How to play UFO 50 games

A basic overview of how to play every game in UFO 50. No spoilers, no secrets, just what you need to understand what's going on.

UFO 50 has a massive number of games from a fictional console from decades ago, and no manuals. That means an awful lot of players who find at least some of the games somewhere between "confusing" and "incomprehensible".

This guide is intended to provide the very basics for every game; how you control it, basics of the interface, general goals and overt mechanics, with the intent of giving anyone enough information to get started. There will be a specific focus on common questions/confusions I've seen come up. If you would prefer to discover absolutely everything on your own, stop reading now.

It won't go into hidden mechanics, secret techniques, specific strategies, or anything else, just enough to get going. If more in-depth guides are needed per-game, I encourage the community to create them, and the reader to find them. If you're after that kind of in-depth information, stop reading now.

There is a certain amount of "YMMV" on whether specific bits of information are general basic or subtle secrets. I've used my best judgement on this, however I do invite polite discussion in the comments if you think information included should be tweaked.

Where I discuss controls, I'll use the "d-pad" to talk about directional controls, and "A" & "B" to talk about the action buttons.

It's worth noting that many games have some kind of "demo" that plays if you leave them on the start screen for a while. This guide will assume the player has not watched these demos. It will also only cover the single-player moves, where the games have multiplayer.

I will also note that any games with a high-score table will always remember your scores, even if the game doesn't otherwise have any save system.

Currently, this guide is a work in progress; I'll be adding sections as quickly as I can with the time I have available.

0. UFO 50 / The Main Menu

UFO 50

When you've started UFO 50 and selected your game, you're presented with a list of the 50 available games, in a 10x5 grid. The currently highlighted game (by default, the one in the top-left corner) will jiggle slightly to show it's selected.

Pushing A with a game highlighted will start it.
Pushing B with a game highlighted will bring up a tabbed submenu with details about the game. Left and right will switch between the tabs, and pushing A with the submenu open will add or remove the game to your favourites.

By default, the games are listed in chronological order, with the (fictionally) earliest game (Barbuta) first; the current view is listed on the bar along the bottom of the screen. Highlighting that bar and moving left or right will let you change the view order. This includes the "Garden" view, which is worth special attention.

On this, and all other screens, you can hit your "Start" button to bring up a menu. This includes control details, the "Terminal", and general Settings.

1. Barbuta

Barbuta is an platform adventure game.

Mystery is at the heart of this; the aim of the game is to explore, finding out where you can go, what you can do, and what your eventual goal is.

Your d-pad lets you walk left and right, and climb up and down ladders. You can also push up to walk in certain doors. You can't crouch, dash, crawl, or otherwise move in any other special way.
The A button jumps; you have one jump height (it makes no difference if you tap or hold the button), and you can't adjust your jump in mid-air. There is a slight delay when you land from a jump or fall before you can move.
The B button attacks by thrusting your weapon in front of you. There are no directional attacks, combos, or charge attacks. You can attack while jumping.

To the left of the game screen are 3 useful indicators:

At the top, it tracks your cash. Cash can be spent in a few different ways throughout the game.
Below this is your item list. You start with your weapon, a knife. As you progress, you may find other items; with the exception of your weapon, these all have passive effects.
Below this is the game's "map". The red square shows your location, while the dot shows the location of something else that you may discover during your adventure.

To the right side of the screen is a set of 6 eggs. These are your lives. Any contact with something dangerous will kill you, and shortly after an egg will appear in a safe spot on screen. Tapping the controls will break you through the egg. If you die without any remaining eggs, you lose; Barbuta has no continues, nor a save system.

The main key to this game is being patient, paying attention to your surroundings, and learning where important things are and how to get to them. It's to your advantage to draw your own map, to keep track of where you can go and what you can find.

2. Bug Hunter

Bug Hunter is a turn-based tactical game with deck-builder elements.

Your goal is to stay alive, kill enemies (bugs), and tweak your available actions (modules) to be as effective as possible. You have a certain amount of time (days) to finish each job, and a target number of bugs to kill in that time.

