Very cute physics-based puzzle game where you play as an alien doing various odd jobs for people. I love the artstyle and the silly characters and scenarios. You can use money you earn to buy hats for your character - some have different abilities, but I didn't bother trying them all and instead wore the cute little stuffed dog the whole time. Some levels towards the end of the game are frustrating. You can earn medals for completing bonus objectives in stages - the hints for the objectives are very small pictures, and I found some of them to be vague and cryptic. The soundtrack eventually became grating for me because almost all of it is different versions of the same song.
Incredibly fun app - might be one I’ve had the best time with since the “Golden Years” of the Angry Birds, Plants vs Zombies, and Cut the Rope kinda phone-gaming era.
Part Time UFO was made and published by HAL Laboratory (of Kirby fame) wanting to focus on games made specifically for smartphones in mind. This is why I think the game works so well, and why its reminiscent of the games that I remember most fondly in smartphone gaming. Part Time UFO is made with the phone in mind, and tried its best to focus on making a game that worked with a smartphone’s features (touch screen, portability, etc) rather than fight against them. Phone gaming at this point has a bit of a bad name for itself, having mostly devolved into however cheaply a person can make a game that can quickly take a player’s money, infamously cover the gameplay in ads, and force the player away with pop-up after pop-up of MTX requests.
Paying around $4 in exchange for a fun game experience is extremely worth it in my opinion, with Part Time UFO costing around that. Early smartphone games usually only offered a demo for free, but a very kind $5 or less price for the full game. A cheap price for hours of uninterrupted fun, and for good games, too! Games made with the intention for the player to work with the smartphone’s touch and lack of buttons, rather than fight against it.
That is where I had to dock points from Part Time UFO though, as while the game clearly is well-intentionally made to be a phone game, and is leaps and bounds ahead of many other current smartphone games, it still has to rely on covering parts of the screen with a joystick and button. People often say that this game is a better experience on Switch, and I can believe it. Even though the game was originally made just for phones, the way they put a touch control joystick and button right in front of you immediately has the player start to fight against the phone’s capability, rather than work with it. It results in the player desperately wishing they had a physical joystick and button, which the Switch can happily provide them.
Even with that as a bit of a glaring knock-back, I do really love Part Time UFO, and find myself quickly losing my time when I open it up. It has quite a bit to offer, and has great replayability in allowing players to retry levels to get a perfect score, very in tune to how early smartphone games work in eating up your time. I really do recommend this game to anyone looking for a good find for their phone! It’s $4 and I think I’ve already spent 3 hours on it, and I’m not even done! The Switch version probably controls better, but it’s also double the price. I’m guessing they add more stuff or something to reason the price, but also maybe not! It is Nintendo after all lmao.
Oh well, check Part Time UFO out, you’ll have a blast. It’s cute, charming, and fun - and will absolutely eat all my battery away when I take the train.
3.5/5
Part Time UFO was made and published by HAL Laboratory (of Kirby fame) wanting to focus on games made specifically for smartphones in mind. This is why I think the game works so well, and why its reminiscent of the games that I remember most fondly in smartphone gaming. Part Time UFO is made with the phone in mind, and tried its best to focus on making a game that worked with a smartphone’s features (touch screen, portability, etc) rather than fight against them. Phone gaming at this point has a bit of a bad name for itself, having mostly devolved into however cheaply a person can make a game that can quickly take a player’s money, infamously cover the gameplay in ads, and force the player away with pop-up after pop-up of MTX requests.
Paying around $4 in exchange for a fun game experience is extremely worth it in my opinion, with Part Time UFO costing around that. Early smartphone games usually only offered a demo for free, but a very kind $5 or less price for the full game. A cheap price for hours of uninterrupted fun, and for good games, too! Games made with the intention for the player to work with the smartphone’s touch and lack of buttons, rather than fight against it.
That is where I had to dock points from Part Time UFO though, as while the game clearly is well-intentionally made to be a phone game, and is leaps and bounds ahead of many other current smartphone games, it still has to rely on covering parts of the screen with a joystick and button. People often say that this game is a better experience on Switch, and I can believe it. Even though the game was originally made just for phones, the way they put a touch control joystick and button right in front of you immediately has the player start to fight against the phone’s capability, rather than work with it. It results in the player desperately wishing they had a physical joystick and button, which the Switch can happily provide them.
