Alpha, you have incredibly tight control over your jumps, double-jumps and cardinal direction shooting. With the power of sheer determination, you can deftly bounce on bats, avoid crumbling footholds and eventually make it to the top, only to do it all over again in a slightly different way for a few more stages. This is a short game, but it’s long on mastery.
One of the keys to making it through Velgress is actually taking your time, which turns the theming on its head in practice. There’s a nice balance of risk and reward to collecting coins, which you can spend between missions in the randomized shop for a few much-needed upgrades. Some are more useful than others, and your personal style will dictate whether you value lessening your knockback recovery time or slightly slowing down the rate at which platforms crumble under your fleeting foothold. Eventually, you’ll even get a chance to unlock a triple-jump. Never enough jumps when you’re escaping Velgress!
In addition to the usual level-themed enemy fodder, you have one chance per stage to take out an eagle that can absorb multiple shots. Do so and you’ll get one color-coded key from each. Get all three of these keys and you’ll unlock the fourth and final stage, which culminates in a nerve-wracking boss battle that finds you on the precipice of death the entire time. It’s a thrill ‘em up ending to a game already packed to the gills with close calls. Should you succeed, you’ll find that even the game itself is stupefied at your unlikely victory.
Velgress shoves so much action into such a modest little platformer that it feels like more than the sum of its parts. It’s one of the first games that really breaks kayfabe as far as the fictional ‘80s world of UFO 50 is concerned. It’s hard to imagine an arcade or console game playing this lightning fast and tight in 1984, but the folks at LX Systems were just that far ahead of the curve.
Keep an eye on the hub page for more recs!
subhumanzoids 