The main game screen is split up as follows:

The top-left section lists the target number of enemies to kill to win the job, the amount of energy you currently have available, and the number of days taken.
Below this is a diagram, showing what the selected action will do. Some actions instead have text explaining what they do.
Along the bottom center are your 6 currently installed modules. Available modules will be displayed in colour, while used modules will be grayed out. The far right icon, the pink hourglass, is used to finish the current day.
The right side of the screen shows the modules that are available to buy. The squares next to them is the cost (in energy) to buy them.
The center of the screen is the main game view, showing the play area, your character, enemies, and energy cubes.

At the start of each day, every module is available, and can be used once. Most modules allow you to either move or attack, although some have other effects. Attack enemies to injure or kill them, and move onto energy cubes to pick them up. Other entities may also appear during the game, and you may also find other ways to interact with things - For example, you can generally push enemies by moving into them. You use modules by highlighting them, hitting the A button to select them, and then (depending on the action) highlighting the target location or direction and hitting A again. Hitting B will cancel using that module.

Highlighting a module and pushing down will move the cursor to the module list. Highlighting a module and hitting A will, if you have enough energy to spend, buy that module, replacing the originally selected one with the new one. Note that, if you are replacing a module you have used that day, the newly purchased one will be immediately available for use, allowing you take take an extra action.

Once you have taken all the actions you want and can take, highlight the hourglass and hit A to end the day. This will spawn in new energy cubes, refresh your actions, spawn in new enemies, and (if you had enemies left) can cause existing enemies to upgrade. Different types of enemy, at different evolutionary levels, have different special effects.

3. Ninpek

Ninpek is an auto-scrolling action platformer. Kill enemies, avoid attacks, grab items and avoid falling off the bottom of the screen, as you try to reach the end of the game.

D-pad moves you left or right.
The A button jumps. You can hold it to jump higher, and you can double-jump by pressing it again after your first jump. You can only jump twice in a row; landing on a platform resets this. You can control your jumps in this game, using the d-pad to change direction if desired.
The B button attacks. You can hold it down to attack as fast as possible, no need to tap.

You have a limited number of extra lives in this game, indicated by the number of head icons above your score to the top left. Any time you get hit, you lose a life, and reappear as a ghost. While in ghost form, you are temporarily invincible, can fly around in any direction, and have a wide ghost attack. After a short time, or if you press the A button, you'll turn into your living ninja form and continue on.

4. Paint Chase

Paint Chase is a single-screen area-control maze game.

Each level is a maze. As you drive around, you paint the ground behind you. The goal in each level is to paint a certain amount of the level your colour. Each level has a time limit (shown by the bar on the right side of the screen), and you need to be above the limit once it runs out.

Dotted around the level are blocks with arrows. These periodically spawn enemies vehicles that will drive around, painting the ground in their colour. However, those vehicles are generally both slower and weaker than yours; you can crash into them to destroy them. Some vehicles have special traits however; you will learn the details as you play.

Control in-game is purely by the d-pad. Your car will always drive forwards, and can't reverse or do a u-turn, but you can turn corners by pushing in the direction you want to turn. Pushing in the opposite direction of movement will turn on your brakes, slowing you down, while pushing in the direction of movement will speed you back up. If you drive into a wall, you will come to a complete halt until you change direction.

Mazes can have other elements in them to interact with. The most common are arrows (which give you a burst of speed if you drive over them in the direction they're facing), and white powerups blocks (which gives you some advantage when you change the road they're on to your colour).

Once the time on a level runs out, a tracker appears counting up what percentage of the level you managed to paint your colour. If you met the target, you gain points based on how much you exceeded the target by and progress to the next level. If you didn't meet the target, you lose one life, and retry the stage. If you lose all your lives, your game is over.

5. Magic Garden

Magic Garden is a snake-like score-attack action game.

