UFO Mayhem

Part Rampage, part Destroy All Humans!, part reverse Missile Command, UFO Mayhem is the latest from Super Splash League and Teddison Inc’s Mirror Door Interactive. You play as a little Kirby-looking UFO, and you’re flying back and forth, destroying city after city with your space guns. You move with the crank and shoot/tractor beam with the other buttons, and it controls really well. Depending on how far you turn the crank, your ship moves faster or slower, and it feels super intuitive!

Each level has a row of buildings below that must be destroyed to advance, with the military trying in vain to defend them. They’ll send tanks and helicopters and planes to defend the planet, but they’re no match for you, not really. Each target takes a few blasts before crumbling, and it’s easy enough to dodge incoming projectiles while you do it. You also have a tractor beam that can’t be activated while shooting, and you can’t move too quickly while using it, either, or you’ll drop whatever you’re trying to suck up. This is how you get weapon upgrades and bonus points that are dropped by defeated enemies (and 50 points for each human you suck up!), so a big part of the game is balancing the score increasing ability of the tractor beam with offensive/defensive shooting. You can dodge while sucking things up, sure, but not too quickly. Your enemies won’t stop respawning, so don’t take all day. Those online leaderboards aren’t going to top themselves.

Your weapons will quickly get to max power, and you’ll find plenty of extra lives. The enemy variety eventually picks up, too, but the goal of each level is the same: destroy all the buildings. Sometimes there’s a boss at the end of the stage, and it’ll get more complex each time it reappears. I liked the variety!

One thing: I think the difficulty curve might be a little TOO forgiving. On my first try, I was able to play for more than 15 minutes without losing a life because the early levels are so doable. I get that this eases people into the game like in Tetris, but I’d love a hard mode where I could basically start at level 10 difficulty, also like Tetris. Rae’s game Traffic Jam felt a bit like this, too, where it took just a little too long to get to the real challenge. In a game like Rampage, though, I can barely beat a level, and that’s almost what I’m looking for in a game like this? Just drop me in there, and mess me up. Also, the small screen of the Playdate meant that it was hard to tell the different power-ups apart, but it’s not like I’m really using strategy when deciding which ones to suck up. I just try to get them all.

Besides that, though, it’s a really solid little reverse Missile Command. There’s a strong laser power-up like in XORBIUS, and sucking up humans for points is always satisfying while simultaneously taking down the entire military by yourself. And the little smiling face on your ship? Just adds insult to injury. Take that, Earth!

(Released November 13, 2025, on Itch and releasing February 17, 2026, on Catalog. Copy provided by developer.)