The UFO 50 Diaries: Hotfoot
It's a shame its a good game because 'Lukewarm Foot' would have been a hell of a dek
This one’s a real bugger for me to get my head around, because like all capital S Sports games I’m normally not all that interested in it. A result of this is that I also don’t have much context for what this particular version is in homage to, where it stands in the pantheon of good games of this ilk.
Hotfoot is a game that’s quite hard to parse at first. From its snakelike roster mechanic, where one character inevitably always gets left out, to the way in which you always seem to be falling over things. The fiddly control scheme where the act of throwing and switching players are on the same button. How quickly you can find yourself in a death spiral.
Hotfoot is a game that clearly requires time and effort to get to the heart of. Its closest parallel is obviously Bushido Ball, but in practice the two games couldn’t be more different.
There’s a complexity to what’s at hand here (no pun intended). That control scheme is front and centre of it all. A light tap to engage one action, a hold to enforce another. Button combos to trigger special moves, and an awful lot of contextual discrepancy based on what’s on the court at any given time.
In a way it's the most intricate UFO 50 game yet. An experience that more than anything else I could see as a stand alone title, as an experience enjoyed for many years.
One of the things that truly stands out about the game, more than anything else, is that it has a built in tutorial. At the start of each tournament, the game tells you how to play, what buttons to press, how to get power ups, how to score points and ultimately win.
That’s a staggering change in direction, given the modus operandi of the project as a whole, and I can’t decide whether its in aid of the game itself, or this ongoing narrative about the evolution of game design throughout the fictional 80s.
Is it really kayfabe if its also really helpful to understanding how to get the most out of the game?
I’m an oaf. I think I've established this over the years that I’ve been running Static Canvas. I miss obvious things all the time. I fail to engage properly with the complexities of certain games, I rush head first into danger without even reckoning with the fact that even a split second of a tempo change might be the key to not constantly biffing it for dozens of hours before I finally clock what I actually need to do in order to win.
Because of this particular brain poison, as with all the other games in this collection so far, I ran into Hotfoot headfirst, barrelling past the scroll of text in the opening moments several times to get to the meat of the game, summarily not quite understanding what I was doing or what this game even was.
As a result, I feel like I’m more equipped than the average person to say that the tutorial in this game specifically, feels necessary in a way that its absence in the others does not. As soon as I stopped and actually read what was being said, my success on the court exploded.
I should add, I’m still incredibly bad at the game, but I have won a few matches. It’s always come down to a scant few points difference, having the victory condition be 15 points really allows matches room to breathe and I think that’s where the magic truly happens with this game.
Despite my previously stated lack of interest in the genre, I really do like a lot of what’s going on in Hotfoot.
Its annoying when you get plinked by several beanbags in a row, sure, but it’s also immensely satisfying when you get to do the very same thing to your opponents. The player switching and bag pass mechanics feel really good too, turning your half of the screen into a sort of impromptu tennis match while you’re also dodging your opponents projectiles.
There’s a lot going on, and while initially it all seems a bit chaotic, once you spend even a little bit of time with it, you’ll realise it’s all peacefully parsable.
Again I have to admit this isn’t really my kind of game, its not something I see myself sinking dozens of hours into, but out of all the genre staples out there, Hotfoot is something that cuts close to an experience I at the very least understand.
It’s scrappy, and cute, and has a roster of characters you cannot help but be charmed by.
A really good game.