The player area is a grid, populated with the player character and monsters of various types. The player moves around in cardinal directions using the d-pad; the character is always moving, and red monsters (Oppies) can be collected by walking into them, at which point they'll follow the player around in a trail. Blue monsters will kill the player character on contact. The player can hit the "A" button to jump over a tile, which can avoid some monsters. If you walk (or jump) into one of the walls surrounding the level, that also kills the player character.

At any given point, there is a trail of star tiles on the ground (sometimes in a line across the level, sometimes in a square or cross shape). If the player hits the "B" button, this releases all the following Oppies. Oppies that were on star tiles when released are "saved", while Oppies that were on other tiles turn into blue enemy Oppies.

Saving at least 6 Oppies at once will spawn a magic potion somewhere on the level. Collecting this potion will start a timer at the top of the screen; while that timer is counting down, blue Oppies are vulnerable and can be killed by walking into them. The more Oppies you save at once, the more "powerful" the resulting potion.

As the game progress, more blue and red oppies (and oppies of different types with different behaviour) spawn in. Likewise, the Star tiles occasionally flash and then disappear, with new star tiles immediately appearing elsewhere on the grid.

6. Mortol

Mortol is a resource-management puzzle platformer.

In Mortol, your goal is to navigate through each level as efficiently as possible. You begin the first level with 20 lives, and the mechanics of the game mean that you will be spending your lives to progress.

The top-left of each level has a jet plane, while the top-right has a number tracking how many live you have. Each life begins with your character parachuting in from the plane; you can control their movement as they land, and they are temporarily invincible during this time. Occasionally, the position of the screen may place the plane inside a block; in those cases, the game will scroll the screen along until it's out of the blocks before spawning in the new life.

The d-pad is used to aim your descent while parachuting, and to move the character left and right. It's also used as part of combinations to perform special moves, while will be described below.

The A button jumps. Holding this for longer lets you jump higher, and you can adjust your jump arc in mid-air with the d-pad. This can also be used to stop parachuting before you land.

The B button has a few functions, depending on what direction is held on the d-pad while it's pressed:
B button alone, or with left or right held, will send your character flying quickly in a straight line sideways.
B + Up will cause your character to explode, with the explosion covering several tiles away in all directions.
B + Down will cause your character to turn into a stone block.

None of these actions can be reversed, and all of them do result in the death of your character. If you have additional lives, a new character will spawn in to replace them. If you don't, your game is over.

Each of these moves has multiple uses that you will discover as you progress and experiment, but the most straightforward uses are that flying into a wall leaves your body sticking in it for subsequent lives to use as a platform, explosions can damage enemies around you as well as destroy certain blocks, and turning into a stone can then have that stone block be used to stand on or block enemies paths.

Each time an enemy dies for any reason, a number appears over their head tracking how many have been killed. For every 3rd enemy killed, an extra life is awarded. You can also find floating yellow numbers in each level; if they are collected, they aware that many lives.

This game saves your progress between levels, so if you can quit and come back, it will retain your progress. If you're struggling at later levels, you can return to earlier ones and try to replay them hopefully finishing with more lives than before; if you do, that will make those additional lives available at the start of all later levels.

7. Velgress

Velgress is an vertically-oriented action platformer.

In Velgress, you control Alpha as she tries to climb her way through each level. Each level is a randomly-generated set of blocks, enemies, coins and other entities to avoid, collect, or interact with. There is always a level-wide spiked roller at the bottom of the level that will follow Alpha as she climbs, and falling onto this always means death.

The left side of the play area has numbers, showing how high through the present level you have progressed. The game also tracks the furthest you've ever gotten, and will show a dotted line at that point. The top-right of the play area includes a coin counter.

