FurBall

FurBall is a homebrew minigame for the Nintendo 64 by Radish64 and released on 13 Dec 2024. You play as one of four cats on a ladder aiming to hit as many targets as possible with your projectile.
You can get the ROM from its download page by using the password minigamemadness
and the source can be found here. Note that this is the same ROM that includes all the other minigames released for the competition.
About FurBall
In FurBall, you play as an anthropomorphic cat climbing up and down a ladder shooting coloured balls at a target. The instant you hit a target, it disappears and then another one takes its place somewhere along the ladder. The match lasts for 60 seconds and the cat with the highest score wins.
There isn’t any cooldown between ball throws, so you can just throw them willy-nilly without consequence. There is a chance that the next target will appear right below the one you just destroyed so there’s no reason to not bash that A button like a maniac.


The main concern in this game is your dexterity when it comes to moving your cat to the right position before shooting, and after that, how to spread your volley of balls to cover as much area before the next target appears. Once you get the hang of that, it’s all really just the luck of the draw.
The difficulty level you choose determines how long they wait before throwing a ball once they reach their target. The overall score will differ based on RNG, but here’s a typical output:
- Easy: 40-50
- Medium: 50-60
- Hard: 65-75
Credits
FurBall was made by Radish64 aka River Beats, who has also worked on homebrew games for the Nintendo Wii and has a radio show in Michigan.


Review and conclusion
The game is very simple, it almost reminds me of Pong in the way that you move vertically to a target point and then do it again once the next point is determined.
At first, I was a bit underwhelmed because of how basic it is because of how you have to take aim carefully and then shoot the target. However once I figured out that you can just spray and pray, it became more of a test of how much of a high score I could achieve.
Thematically it is straightforward and serves its purpose. Just the ability to create 3D models and out them in a game is impressive as it is for one person.
Overall Furball is a basic game that works well and doesn’t overscope, which might be a bit underwhelming unless you’re in the right frame of mind.


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