Thwaite

Thwaite is a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System in which the player must defend a cute little village from incoming missiles using missiles.

The ROM is freeware, available from [//pineight.com/nes/#thwaite the developer's web site].

Tropes used

 * Aerith and Bob: NPCs like Tilda, Meg, and Justin next to Gnivad, Isca, and Briar.
 * Alertness Blink: The ! over a house that's about to be destroyed, with accompanying Scare Chord.
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit: If ten houses are already present when morning comes, another house is not built.
 * Co-Op Multiplayer: In single-player, the player can fire from either of two missile silos with the two buttons on a controller or mouse. In 2-player, each player has his own cursor and can fire from one of the silos.
 * Critical Existence Failure: Even if all ten villagers have to crowd into a single house, the game goes on.


 * CrowdPanic: Normally, the villagers inside a house that's threatened (see AlertnessBlink) head for another house. This happens in the faster levels where almost every house is threatened.
 * DestructibleProjectiles: The goal is to protect the village by destroying incoming ballistic missiles.
 * DoubleTap: The best option when dealing with a balloon or MIRV that just split into three missiles is to destroy two with one of your missiles and the third with another.
 * DoWellButNotPerfect: The ending for a NoDamageRun is not CanonEnding canon.
 * DummiedOut: The cutscenes were originally supposed to have characters walking around. Graphics for this are still present in the tile sheet.
 * EveryTenThousandPoints: One destroyed house is rebuilt after each day that the player survives.
 * ExpositionBreak: Before a 1- or 2-player game begins, a short, skippable is shown explaining the game's object. During the game, each five waves represent one early morning, and after them, there's a short dialogue during the day.
 * GameOver: If all ten houses are destroyed, or both missile silos are destroyed, the game ends.
 * GeneralGamingGamepads: In addition to a standard NES controller, the game accepts a VideoGame/MarioPaint Super NES Mouse that is plugged through a Super NES to NES controller adapter or into a "famiclone" console with Super NES controller ports.
 * GimmickLevel: The levels with unusually fast missiles to test reaction time and the levels with all splitty things (balloons and [=MIRVs=]).
 * HintSystem: a two-line hint is displayed for the first five seconds of early levels.
 * HoldTheLine: Each round has a specific number of enemy missiles, and the round ends once all those have spawned and either been destroyed or destroyed something.
 * MacrossMissileMassacre: What the player must destroy.
 * MrExposition: In the opening cut scene, Pino instructs Milo and Staisy on how to operate the fireworks as a missile defense system.
 * MultipleEndings: The culprit is never discovered if NoDamageRun no buildings ever get blown up.
 * MyNaymeIs: Player 2's character is named Staisy.
 * NoFairCheating: spoiler:The NoDamageRun ending [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaks the fourth wall to thank the player for performing a tool-assisted superplay, assuming that no player can accomplish this NintendoHard feat legitimately.]]
 * NoPronunciationGuide: One of the [=NPCs=] is named Gnivad, and the manual doesn't give any hints on how to pronounce this.
 * NotAGame: In a NoDamageRun in progress, one of the villagers thinks the action is AllPartOfTheShow just an elaborate fireworks show, and another has a hard time convincing him otherwise.
 * OneHitPolykill: Blowing up multiple missiles is essential especially in the fifth round of each morning, where the enemy has more ammo than you.
 * RecursiveAmmo: MIRV missiles and balloons.
 * RidiculouslyFastConstruction: It takes only one day to rebuild a destroyed house.
 * ScoringPoints: Played with. Blowing up incoming missiles scores no points; conserving ammo and keeping houses protected at the end of each round does, as the ScoreScreen after each round explains. Because of this, there is only one score even in co-op.
 * ShoutOut: The game's aesthetics and ending recall VideoGame/AnimalCrossing series.
 * Balloons carrying missiles resemble those that carried presents in Animal Crossing.
 * The AlertnessBlink references VideoGame/MetalGear series.
 * One of the cut scenes in the NoDamageRun track quotes lines from the intro to VideoGame/ZeroWing.
 * The CanonEnding references spoiler:an EasterEgg shared by Mario Paint, VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening, and Animal Crossing.
 * SoundtrackDissonance: The game's peaceful, subdued soundtrack sounds like tunes that might be played in a laid-back social sim. It doesn't fit with the frantic blowing-things-up action.
 * StandardSnippet: After each round, a snippet of "WestminsterChimes Westminster Quarters" plays.
 * StuffBlowingUp
 * SugarApocalypse
 * SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The music for 2 AM is a parody of the music for 2 AM in Wild World, showing that song's own similarity to the second movement of Pathetique by LudwigVanBeethoven.
 * UnstableEquilibrium: After a missile silo is blown up, it's out of commission for the remainder of that round and until either sunrise or the player completes a round without a single building being destroyed. At this point, the player has fewer missiles to work with, and one strategy is to ignore half the buildings.