The d-pad moves Alpha left or right.
The A button jumps. Holding the button jumps higher, and you can adjust Alpha's jump with the d-pad in mid-air. Alpha also has a double jump; jumping again during a jump will turn Alpha Red and have her somersault, letting you get extra height and/or distance. Available jumps reset on landing.
The B button fires your blaster, a rapid-fire, limited range projectile weapon. By default this fires in the direction you're facing, but you can aim it straight up or down using the d-pad

All blocks are fragile, and once you stand on them they will quickly break, so quickly finding ways to navigate is key. Blocks can also be destroyed by shooting them, which can sometimes be advantageous.

Alpha is tough enough that enemy attacks won't directly harm her, but they can fling her uncontrollably away, which can result in her falling down into the spiked roller below. Most enemies can be killed with your blaster, although some enemies (such as the large bird) can take multiple hits.

At the end of each stage, you are brought to a shop which offers a selection of helpful items to buy... if you have the coins.

8. Planet Zoldath

Planet Zoldath is a mystery adventure game with trading elements.

You control Pilot, who has landed on the planet Zoldath. Your goal is to find 3 parts of a treasure map and escape.

To the right of the main player area is a column of very useful information:
The top section shows the carried items. You can carry two items at a time, and the item on the left is the one currently active.
Below this is a tracker of how much you carry of 4 resources; blue crystals, brown branches, green moss, and purples plants.
Below this is a set of 3 squares; these are energy cubes, representing your health. As you take damage, this will turn from filled shapes to outlines.
Below this are 3 yellow outlines; these are for the map fragments you're trying to find. As you find each fragment, one of these squares will be filled.
Finally is a timer showing how long the current mission has taken.

The d-pad allows you to move Pilot along the cardinal directions.
The A button is contextual; in some cases this will allow you to interact with elements in the environment. Otherwise, it will swap your active and inactive items (if you're carrying two items). Holding the A button will drop the selected item on the floor.
The B button uses the active item. Some items require resources to use. If you try to use them without enough of the relevant resource, a sound will play, and the resource will flash in the resource tracker. Holding B will also lock Pilot's orientation, useful when firing projectile weapons.

You can pick up items by walking into them; if you're already holding two items, the active item will be swapped. Likewise, you can pick up resources the same way, and they'll be added to the counts on your resource tracker. If you see red cubes, you can also pick these up by walking into them; doing so will fully heal you, and give you an additional energy cube, increasing your maximum health.

On each run, certain alien species will be "friendly". These will not move or attack, and can be interacted with, although you may find the use of this is limited until you find a particular item. Being able to interact with them is usually critical to your mission. If you encounter any friendly aliens, all aliens of that species will be friendly for that run. If you encounter hostile aliens, all aliens of that species will be hostile for that run.

Map fragments will often be hidden in secret areas that are only accessible through creative use of the available items.

It may be useful to make a map of useful locations and items, but do be aware that the game generates a brand new random map for each run.

9. Attactics

Attactics is a light tactical combat game.

In Attactics, you are in charge of positioning the righteous soldiers of the glorious red army, as they face off against the evil hordes of the blue army. Your goal is to prevent the enemy forces from advancing to and attacking your fort, while getting your forces through to destroy theirs.

Your fort is on the left side of the screen, and periodically spawns soldiers along it's length. The health of your fort is shown by the number of flags flying on it. On the right side is the enemy fort; just like you, it periodically spawns soldiers, and has flags showing it's health. Along the top of the screen is a timer, shown as a number in the middle and bars to either side. Each time this counts down, the forces act; first attacking, then moving, and then new soldiers spawning.

As the general of your forces, you can reposition your forces. The d-pad allows you to move a highlight on the battlefield, and by holding the A button on one of your soldiers, you can then move them up, down, or backwards. You can't move them into enemy forces, but you can move them to swap places with other units. You can continue to move them until you release the A button, or the timer runs out for this turn. Holding the B button causes the timer to fast-forward, useful if you're happy with your unit's positions.

Different types of soldiers can have wildly different behaviours, strengths and weaknesses. The number and types of soldiers that spawn for you and the enemy vary depending on the game mode and settings.

If soldiers are able to successfully kill multiple enemies and survive, they can rank up, increasing their effectiveness.

