Our Squad 51 vs. The Flying Saucers, a shoot ’em up inspired by the sci-fi movies of the 50’s, with all their beloved flaws.
We’ll never stop repeating it, but the world of video games could never be without indies, or at least those small projects (not important for budget and size) that have the courage to try alternative solutions or bring genres back to prominence back of the scene that are no longer in fashion.
Such is the case of Squad 51 vs. the Flying Saucers, a black and white scrolling shoot ’em up created by Loomiarts and inspired by ’50s sci-fi movies, also embellished with live-action sequences. Available now for PC and coming “soon” to Xbox, PlayStation and Switch.
But let’s not waste any more time and plunge into it Team 51 vs. the Flying Saucers.
Flying saucers
Team 51 vs. The Flying Saucers is partially FMV
Team 51 vs. the Flying Saucers is a true science fiction movie from the 1950s. You don’t have to think that it only takes the theme for its game stages and applies a black and white patina to make it “retro”. No, this scrolling shoot ’em up features a series of live-action movies from the start, telling the story between missions.
It is about one ten minutes of footage overall for a game that offers a few hours of gameplay but is more than enough to get you in the mood. The plot sees aliens arriving on Earth, not with a desire to immediately launch the attack, but to establish trade relations.
Don’t be fooled, however, in Squad 51 vs. the Flying Saucers Aliens are always evil and behind its gentle facade hides great cruelty. In the factories they will build, people will be treated like slaves and it will soon be clear that aliens want to rule our planet.
We will put our spoke in the wheel team 51. Over the course of 11 missions we will destroy positions and fleets of paramount importance to the aliens until we reach their leader and force them to flee.
A Squad 51 vs. the Flying Saucers
Also, expect a very simple storyline intentionally patched footage, which come from a time before special effects existed. The spaceships will be suspended by a thread, the buildings will be papier-mâché models, and the alien costumes will be less detailed than a carnival mask. Everything is perfectly matched to the sources of inspiration to achieve a quality end result.
Just a pity that a good part of the dialogues They are presented during the stages of the game: they are dubbed in Portuguese (original language) and in English, but even for those who understand the language of Albion it will not be easy to keep up with what is being said. The subtitles (at least in Italian) distract from the game and it’s not possible to read them unbroken, and the sound chaos of the battles makes it difficult to concentrate on the speeches just by listening. We therefore ignore the dialogues and lose a bit of the contextualization of the missions.
attack aircraft
Team 51 vs. The Flying Saucers are bullet hell
However, as mentioned, the plot is only a small part of Squad 51 vs. the Flying Saucers. With reference to playing style, you can expect all the basic components of the genre. In each level we’ll be in control of a flying vehicle and we’ll have to eliminate the aliens with their different discs and spacecraft in the midst of a hell of bullets.
After the first few minutes of the first level, the game quickly becomes one bullet hell and we have to dodge the opponents and destroy them at the same time. Each elimination gives us points, with bonuses in case a whole group is eliminated. These are not only used to show off to friends, but also to unlock upgrade slots. Even in case of defeat, every earned point adds up to an overall score and from level to level you will gain additional abilities like more life, better defense, attack, various secondary weapons like bombs, rockets, rear flamethrowers and more.
Crew 51 vs. the Flying Saucers offers different aircraft types
Team 51 vs. The Flying Saucers also try to vary the cards on the table regularly. Every few levels you go to a different kind of flight medium controlled by us, with different dimensions, maneuverability and attack power. In some cases, if you don’t get destroyed, you’ll gradually get a larger number of machine guns to attack in more directions.
The end result is a game fun and intense, although not particularly long and, above all, not perfectly balanced in terms of difficulty. The whole adventure lasts at least an hour and a half if you don’t die once, but we assure you that only the great experts of the genre will be able to do it. Team 51 vs. The Flying Saucers is aimed at a medium to high level of difficulty, with enemy shots and impacts destroying us instantly, even with various defensive power-ups activated. The real problem is that some levels have real difficulty spikes, while others can be completed without any particular problems.
The following background environments vary in Squad 51 vs. the Flying Saucers
There is an option to activate endless lives for those who want to enjoy the game without stress, but clearly contradicts the main idea a bit. It would have been better to include difficulties that would reduce the damage taken to provide more resistance to the less skilled.
Also suggests Squad 51 vs. the Flying Saucers two modes. The basis is simply the campaign, which is completely free to play, moving from one level to another and keeping the progress made. The resistance mode, on the other hand, lets us play with a maximum number of new attempts and makes us restart from the first level as soon as the last one is completed for a maximum of five loops of increasing difficulty, with the ultimate goal of making as many points as possible and compete worldwide a leaderboard. Finally, we point out that there is also the local two-player cooperative.
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Tested version Windows PC
Digital delivery
steam
Price
€16.79
Crew 51 vs. The Flying Saucers is a quality shoot ’em up that will satisfy lovers of the genre, especially those with a passion for old-fashioned sci-fi. It’s not a particularly long game unless you’re chasing the score, and there are some difficulty spikes that might block the less experienced, but in this case the infinite lives can come to the rescue.
PROFESSIONAL
- style for sale
- A good shoot ’em up, intense and varied
VERSUS
- difficulty peaks
- Part of the storyline is inaccessible mid-game