Ghost Wave

How To Play

• Z - Shoot
• X - Rockets
• Arrow keys - Move
• Menus - up/down arrows and Z to select

Some enemies have a blue outline - when they die, collect their ghost for a large score bonus. Each ghost is worth 50 points times the number of ghosts collected so far - so the key to a high score is to not miss any of the ghosts.

After you've used your rockets 3 times, they take 10 seconds to reload. Save your rockets for difficult situations or blue enemies.

Inertia is on by default, which makes the player's helicopter move smoothly. If you prefer more responsive controls without acceleration and deceleration you can turn inertia off.

With inertia on changing direction takes a small amount of time, the player's movement flows more like a real helicopter. Inertia off feels like a traditional arcade shmup, where you can change direction or stop instantly. Inertia off is also slightly easier. Choose whichever mode you enjoy more.

Credits

Made by Conor O'Kane

Thanks to: Lazy Devs and everyone on the Lazy Devs Discord, in particular: 

• Louie Chapman for help with Lua and shmup design.
• LokiStriker for playtesting and feedback.
• GPI for the jaP8e editor.
• Trog for the Trog font family.
• And of course, Zep for pico8.

This game is free. You can play it in the browser above, or download an executable for your preferred platform below. The pico8 PNG cart is also available.