10. Devilition

Devilition is an object-placement puzzle game.

In each round of Devilition, you find yourself looking at a grid filled with villagers, devils, and pits. Your goal is to place down "pieces" in order to try and kill as many devils as possible (ideally all of them) while killing as few villagers as possible (preferably none). Each piece will "attack" in a certain way (usually certain spaces nearby), and at the end of the round you will only be able to activate one; in order to be successful, you need to places your pieces to cause a chain reaction, where each piece will attack (and so activate) another, killing devils and avoiding villagers along the way.

Apart from the main game screen, and the round counter in the top-right corner, the left column holds the following:
The top is a timer, showing how long the current game session has progressed.
The number of available pieces you have to use in the current round.
The currently available pieces; you have 3 to choose from at any time.
A diagram or text description of how the currently-selected piece acts (usually a diagram showing which spaces around them they will attack).
A "Detonate" button, used when you're ready to start the chain that will end the round.

For each piece, you start by highlighting a piece (using left and right on the d-pad) and selecting it with the A button. This will move the piece to the play area; you can position it with the d-pad, rotate it with the B button, and place it with the A button. (If you change your mind about placing it, you can cancel by holding the B button).

Once you're ready, or if you have no more pieces to place, you can move the cursor down to the "Detonate" button. At this point, your cursor moves to the play area, and you can choose which of your pieces to activate with the d-pad. (Hitting the B button will cancel this process). Highlighting a piece and hitting the A button will activate it, hopefully starting a successful chain reaction.

Once the chain of activations has ended, the game will check how many devils and villagers are left on the board. If there are more devils than villagers, the town is overrun and the game ends. If there are at least as many villagers as devils, the town survives and game continues . If the devils have been completely eliminated, a new villager is spawned at random on the board.

At the start of each round, more devils are spawned, a new hole appears on the board, and you are given 10 additional pieces. Note that you do also keep any pieces from the previous round, so being efficient early on will give you more pieces to place later on. Likewise, any pieces left on the board will remain there on the next round.

11. Kick Club

Kick Club is a single-screen action game.

Kick Club has you moving through various worlds based on a particular theme, each comprising of multiple single-screen stages. In each screen your character is tasked with defeating various thematic enemies; a tough call, as you're a kickballist, not a fighter. Luckily, each screen also has a football lying around, which can be kicked at enemies to attack them.

The d-pad lets you move left and right. If you move into the football you'll "dribble" it, keeping it with you until you're ready to attack.
The A button lets you jump. Holding the button lets you jump higher, and you can control your mid-air movement with the d-pad.
The B button is for interacting with the ball. If you're dribbling it, tapping the button will kick it out, while holding the button will charge a stronger kick. You can also hold directions on the d-pad to alter the direction you'll kick it. If you're not dribbling the ball, the B button will either do a sliding tackle if you're on the ground, or attempt a header if you're in the air.

The goal for each screen is take out all the enemies in the allotted time, by hitting the football into them. As enemies are defeated, they'll leave delicious healthy snack food around the level; if you can collect this before it disappears, you'll get some bonus points. Every so often, you'll face a boss; these require multiple hits, and will spawn lots of delicious food on defeat!

The timer in the top-centre of the screen shows how long you have on each screen. If the timer runs out, this summons the ref, an invincible ghostly enemy who will chase you tirelessly. Contact with enemies or their attacks will cause you to lose a life (with your lives shown by the number of shirt symbols above your score at the top of the screen). Being hit with no shirts remaining will result in a game over.

Levels wrap around vertically; holes in the floor are linked to holes in the ceiling, and if anything passes through in one direction, they'll appear at the opposite end.

12. Avianos

Avianos is a 4X strategy game.

In Avianos, you take control of the red faction, going to war against the blue faction. In each game, your goal is to take control of a certain number of flag-bearing regions, and hold them for a full round. You do this by praying to your gods, who each let you perform a set of 3 moves on your turn.

