Turn-based strategy games are a rarity these days, and on consoles doubly so. Not that they’re antiquated or their audience has fallen out of favor for them mind you; publishers would simply rather fund a first-person shooter instead. One notable turn-based strategy title known as XCOM UFO Defense managed to create lasting appeal back in the ‘90s, most notably through a series of agonizing defeats, tragic loss and self loathing. It was the kind of game that pushed you down every time you got up until you eventually cracked, punched it in the balls, stole its girlfriend and burned down its house. Sweet victory! For those of you not in the loop, XCOM UFO Defense is notoriously difficult, allowing characters to be built up and upgraded by the player only to have a lucky shot nullify all that hard work. That’s right characters could die for good -- nothing special back in the ‘90s -- but relatively unheard of these days. Keeping your squad alive became a series of careful placement and management, i.e. strategy, you know, the thing that’s ever so rare these days. Anyone interested in playing this relic should know that through careful investigation and research on our part, we have determined that the game was played on something primitive humans called “DOS”, which we can only discern to be a follow-up from cave paintings and idol crafting.