Even with that as a bit of a glaring knock-back, I do really love Part Time UFO, and find myself quickly losing my time when I open it up. It has quite a bit to offer, and has great replayability in allowing players to retry levels to get a perfect score, very in tune to how early smartphone games work in eating up your time. I really do recommend this game to anyone looking for a good find for their phone! It’s $4 and I think I’ve already spent 3 hours on it, and I’m not even done! The Switch version probably controls better, but it’s also double the price. I’m guessing they add more stuff or something to reason the price, but also maybe not! It is Nintendo after all lmao.
Oh well, check Part Time UFO out, you’ll have a blast. It’s cute, charming, and fun - and will absolutely eat all my battery away when I take the train.
3.5/5
(7-year-old's review, typed by her dad)
Well at first it was easy, and then that like ninja thing where they say "try to dodge this and you'll get some more things", like there's ninja stars and it's so hard, and the ninja stars stick to the building, and it's hard to build it, cuz you can't like extend, like make it bigger, like your attachment. So you can pick it up so easily. 2 stars for the easy bit and 1 and a half for the ninja bit. And I haven't gotten past it!
Well at first it was easy, and then that like ninja thing where they say "try to dodge this and you'll get some more things", like there's ninja stars and it's so hard, and the ninja stars stick to the building, and it's hard to build it, cuz you can't like extend, like make it bigger, like your attachment. So you can pick it up so easily. 2 stars for the easy bit and 1 and a half for the ninja bit. And I haven't gotten past it!
Don't consider myself a fan of puzzle games, but this one came off as pretty charming and adorable to keep me playing it, short and sweet.
fun and silly, never got around to beating it
Jobski my beloved
haaa-taraku u-u-fo-o-o...
Definitely a great little puzzle game I love deeply, with a lot of heart and charm. I love all the little dudes you help and, of course, play as, and I was kind of surprised by the direction the game's story took... it's truly wild how much mileage they get out of a fairly simple concept.
Of course, simple doesn't mean easy. I'll admit I didn't feel particularly compelled to 100% this bad boy or complete the final challenge, even if I did think the final challenge was extremely neat in concept. I would have preferred a health bar for that particular thing instead of a timer because I only grudgingly accept time limits. I did knock out a bunch of medals, but there were some I just didn't want to deal with, you know?
With that said, even if I kind of petered out in terms of actual completion, I'd love to see this get a sequel or something! Or at the very least show up as an Easter egg in another fun little HAL puzzle game. The Easter eggs and cameos in this one delighted me, truly.
Definitely a great little puzzle game I love deeply, with a lot of heart and charm. I love all the little dudes you help and, of course, play as, and I was kind of surprised by the direction the game's story took... it's truly wild how much mileage they get out of a fairly simple concept.
Of course, simple doesn't mean easy. I'll admit I didn't feel particularly compelled to 100% this bad boy or complete the final challenge, even if I did think the final challenge was extremely neat in concept. I would have preferred a health bar for that particular thing instead of a timer because I only grudgingly accept time limits. I did knock out a bunch of medals, but there were some I just didn't want to deal with, you know?
With that said, even if I kind of petered out in terms of actual completion, I'd love to see this get a sequel or something! Or at the very least show up as an Easter egg in another fun little HAL puzzle game. The Easter eggs and cameos in this one delighted me, truly.
9/10. Fun, simple and addictive game with lots of sidequests.
Great puzzle game with an appealing style and gameplay, really hard though and sometimes not in the good way
GOTY 2018 - NUMBER TEN
Video version
It’s my great pleasure to welcome the first mobile game to make it onto one of my GOTY lists. Part-Time UFO’s a wee belter.
Coming from a new subdivision of Kirby developers, HAL Laboratory, and being the first game the company has self-published in 25 years, HAL Egg’s first title is a game that matches the scale and charm of some of their earliest titles. Part-Time UFO focuses on UFO Catcher/claw machine mechanics and tells a story about a cute wee UFO finding itself stranded on earth and taking up odd jobs to earn money. Throughout the game, you’ll be tasked with loading a farmer’s pick-up truck, reassembling a pile of scattered dinosaur bones and arranging a pyramid of cheerleaders. This is HAL at their best.
I still like the new Kirbies fine, but you won’t see the bloated, repetitive Star Allies on this list. Part-Time UFO feels like what the first Kirby games were- Daft wee games that took simple mechanics and explored them through a series of cute, funny little levels. At a time when home gaming was at risk of becoming a dry, drawn-out alternative to snappy sparky arcade games, HAL were putting out stuff like Dream Land 1 and Pinball Land to expand on what could be done with shallow, attention-grabbing coin-ops and give us something to feel genuine affection for. Part-Time UFO’s one of those games, and it snuck out on App Stores.