The main game screen shows the world map, in a 4x4 grid. On each tile:

The background colours show who controls that region. Green is unclaimed, while red or blue show that it's controlled by the related faction.
The main image shows the type of terrain. This can includes forts, mountains, forests, grassy plains, and more.
A purple flag in the top-right shows this as a target region to be captured.
Symbols in the top-left corner show the number of units in the tile. Different symbols are different unit types, and the number is how many of that unit.
Symbols in the bottom-centre show buildings in that region.
Symbols in the bottom-right show resources to be collected.

Note that you will often see incomplete information for tiles controlled by your opponent, due to the "fog of war" effect.

Meanwhile, the left column show information about the moves being made:

The top image shows the currently selected god. The symbols to the right of them show how many times you have prayed to them, while the text underneath is their name.

Below this are the 3 actions that god will allow you to take. Each one gives a text description of the action, and (where relevant) symbols and numbers to show specific details. Details on these actions are shown below.

At the bottom is a tracker showing how much you have of the game's 3 resources - Seeds, Bones, and Workers.

On each turn, you first choose a god to pray to; you generally have 3 to choose from (of 5 in total). Choose your god with the d-pad, and select them with the A button.

On doing this, the prayer bar to the right of their image with full by one box. Each time you fill a box with a small square symbol inside, you get a "Blessing", which allows you to upgrade one of the actions below. Use the d-pad to highlight each action - as you do, the contents will change to reflect the upgraded version. Highlight the one you wish to upgrade and hit the A button to confirm it. The bar can be filled twice per god, and each of the three ability can be upgraded twice per god.

After this, each action in turn will activate, from top to bottom. Some actions have passive effects, and play will continue onwards once you hit A. Others have active effects, and will require use of the d-pad and A button to choose what to do; often, this will involve both selecting option under the action, and locations on the map. Details of the actions are below.

Once you have done all 3 actions, play passes to your opponent.

The actions are available are as follows:

• Muster - This allow you to summon new soldiers. This actions lists the units to be summoned, and the buildings they will be summoned at. If you have multiple of that building under your control, each of those will summon that many soldiers to their location.
• Produce - This allows you to generate more resources. This actions list the resources to be gained. Some of these will always be gained, while for others, you will gain a certain amount for each of a particular building you control.
• Move - This allows you to move units from one tile to an adjacent tile. On selecting a tile with units, you will be able to set how many of which units you wish to move, and how many to stay. Note that by default, you cannot move through mountains. If you move units to a region with enemy units in, or vice versa, this will start combat.
• Build - This allows you to build new buildings in regions you control. This action contains a list of options; the left side shows the cost, and the right side shows to building to be built. You can build multiple buildings at once, if you have enough resources to do so.
• Recruit - This allows you to recruit new soldiers in regions you control. This action contains a list of options; the left side shows the cost, and the right side shows to soldier to be recruited. You can recruit multiple soldiers at once, if you have enough resources to do so.
• Trade - This allows you to trade resources for different ones. This action contains a list of potential trade; the left side shows the resource you will lose, while the right shows the resource you will gain. You can make multiple trades, if you have enough resources to do so.
• Miracle - This allows you to cause miracles to occur. This action contains a list of potential miracles; the left side shows the cost to use the miracle, while the right shows a symbol representing the miracle. As you highlight each miracle, a pop-up will reveal what that miracle will do.

The exact details of these actions will vary depending on the selected god and the upgrade level of the action; for example, a "Recruit" action may let you trade 4 Seeds for a soldier and 6 for an archer, or may only let you trade 8 for a sorcerer.

When units from one faction move into a region containing units from the other faction, this will initiate combat. This plays out mostly automatically, with the red units on the left and the blue units on the right controlling themselves. However, you can give overall orders to the units under your command. There are four options, shown at the bottom of the screen, and you can switch between them with the d-pad:

• Attk - The default command, this orders your soldiers to advance on and attack enemy units.
• Hold - This order your soldiers to stop moving. They will still attack enemy soldiers in range.
• Raze - This orders your soldiers to focus on destroying buildings in the region. Note that this can be used to attack your own buildings, if you use the raze command while defending a region you control.
• Flee - This orders your soldiers to flee from battle. If you initiated the battle, all surviving units will remain where they came from, and no regions will change control. If you were defending, the attacking force will gain control of the region, and your surviving units will be moved to an adjacent region that you control.

