Super Snooper Spookers
Super Snooper Spookers is a Nintendo 64 homebrew game by CardboardBox released on 30 Oct 2022 for the 2022 64brew Game jam. In this game, you play as a Spooker and you need to save Snoopers by spooking them away from danger.
You can download the ROM from the download page for this homebrew game by using the password spookthesnoop
or see the source code on Github and download from Drive.
Super Snooper Spookers story and gameplay
Story
The story is fairly straightforward. Snoopers are curious little creatures that like to get themselves into trouble, and it’s your job as a Spooker to scare them so that they don’t walk into their doom.
This is a Snooper. Snoopers are very curious creatures and have little regard for their safety. If left alone, they tend to get themselves into trouble while snooping dangerous places.
You are a Spooker. Snoopers are scared of Spookers. Your job is to keep the snoopers safe by spooking them away from danger.
Spookers don’t like light. You can avoid light by hiding inside a wall. You’ll have to come out to spook the Snoopers, though.
Gameplay
You play as a Spooker, and your objective is to save the Snoopers by scaring them away from danger.
Snoopers appear at the top of the level and move towards the bottom, sometimes moving sideways but never upwards. If they reach the bottom, they die. Three deaths and it’s game over.
Controls are simple – move with the control stick and spook with Z. You can also use the C buttons to shift the camera around to see further away quickly. You can move through walls, but can’t spook while inside them.
That would be quite simple, but the challenge lies in that the snoopers have flashlights on their snouts, and getting hit by light stuns you for a few seconds and send you flying back. Levels after the first even have ceiling lights to contend with. Get hit too often and you won’t have enough time to spook the Snoopers back to whence they came.
Levels
There are three levels in Super Snooper Spookers.
Level 1
Your goal is to spook 15 Snoopers. There are wide open areas and no lights in this level.
Level 2
This level has you go spook 25 Snoopers. It’s a lot more cramped than the first one, with many small rooms. Each room has a light that turns on and off so be careful!
Level 3
The final level’s objective is to save 40 Snoopers. It’s open like the first level, but there are lights that move around the stage so timing is of the essence.
‘Spooky’ theme
The game is spooky in two different ways. You have the characters and setting: A ghost in a haunted house, you can’t get more classic than that. Then you have the gameplay aspect – the whole point of the game is to spook the other characters. Even switching the characters and setting for anything else, the game would still be spooky.
Credits
Super Snooper Spookers was made by CardboardBox, aka Anthony Blackman ho worked on everything from programming, graphics, music and level design.
Conclusion and review
This is the kind of game the I believe most homebrewn games should aspire to be – A simple premise executed well. Super Snooper Spookers goes straight to the point by introducing the setting and gameplay with a few slides and then drops you directly into the action.
The game’s environment is great, I’ll never get tired of the sound effects for the Spooker’s “boo!” and the the Snooper’s scream. The music is also quite cheerful and the characters are cute which helps give it that feeling of being a lighthearted Halloween game.
It’s not a terribly unforgiving game, you can get hit by lights as much as you want without penalty, so it pays to be reckless. If you want more of a challenge, you can try to beat the game without getting hit by light or without entering walls.
If I had to complain about anything, it would be that besides the three level’s layout, it does get a bit stagnant in its challenge and longevity. It might have been easy to make a Level 4-6 with green Snoopers that moved faster, had wider lights or spawned more quickly, just to give an idea.
That said, Super Snooper Spookers is a charming game that is sure to spook none but the faintest of snoops.