Within the game UFO 50 (PC, Switch), there are a ton of different games, each studiously different from each other, yet all tied together as a collection of games for a console that never existed.
Many of them are both harder and easier in ways than the 8-bit era games they mimic. One of the most unforgiving, but one I love dearly, is the second in a series of games featuring a little flying saucer shaped a bit like its mushroom namesake, called Campanella 2.
Stalking the Dark Halls
When I was young, I had a recurring dream of a moonlit interior space, many storeys tall, of open rooms full of antiques, no guard rails, and a long, deadly plummet down an atrium into the darkness far below.
Across the abyss, there lay a treasure chest, reminiscent of the steamer trunk my dad had inherited from his parents. It was deathly quiet, but menacing: fell things could have been lurking in the shadows. It was a nightmare place, but now symbolizes for me some of the terrible magic that comes from dreams.
It wasn’t until I played UFO 50’s Campanella 2 that I was reminded of the terror and wonder of that phantasmal place, aided perhaps by my having read a good chunk of Nihei Tsutomu’s BLAME! not long before.
Its levels are reminiscent of co-creator Derek Yu’s prior, solo work Spelunky, yielding a procedural combination of biomechanical tiles that marry dangers and treasures in ways that impishly invite conflict and risk.
Campanella 2 is tough; you have to manage fuel, currency, and an easily taxed health bar, while struggling against merciless gravity and a good collection of strange enemies and traps. Unlike Spelunky, the interactions aren’t as fantastically chaotic, but there are so many systems to learn that perhaps that’s for the best.
Reflections and Dreams
Its roguelike element of terrain generation mirrors the way dreams seem to work: mashing impressions from the waking world into an explorable motion picture. Its systems can be learned, but the world we get isn’t quite the same each time. Through these rules, we learn, often through trial and error, how to impose some order on each iteration. And Campanella 2 CAN be beaten.
Unlike my childhood nightmare, I didn’t need to gain enough bravery and outside experience to be able to move on; I could plunge straight into Campanella 2 and somehow exit the other side, the steady hand of the designer guiding me through the randomness.
Also, like dreams, relating the experience of randomised games to others can be difficult. They’ll likely never see quite what you did, so you’re left just evangelising the general sense of it and maybe asking them to at least try it out. Without playing, they won’t understand why you were swearing more than you did at Dark Souls with a game where you pilot a cute little flying saucer that gobbles up stars.
A dream come true?
A lot of my swearing came from when you’re actually disembarked; in a Blaster-Master style mechanism, you can bounce out of your craft and roam adjacent sections to enter rooms that have zoomed-in scrolling levels, treasure rooms, and the occasional murder hole.
While you can take a few hits in the ship, when on foot outside, one hit can kill you. You can take more hits indoors, though, and it’s necessary to jump out of your craft to get power-ups and secrets to advance to the next area.
It isn’t trivial to judge a jump or evade monsters, knowing your entire run is at risk. Though there’s a potential remedy you can find later, a mistimed leap over a gap in the overworld can send you hurtling pitifully into the abyss. No extra lives when you crater, you just have to start over.
But unlike a dream, you don’t have to wait for your brain to roll the dice properly again to revisit it. It’s down to what you can tolerate, building your skill set and learning the tricks of each area (and if you’re like me, swearing up a storm as you go).
Despite how dire the game can sometimes feel, the musical theme for the first few levels feels enthusiastic, a call to adventure: “The situation you’re in can be nightmarish, but we promise, this world will reward your tenacity.” Though Campanella 2 reminded me of that childhood nightmare, it’s a computer-dream that gives you the tools to break through the darkness and let in the light.
By a_hooded_figure