13. Mooncat

Mooncat is a 2d platformer with mystery elements.

Along with Barbuta, Mooncat is a deliberately mysterious game. This time round, this includes the control mechanism; just figuring out to move around, and then the intricacies of what you can do, is intended to be a puzzle for the player to discover.

I can provide a minimum of guidance here, which is that this game functionally has only two "buttons"; pushing any direction on the d-pad is "left", while hitting the A or B button is "right". Figuring out ways to use these buttons is core to the game.

When you are hit by an enemy, touch a dangerous obstacle, or fall down a deadly pit, you will respawn that the start of the room. You have unlimited lives, so with a bit of perseverance, you will achieve your goals. The game does not save your progress however, so if you quit and return, you will return to the beginning.

Good luck!

14. Bushido Ball

Bushido Ball is a 1v1 Pong-like sports game.

In each game of Bushido Ball, you are faced with taking on all comers in a series of 1v1 ball-bouncing bouts. In round has you tasked with getting the ball past your opponent a certain number of times, while they try to bat it back past you. Reach your target number, and you beat them. Beat all opponents to win.

When you first start a game of Bushido Ball, you have to choose your character. Each character has different stats (Speed, Control and Power), a different weapon to hit the ball with, and different special moves to use. It's worth experimenting with the various characters to see how each plays.

Once you're in a match, the player character starts on the left side of the field, while the opponent is on the right. The top of the screen has two flags, showing your score (on the red flag) and the opponent's score (on the blue flag). At the bottom middle of the screen is the referee, who starts each point by rolling the ball out to one of the players; at the start of the match this is picked randomly, while after that, it always goes to the player who lost the last point. The top-left and top-right corners show how many super meters each character has.

You can use the D-Pad to move your character in all 8 directions.
Hitting the A button does a "roll"; while the details vary per character, this is always a fast move in the direction the player was moving. If you move or roll into the ball, you will knock it back towards the opponent, but will also be momentarily stunned.
Hitting the B button swings your weapon. This is your primary way of hitting the ball. Holding different directions while swinging it will hit the ball at different angles, with holding backwards lobbing the ball into the air.
Hitting the ball immediately after a roll will result in a stronger hit than simply hitting it from standing.
If you have sufficient super meter, double-tapping the B button will let you use your secondary weapon, while holding the B button will let you charge a super hit; releasing the button will perform the hit, hopefully sending the ball flying!

Super meter is built by hitting the ball repeatedly. Using your secondary weapon costs half a meter, while using a super hit costs a full meter. You can have up to 3 meters available at a time.

By default, the game has various "rules" you must follow. These include:
Don't cross into your opponents side of the field.
Don't interfere with your opponent's serve.
Don't stall for time

Any time you break these rules, you get an infraction point against you, show as a red indicator next to the ref along the bottom of your play area. Every time you get 3 infraction points, your opponent will be awarded the current match point, and the referee will start the next point as though they had scored.

15. Koala Block

Koala Block is a block-pushing puzzle game.

In Koala Block, you are tasked with working your way through dozens of single-screen block-pushing puzzles. For each puzzle, the goal is to get the Star block onto the Star tile, but it's trickier than it sounds!

Levels are generally a maze of hedges and statues filled with pushable blocks. Apart from the Star block, most of these will have dots or numbers on them. You can think of these as the block's "weight", with higher-numbered blocks "weighing" more; blocks with dots have weight 1, while star blocks have weight 0. You can push lines of blocks, as long as you're never trying to push a block into another that's heavier; they'll get stuck.

