Part Time UFO

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

.

Review:

Part Time UFO is a physics-based Arcade-style game with some light Puzzle elements originally released on mobile devices in 2018 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2020 with new features included, such as additional content and an additional 2-player co-op mode. This game’s release on mobile devices is somewhat unusual, as this is a game developed by HAL Laboratory, the company best known for the Kirby game series, and whose games tend to be exclusive to Nintendo platforms.

Given who this game is coming from, it will likely come as no surprise that Part-Time UFO has an absolutely adorable presentation full of charm and character, with pixel art visuals that work well for the game, and a soundtrack that combines chiptune audio with cutesy high-pitched voices, with the game’s songs repeating the same theme in various styles – for some examples, here’s Worksite and Restaurant. Again, this works well for the game, and I found it to be extremely endearing.

The gameplay here is both simple and yet surprisingly deep and enjoyable. Players control a cute, cartoony, tiny flying saucer with a mechanical crane reminiscent of the one used in those coin-operated games where you try to use it to lift stuffed animals into a receptacle. Here, players use this crane to perform a variety of odd jobs, from fishing, to stacking foods on a plate, to assembling a robot, with each level devoted to one of these jobs.

There’s a healthy amount of variety here, and the Nintendo Switch version of the game expands on the mobile version by adding more jobs, unlockable higher-difficulty versions of each job, a new unlockable endless mode where players try to stack a tower as high as possible without it toppling over, a new unlockable “Treasure Island” mode that challenges players to search through multiple levels for treasure before time runs out. And this is on top of the goals players must complete within each level to progress, and the cosmetic items they can spend their in-game earnings on. Even if the game still feels a bit on the short side, there’s still plenty of content here, and, for $9 the price seems extremely reasonable for what you get.

The gameplay is excellent too. Players can opt to press A to activate the crane and again to release it, and beyond that they can only move their flying saucer around. Yet with these simple controls, I still felt like the variety of level goals made for plenty of variety, and there’s a lot of nuance in learning to move your craft so that the inertia causes the object your carrying to move how you want it to. In addition, the co-op gameplay here is excellent – while a second player can theoretically make things easier, in practice bringing in a second person requires quite a lot of coordination and communication, making this an outstanding example of co-op done right.

There are some minor complaints I could make here. Your flying saucer feels a bit slow, and I wish you were given at least a limited “boost” to make trips from one side of the level to the other less tedious. Also, I would have liked even more endless modes to extend the length of the game even farther.

However, while there’s certainly room for Part Time UFO to expand if it were ever to see a sequel, what’s here is delightful, with some great physics-based arcade-style gameplay, excellent co-op, and a ton of charm. This game may not be especially long, but it’s an excellent experience at a good price, and I feel like it would be a welcome addition to just about any Nintendo Switch library.

tl;dr – Part Time UFO is a physics-based Arcade-style game that has players grabbing things with a crane connected to a tiny flying saucer. The gameplay here is simple but surprisingly nuanced, there’s a lot of variety and some surprising depth, and while it’s not a very long experience, its low price still makes it well worth adding to your game library.

Grade: B+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are MB, Andy Miller, Johannes, u/RamboFox, Exlene, Eli Goodman, Ilya Zverev, Stov, Connor Armstrong, and K.H. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}