Part of what makes the game so funny and endearing is the deliberate clumsiness of its controls. Your slidey wee spaceship isn’t the best thing for pinpoint accuracy, and the big dangly claw is even clumsier. It’s really good fun to see desperate people task this cute wee flying saucer with intricate jobs. HAL pair this concept with great big pixels and thick lines on everything. These are people who know how to make daft wee classics, and they’re firing on all cylinders here.
I don’t know how much more there is to say about Part-Time UFO, but I’ve got some time to spare, so let’s talk about what works about this kind of design, and why I’m so glad HAL have found an avenue to make more of them.
See, when you have freedom to do whatever, you’re likely to stick to typical logic. Just make a fucking Star Wars game. That’ll sell. When you’re limited by arbitrary rules, like pixel count, a handful of visual techniques, a couple button inputs, that’s what leads to satisfying, innovative, endearing results. The worst Game Boy games were the ones that attempted to bring over home console design to a monochrome screen and fuck all buttons. HAL knew how to make stuff that shone within those narrow walls. They made a wee ball fight a penguin in a boxing ring. They know how to work with fuck all. Part-Time UFO is a Lego cat among 200kb JPEGs of Michelangelo sculptures.
HAL doing stuff like this makes me feel okay about the idea of hardware becoming more standarised and the threat of traditional handhelds fading away into the mist. These are the people who made our games – Our Kirbies, our Super Smash Bros. Melee, our Pokémon Snap – and they’re still hanging around to make sure things don’t get shit or boring. They’re showing the generation of designers who grew up playing Croc and fucking Disruptor that their passions were built on foundations of shit. This is what a great game looks like, and this is the way you make one in 2018. Aye, it’s a fucking mobile game. You think that’s a reason not to play it? You make me fucking sick. You’ve got a phone and a couple quid in your pocket. It’s time to balance animals on an elephant’s head.
If you’re upset nobody makes games like Mr Domino or Ribbit King anymore, you should be shouting from the rooftops about Part-Time UFO. I don’t care how many pixel art games are on the eShop. This kind of design is a rare thing, and we ought to cherish it, incubate it and watch it grow up into a great big chicken. And if you don’t, I’ll fucking hate you.
Video version
It’s my great pleasure to welcome the first mobile game to make it onto one of my GOTY lists. Part-Time UFO’s a wee belter.
Coming from a new subdivision of Kirby developers, HAL Laboratory, and being the first game the company has self-published in 25 years, HAL Egg’s first title is a game that matches the scale and charm of some of their earliest titles. Part-Time UFO focuses on UFO Catcher/claw machine mechanics and tells a story about a cute wee UFO finding itself stranded on earth and taking up odd jobs to earn money. Throughout the game, you’ll be tasked with loading a farmer’s pick-up truck, reassembling a pile of scattered dinosaur bones and arranging a pyramid of cheerleaders. This is HAL at their best.
I still like the new Kirbies fine, but you won’t see the bloated, repetitive Star Allies on this list. Part-Time UFO feels like what the first Kirby games were- Daft wee games that took simple mechanics and explored them through a series of cute, funny little levels. At a time when home gaming was at risk of becoming a dry, drawn-out alternative to snappy sparky arcade games, HAL were putting out stuff like Dream Land 1 and Pinball Land to expand on what could be done with shallow, attention-grabbing coin-ops and give us something to feel genuine affection for. Part-Time UFO’s one of those games, and it snuck out on App Stores.
Part of what makes the game so funny and endearing is the deliberate clumsiness of its controls. Your slidey wee spaceship isn’t the best thing for pinpoint accuracy, and the big dangly claw is even clumsier. It’s really good fun to see desperate people task this cute wee flying saucer with intricate jobs. HAL pair this concept with great big pixels and thick lines on everything. These are people who know how to make daft wee classics, and they’re firing on all cylinders here.
I don’t know how much more there is to say about Part-Time UFO, but I’ve got some time to spare, so let’s talk about what works about this kind of design, and why I’m so glad HAL have found an avenue to make more of them.
See, when you have freedom to do whatever, you’re likely to stick to typical logic. Just make a fucking Star Wars game. That’ll sell. When you’re limited by arbitrary rules, like pixel count, a handful of visual techniques, a couple button inputs, that’s what leads to satisfying, innovative, endearing results. The worst Game Boy games were the ones that attempted to bring over home console design to a monochrome screen and fuck all buttons. HAL knew how to make stuff that shone within those narrow walls. They made a wee ball fight a penguin in a boxing ring. They know how to work with fuck all. Part-Time UFO is a Lego cat among 200kb JPEGs of Michelangelo sculptures.
