SpaceWaves

SpaceWaves is a homebrew minigame for the Nintendo 64 made by SpookyIluha and released on 13 December 2024. It’s a first-person turret shooter where you have to defend yourself from incoming threats. It won 2nd place in the game jam, well done!

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 2024 N64brew Game Jam competition.

About SpaceWaves

SpaceWaves is – in as basic terms as possible – a mix between an FPS, Asteroids and Missile Command. You play as a space station defense turret protecting yourself from hostile spacecraft and asteroids. You can also play as one of the spacecrafts attacking the main player.

When playing in the turret, you can shoot at asteroids and players, and also get power ups by hitting them as they appear. You can the activate the powerups, each with a different button (L/R for rockets, A for shield and B for power boost.

As a spaceship, you need to move around dodging shots and dropping asteroids at the turret player. Like the turret player, you can also pick up and activate powerups as well.

Shooting down an asteroid grants 200 points, getting a hit on an opponent grants 500 and destroying an opponent with a rocket gives you a whopping 8000 points. As a spacecraft, you can get 2000 points by hitting the turret player with an asteroid or 2600 with a missile.

Human players take turns playing as the turret player, while CPU players are limited to being spacecraft only. Each round lasts as long as it takes to defeat the turret player.

Credits

Spacewaves was made by Spooky Iluha.

Review and conclusion

What makes SpaceWaves unique among all the others in the game jam is that it’s the only one that has assymetric competitive multiplayer. There’s always one player in the turret and another three flying around. It kind of makes me feel like I’m playing a game on the Wii U.

It’s also the only one that has an FMV intro.

The game itself is a bit confusing at first since you need to figure out what to do, and the controls are a bit complicated for a minigame which is supposed to be pick-up-and-play. However at its most basic, all you really need to do is aim and shoot. Everything else that you can do is beneficial, but still optional.

SpaceWaves has hands down the best graphics in the game jam. Not only does it have that initial FMV, but it looks like it could be a retail game from back in the day. It reminds me of the 2nd level from Turok 2 where you ride a dinosaur trampling over your hapless foes.

If I had to nitpick, rounds can get to be a bit too long if you’re playing with multiple players since everyone needs to have their moment in the limelight. Each player can spend upwards of one minute playing, so a 4-player game would last 6-10 minutes which is way too long for a minigame.

Overall, a fantastic game though. I look forward to what Spooky Iluha has coming up next.