I released an NES platformer game back in June but never thought to register and post about it here. It's mostly a mix between Kirby and Super Mario Bros 3, with influences from many other games, and there's a lot of puzzles. It's very long, with 33 levels and 7 bosses, and it took me three years to develop. I hope you all enjoy it.

  

Download link: https://novasquirrel.itch.io/nova-the-squirrel
GitHub repository: https://github.com/NovaSquirrel/NovaTheSquirrel (yes, the game is open source!)
I want to release the game on cartridge too when I'm able to do that.
 

This looks cool! Keep us updated on a cart release!

Looks great! Very charming graphical style.

YOU CAN JUST USE THESE ALL THE WAY ABOVE THE LEVEL AND NOT PLAY ANY OF IT, WHAT IS THE POINT

I just wanted to share that I bought this game and I am pretty happy with it and would recommend it. It is a fun, quirky game with some neat and surprising little features and it is definitely colorful and made me laugh a few times. I haven't beaten it yet but so far I am enjoying it.

I also think it's really cool that Nova has offered up his game for people to enjoy, and I would encourage you to try it out and if you like it, send some support his way as I know a lot of work went into it.

Thanks!

Loving the Youtube Poop references  

Nice! Look forward to the release

I've been following you recently in Twitter, and didn't realize this was actually released yet... Lol

Yes, please let us all know when you get a cart release organized.  

I'm all in for a cart release of any platformer. Do you need an emulator to play it?

Looks like it's playable on a flashcart, too.

 

I spent some time with this game the other evening and what I saw of it was very very good, I am really impressed by the number of gameplay mechanics, puzzles and content this game has. Cute sprite, and nice music, too. And the youtube poop references!! I love youtube poop. I about died every time Nova died and I heard DEYE! LOL If you do do a cart release, I'm definitely gonna get it. And it has to be the same green as Nova's fur. Actually, you should make the first fur covered nes cartridge. Might not be good for dust purposes but maybe you could use micofiber.

OF COURSE I'D POST THIS SNESNES (NA Discord stuff  )

Yeah, you can play on a flashcart just fine, and I don't care if you burn it to an SNROM board for personal use either.
I'm running through some of the last things I'll need to get done before a cart release so I can hopefully push towards that. I want to change it to save to flash instead of requiring a battery, which will have to wait until I can get a board to test that on.

Today I made it so that the game will compensate for PAL for music and sound effects (which was super simple because the Pently sound engine already supports it) and I did start on a PAL-only version that would adjust game speeds too but I'm not sure there's much demand for that? That would probably be pretty simple too, though take more effort than this did.

Here is some context:

By the way, there's a speedrun of the game available:

if you want to watch someone who's really good at the game. I tried to keep speedrunning in mind when making it and you can go really fast and abuse the ice and burger abilities quite a bit to skip things.

Looks fun.

Looks really good! Thank you for sharing!

Man I wish someone speedran Space Soviets when it gets released

It's great to see speedruns on homebrews

I'll have to give this a go later today. Looks promising.

I played through the first few levels and I'm liking it a lot. The controls feel tight and responsive. The art style is great too. Kirby's Adventure and Super Mario Bros. 3 are two of my favorite games, so this game is right up in my wheelhouse.

This looks fun. I'll check it out later.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. I think a lot of the inspiration behind the art style actually came from Kirby's Adventure, because we're both using mostly monochromatic palettes:

I think this helps set my game apart from the style I usually see that uses a lot of black outlines on things, and helps the game be more colorful.

While I'm on the subject, a lot of the ideas for scenery actually came from RollerCoaster Tycoon, and I would use its scenery themes for inspiration a lot. In particular, world 2 is very focused on RCT's Abstract theme, meant to be a colored glass world.
 

As a matter of fact, I'm going through World 2 right now, up to 2-5. The colored glass world is theme is neat.  I like the puzzles a lot and those enemies are certainly out there, like the Hamburger guys dropping exploding fries. The running mechanic took a bit to get used to, but I think I have a handle on it now. I also find it funny that there has been different sound when you die in each world so far. I'll find out soon enough.

This will probably come to no surprise, but this game runs great on both the RetroUSB AVS and the original NES, using the Everdrive N8. I'd definitely be interested in a cartridge release of this game.

Thanks, NovaSquirrel! Looks awesome. I intend to check this out tonight.