Slow Mole Jr.
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android
The expanded NES version is out!
Short and sweet (and pretty hard) and infinitely replayable is the idea! It displays your records when you beat it so keep improving!
And remember, just like the original Slow Mole, you need to beat the timer to get a new checkpoint. And if you keep playing when you beat it, timers get shorter and shorter.
Slow Mole Jr has two graphics modes; high-res NES style and the more pixelated Pico-8 style. Use the select button at any time to swap between them!
Slow Mole Jr NES is a complete game with all the gameplay, but the sound design is still a work in progress. There's an optional all SFX track that you can swap to by pressing start in game.
The game uses the GNROM mapper with very minimalistic specs and makes some creative use of CHR animation, such as animating the enemy sprites (flashes and insects) through hardware bank swapping.
The game was coded in Pubby's fantastic NESFab toolset which let me recreate all the physics from the Pico-8 game. I wrote a blog post about the process of porting a Pico-8 game to the NES: https://ko-fi.com/Post/Porting-my-Pico-8-game-to-the-NES-F2F7193LW4
Also included in the purchase is the original Pico-8-version, playable as a standalone app for Windows/Mac/Linux/Raspberry Pi and in a browser.
Also, if you haven't, check out the other Slow Mole games:
The original NES game: https://slowmolestudio.itch.io/slow-mole
and the 16-bit sequel: https://slowmolestudio.itch.io/mega-slow-mole
Status | Released |
Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 total ratings) |
Author | SlowMoleStudio |
Genre | Platformer |
Tags | 2D, NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), NES ROM, PICO-8, Pixel Art, Retro, Speedrun |
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $6 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- The NES graphics mode is here!58 days ago
- Out now on the NES!76 days ago
- Game updated and "cartridge" released!Jul 13, 2023
- Finished version released! Now autosaves progress!Oct 14, 2022
Comments
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Awesome job! Thanks a lot
Did they buy the game from you?
How long is this game? I see that the game can't be saved which is a bummer.
Good point! An autosave has just been implemented and will be in the game as soon as the finished version goes live! (Very shortly, just needs some more testing first). There are only 32 screens, but likely it will still take most players hours to beat.
As I was saying, now it saves ;-)
Love the NES version, so this is pretty exciting!
Can you post the .p8 file as well? Would be great to try it in emulation...
Emulation will probably be pretty slow since this runs in 60fps, but it's an interesting idea when the game 100% finished.
At last! p8 and png-cart version now up!
Thank you!
Tested out in Argon on Pixel 7 (Android phone) and NVIDIA Shield (Android TV). Pictures attached...
TV has pixel smoothing on, phone has it off...
In some ways, find it harder than the NES version!
Looks good! It's more condensed than the NES game, partly because of Pico 8 limitations. So it gets to the harder levels a bit quicker, but beating it is probably easier.
It is possible to do multi-cart P8 games to work around the limitations. Sort of like overlays, or even bank switching ;-) We've been looking for a game that implements that we can work with to also support in Argon. We're using fake08 with some extra pre-processing as the core.
True. I wanted to stay within the limitations, because I felt it was sort of the point of making a Pico 8 game. Some of the mechanics make a return in the megadrive game though.
Updates:
v0.5 More music and sound effects. Subtle mechanical tweaks.
v0.31 Slight tweak to the spring bounce cancel mechanic
v0.3: Fifth screen has been rebalanced slightly.
v0.2: Tweaks a hitbox to make two screens slightly more forgiving.