October 2, 2010
Oh My God, Is That A UFO?
Sometimes, there is a game where, upon hearing the premise, you much purchase it.
UFO on Tape is one such game.
Seriously, just watch this teaser trailer and tell me this game isn’t amazing. I dare you.
The concept is so genius, I can’t believe it hadn’t been thought of before. We use our phones and such as cameras all the time, so a game where you are treating your iDevice as a camera just works, perfectly, without you thinking about it. You instantly understand what you’re doing when you pick up the game and play, and it’s immersive, as much as that word is overused. You’re actually doing the action you would be doing. The woman giving you advice is perfectly voiced: it seems just like the kind of voice you’d find on one of those tapes. Light poles, buildings, and the edges of the window you’re shooting through all get in the way. It looks fairly real, to the point where, when I show this game to people, at first they don’t understand I’m playing a game. They think I’m just watching a video.
All that is cool, but the bonus is that the game is actually very fun. It’s a simple, high score arcade sort of experience, but it’s very hectic. When the UFO drifts out of the frame and your companion berates you and tells you to refocus, it does create “oh shit” moments as you frantically try to move the viewfinder about and find it again. It also makes great use of Apple’s new Game Center: it connects with your Game Center account to track your high scores and compare them to your friends. Frankly, an arcade high score experience isn’t complete without this sort of thing. If I had more people into these kind of weird games, I could totally get into competing for the most footage. It’s pretty damn fun.
Seriously, the moment I heard people talking about this on Twitter, I bought it for a buck. In one play, I felt completely justified. I’ve been talking this game up and showing it off ever since. If you have an iPhone or whatnot, really do consider picking it up. This is exactly the kind of indie game worth supporting: incredibly creative, with one idea polished to complete perfection. I love it.