If a block would be pushed into a dot block, but that block cannot move, the blocks will be combined into a new block weighing one more than the old block. For example, if you are pushing a 2 block into a dot, and you try to push them both into a wall, they'll combine into a single 3 block. (This includes combining two dot blocks, which will create one 2 block.)

As you progress, you will find new types of block and other level features to discover.

If you ever get stuck in a level, you can hit the B button to rewind your moves and try something new. Tapping the A button will bring up a menu, letting you reset or exit the level, or set (or remove) a specific one-off undo point.

Note that Koala Block also has a "Custom Level" feature, letting you build and save your own levels, and even share them by sharing the related level code. If you're not sure how blocks interact in particular ways, this can be a useful place to test them out!

16. Camouflage

Camouflage is an action puzzle game

In Camouflage, you take control of a lil' lizard who is trying to make their way through a bunch of single-screen levels. Each level contains delicious fruit you'd like to eat, and a tiny lizard who you can try to rescue. But also, each level contains big animals who will devour you if they see you, so you'll need to stay out of sight...

Your main goal on each level is to make your way safely to the exit. Optionally, you can also try to grab the fruit and tiny lizard along the way. At the bottom of the screen are 3 bits of information: the current level you're on, your current level of visibility, and a tracker for optional pickups you've grabbed on this level.

The d-pad moves you in the 4 cardinal directions, one tile at a time. Moving onto a piece of fruit will collect it. Moving onto the tiny lizard will have it follow you. Moving onto the exit hole will finish the level.
The A button cause you to change colour to match the terrain you're on. If you're on sand you'll turn yellow, on grass you'll turn green, etc. Changing colours does take a moment, and always briefly cycles you through all possible colours in the process. If the tiny lizard is following you, it will also change colour based on the terrain it's on.
Holding the B button activated your danger sense. This causes all tiles that dangerous animals are currently looking at to turn pink. You can't move while using your danger sense.

If your lizard doesn't match the colour of the terrain you're on, you are "exposed". While exposed, any animal that looks your way will see and eat you.
If your lizard does match the colour of the terrain you're on, you are "camouflaged". While camouflaged, animals will not be able to see you even if you're in their line of sight. However, if an animal walks into you, they will eat you anyway,

If the tiny lizard is following you, the same rules for camouflage apply to them, and the tracker will show "exposed" if you're on matching terrain but they are not. However, if they're seen, the animal will rush up and eat you instead!

If you are eaten, you're given the option to "undo", rewinding time to a little before you made the move that had the fatal result. You can also "Start Over" to restart the level from scratch, or return to the map screen.

Your progress on each level is saved, so you can come back to keep trying levels, or to get bonus collectibles you skipped on previous runs.

17. Campanella

Campanella is an action side-on flight game.

You take the role of Pilot, in his UFO-style ship, the Campanella. You find yourself in a series of single-screen stages, and need to navigate to the teleport at the end of each, while avoiding or defeating the enemies along the way. But watch your fuel level!

Your d-pad lets you move left and right.
By default, you fall downwards. Holding the A button thrusts you upwards, as long as you have fuel.
Tapping the B button makes the Campanella do a close-range slash attack in front of you. This also slightly slows down your falling rate.

To the very top-left of the screen is a vertical red segmented bar. This shows how much fuel you have; thrusting uses fuel.
To the right of this are 3 additional pieces of useful information:
On top, next to the little UFO symbol, is a number showing how many lives you have.
Below this is a 5 digit display showing your score.
Underneath this is a green Bonus bar. Whenever this fills, you gain an extra life.

In each level, there is a blue outline circle with a flashing red outline cross on it: this is the exit from the level, and reaching this is your goal. Destroying enemies, and certain blocks, along the way will reward you with extra fuel and will fill your bonus bar. There are other level elements that you will come across; experiment to see how they all work!

Colliding with walls, ceilings or floors, or getting bashed or shot by enemies, will result in the loss of a life, and placing you back at the entrance to the level. Losing all lives results in a game over.