HAL doing stuff like this makes me feel okay about the idea of hardware becoming more standarised and the threat of traditional handhelds fading away into the mist. These are the people who made our games – Our Kirbies, our Super Smash Bros. Melee, our Pokémon Snap – and they’re still hanging around to make sure things don’t get shit or boring. They’re showing the generation of designers who grew up playing Croc and fucking Disruptor that their passions were built on foundations of shit. This is what a great game looks like, and this is the way you make one in 2018. Aye, it’s a fucking mobile game. You think that’s a reason not to play it? You make me fucking sick. You’ve got a phone and a couple quid in your pocket. It’s time to balance animals on an elephant’s head.
If you’re upset nobody makes games like Mr Domino or Ribbit King anymore, you should be shouting from the rooftops about Part-Time UFO. I don’t care how many pixel art games are on the eShop. This kind of design is a rare thing, and we ought to cherish it, incubate it and watch it grow up into a great big chicken. And if you don’t, I’ll fucking hate you.
baito no uuuufooooooooooo~
A sublime, cute arcade puzzle games with plenty of content to sink your teeth into. From stacking dozens of items in Tower of Infinity, gathering all the treasures in Treasure Island, or trying to 100% complete the game via referring to the Memories of Glory, there's plenty of options the switch port of Part Time UFO offers to you!
this game fun as hell
i like stacking things
"AAAAAAAAUGH!!!"
"What happened?"
"Teddy bear fell over. :("
"Awww. :)"
-me and my partner while I was playing Part Time UFO
"What happened?"
"Teddy bear fell over. :("
"Awww. :)"
-me and my partner while I was playing Part Time UFO
hataraku ufoooo~~~
its a chill fun time bein a lil scrimblo ufo guy stacking things for people. It's short and sweet, doesn't overstay its welcome, has those feel-good comfy vibes that HAL Labs know how to do so well, and there are enough optional challenges to keep invested players busy and encourage learning how to get good at stacking shit. The multiplayer seems like it would be a lot of fun, especially if you are in an environment where you have frequent downtime with the homies, but I am but a lone samurai so I couldn't try the multiplayer for myself. It's only like 9 bucks, it's absolutely worth a play if you got some switch funds lying around.
its a chill fun time bein a lil scrimblo ufo guy stacking things for people. It's short and sweet, doesn't overstay its welcome, has those feel-good comfy vibes that HAL Labs know how to do so well, and there are enough optional challenges to keep invested players busy and encourage learning how to get good at stacking shit. The multiplayer seems like it would be a lot of fun, especially if you are in an environment where you have frequent downtime with the homies, but I am but a lone samurai so I couldn't try the multiplayer for myself. It's only like 9 bucks, it's absolutely worth a play if you got some switch funds lying around.
Un jueguito muy corto de un OVNI que llega a la tierra para buscar empleo. Entretenido y algunas veces, hasta desafiante. Por lo que cuesta, merece totalmente la pena y mas siendo de HAL Laboratory (que no solo hacen juegos de Kirby)
Fun little game. Not that long.
Cute little puzzle game. Played both versions and the console version definitely controls better. Nice co op game too.
Part Time UFO makes me wish HAL would make some non-Kirby games more often. While I love the series as much as the next guy, games like this show they're more than capable of making charming and original games that can stand on their own. That being said this game can occasionally lean a little too much into frustrating territory. I would not recommend trying going for 100% unless you feel like going insane, but playing the game casually not worrying about getting all the medals or feats is a real good time.
Cute great game from HAL, perfect length of a mobile game to play in a few sittings and collect all the medals and achievements. Some of the levels were a bit infuriating when things didn't line up exactly, but not too bad.
Part Time UFO is simply a very fun game. Being cute, and offering quite the selection of enjoyable and progressively complex puzzles. All acting in combination with a shop and fun achievement/side quest like system to deliver a fun little game.
charming little time, not much to say otherwises
This is really cute. They get a shocking amount of content out of just a UFO with a claw. It has that HAL charm to it and is just the right length/price. I want a sequel where the UFO can do more than JUST grab though.
Cute claw machine-themed physics game! Didn't enrapture me but also had some pretty fun puzzles. I don't have much else to say besides that HAL is amazing at designing these adorable mascots. I don't know how they do it.
really cute puzzle game that gets really difficult towards the later levels
what a lovely little physics game
Reverse Angry Birds
cost of living so high even ufos gotta work
It's cute but I didn't get much out of it. It didn't feel relaxing as a casual game or fun as a challenging game.
It has satisfying controls for a one handed phone game if anything, and it's definitely healthier than many mobile games.
It has satisfying controls for a one handed phone game if anything, and it's definitely healthier than many mobile games.