TL;DR Review: A love letter to 1950s B-movies written with modern bullets and wobbly spacecraft. Classic, frantic shoot-‘em-up gameplay wrapped in a glorious black-and-white aesthetic. It’s like watching Plan 9 from Outer Space while mainlining pure caffeine.
Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post. Let’s be honest, the “shmup” (shoot ’em up, for the uninitiated) genre is usually as predictable as a hangover on New Year’s Day. You’ve got your colorful spaceship, your vaguely techno soundtrack, and enough neon lasers to give an epilepsy warning to a houseplant.
So, when I booted up Squadron 51 vs. the Flying Saucers, I expected more of the same. Instead, I felt like I had accidentally stepped into a time machine set to 1956 and sat down in a drive-in theater that forgot to turn off the arcade machine out front .
And honestly? It was a blast.
The Good: Wobbly Saucers and Stiff Acting
As someone who genuinely adores the 1950s B-movie era—with its wobbly space crafts held up by fishing wire and alien imagery that looks suspiciously like painted showerheads—this game hit me right in the nostalgia gland. The developers didn’t just pay homage to the era; they Xeroxed the entire aesthetic, smudges and all.
One of the most fascinating choices was the live-action Full Motion Video (FMV) cutscenes. In an age where games pride themselves on photorealism, watching real actors ham it up in crisp black-and-white feels like an act of rebellion. It adds a “special flavor” to the story that CGI just can’t replicate. It’s like finding a reel-to-reel tape in your grandpa’s attic.
However, I must be that guy in the comments section for a second. As much as I loved the visuals, I couldn’t help but notice the audio is… off. Not bad, just off. The performances are energetic, sure, but they don’t quite nail that specific, rapid-fire “transatlantic” accent you hear in old newsreels or the overly dramatic narration of The War of the Worlds. You know the one—it sounds like everyone just swallowed a thesaurus and a microphone. It’s a minor gripe, but if you’re going to dress up in a 50s tuxedo, you have to use the right cologne.
The Gameplay: Old Dog, Very Fast Tricks
Here is where I have to put my controller where my mouth is. Underneath the vintage skin, Squadron 51 is a pure, unapologetic shmup. We are talking classic gameplay: you’re at the bottom of the screen, the screen fills with garbage, you shoot the garbage .
But calling it “classic” undersells how action-packed it feels. It doesn’t try to reinvent the joystick. Instead, it takes that classic framework and cranks the intensity up to 11. The screen is a chaotic mess of enemy fighters, massive bosses, and environmental hazards. If you’re a veteran of the genre, you’ll feel right at home weaving through bullet patterns. If you’re a rookie, the dynamic difficulty settings mean you won’t just be a smoldering crater in the first five minutes .
The Verdict
So, if having an unexpected visit from your in-laws is unpleasant, imagine having an uninvited extraterrestrial race show up, promise you a bright future, and then immediately put you to work in their cosmic corporate machine. That’s the plot. It’s ridiculous, it’s oppressive, and it’s the perfect excuse to shoot a lot of flying saucers .
Should you buy it?
If you want a game that takes itself too seriously, no. If you want a game that respectfully and lovingly takes the piss out of an entire decade of cinema while delivering rock-solid shooter mechanics, absolutely yes.
Final Score: 4 out of 5 Wobbly Saucers.