This just in! UFO’s have been spotted and it’s up to you to defend against the totalitarian overlords before they enslave the human race! Squad 51 vs the Flying Saucers steps right out of a campy 1950’s sci-fi and puts you in the cockpit of an ace pilot looking to fight back against the dastardly Director Zarog.
Aliens have established themselves as humanities overlords via the evil Vega Corporation. Through this company Director Zarog has indentured humans as unpaid slaves to serve his alien race. There is one group of pilots brave enough to stand up and fight his flying saucers and machines of war. You’ll play Lieutenant Kaya and pilot a variety of aircraft on a series of 11 missions to clock old Zarog in the kisser. Developed by Loomiarts game studio in cooperation with Fehorama Films, it’s clear that Loomiarts handled the game design while Fehorama handled the full-motion video cutscenes. Loomiarts is looking to make a name for themselves with this very stylistic shoot-em-up as its first commercial game.
The first thing you’ll notice is the distinct art style of a 1050’s drive-in sci-fi movie. With full-motion video cutscenes and a historic animation style, it’s clear where the inspiration for this game came from with movies like Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still. The cutscenes are dubbed in English, presumably from Portuguese, but it doesn’t detract from the black-and-white old-timey feel and over-the-top acting.
After the supercut of spinning newspaper headlines, you’ll progress through each mission as the game doles out plot points. In between each death or mission, you can unlock new perks for your plane and gradually get stronger. The game is difficult, and I found it reminiscent of Cuphead given the time period and death count I was racking up. Luckily, the game features assistances that allowed me to tune the difficulty to a more enjoyable feel.
While the game is very simple, it never got stale and seldom felt unfair. Most new levels introduce a new enemy that causes you to change up your tactics. For instance, the early levels are more about shooting spacecraft out of the air while towards the middle, giant flying saucers are easier to dodge than destroy. It kept the game fresh, and I never quite knew what to expect. Furthermore, the boss battles were fun, I particularly enjoyed how the game’s assets looked like 2d snapshots of 1950’s film props. It was fun to see an “alien” boss made up of a dryer hose and old binoculars.
True to the time, your ship’s animations have a floaty feel when you change direction, almost like your aircraft is suspended on strings. It’s a really nice effect and stays true to the trappings of the genre. I would have preferred tighter controls in the later levels, as you’re dodging quite a bit more, but I think they made the right choice to choose style over control fidelity and overall, the game strikes a nice balance.
Your aircraft can be equipped with your primary machine gun with the addition of two additional weapon slots on cooldowns. These can be launching a bombing barrage or spraying a flame thrower out of the plane’s exhaust. This added a little bit of depth to an otherwise basic machine gun. I would have liked it if there was a bit more weapon variety or if I could have been incentivized to use different weapons on different enemies, but I just found the most effective tactic was to spray and pray. Furthermore, you’ll pilot 4 different aircraft the small and zippy jet was my favorite.
The special effects are all in line with the theme, after shooting an enemy aircraft they’ll explode in an old-time fireball. While the black and white theme was novel early on, it did wear on me after the first 4 hours, especially towards the end levels. Eventually, there are so many explosions and enemies on the screen that it can be hard to keep track of where your plane is. I am sure this in part is due to reviewing the game on a Switch in handheld mode. While it’s a small gripe, I wonder if some kind of lighting difference on your own plane would benefit the player as the screen gets more chaotic.
Overall, I really liked my time with Squad 51 vs the Flying Saucers. After completing the story there’s a resistance mode that loops from the last level back to the first with added difficulty. With a $19.99 price tag, it’s nice to see more than just the story mode, but I doubt many people will want to retread the levels again. I’d say if you love these arcade-style shoot ‘em ups and are a sucker for old Sci-Fi movies, this is a game for you. As for myself, I rolled credits and am happy to hang up my wings for now.
