Thwaite

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Overview

A hippie guitarist who has visited your small town for years has gone rogue and launched ICBMs toward your town. Break out the fireworks that you had been saving for Independence Day, turn them into makeshift anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs), and shoot down the incoming missiles. Defend the town for seven nights, Sunday through Saturday, and you win.

Each of two silos starts with 15 ABMs. Place the aiming cursor in front of the incoming missile and fire an ABM to destroy it. You have to lead your shot a bit because it takes a split second for the ABM to arrive, but the explosion of an ABM is wide enough to destroy several missiles, so aim where the incoming missiles' paths are about to cross.

Balloons and multiple independent reentry vehicle (MIRV) missiles will release a payload of multiple missiles if not shot down promptly. The game is over once both silos or all ten houses have been destroyed, or once you have survived all seven nights.

In a 2-player cooperative game, player 1 controls Milo's cursor and player 2 controls Staisy's. The Practice option on the title screen begins a readiness drill that lets you practise any of the 35 waves with buildings on the left side, the right side, or both.

Made by: Damian Yerrick
Released: 2011

Controls guide

Title screen

Button and key	Action
Up/Down	Choose 1 Player, 2 Players or Practice
Select`Shift`	Step to the next option
A`X`/Start`Enter`	Confirm

Defending the town

Button and key	Action
D-pad`Arrows`	Move the aiming cursor; it speeds up the longer you hold a direction and brakes when you let go
B`Z`	Fire an ABM from Milo's silo on the left
A`X`	Fire an ABM from Staisy's silo on the right
Start`Enter`	Pause or resume
Select`Shift`	While paused in practice, go back to the practice menu

Two players

Button and key	Action
D-pad`Arrows`	Each player moves their own cursor
A`X`/B`Z`	Either button fires from that player's own silo

Cut scenes

Button and key	Action
A`X`	Show the next line of dialogue
Start`Enter`	Skip the scene

Practice menu

Button and key	Action
D-pad`Arrows`	Move the pointer
A`X`/B`Z`	Pick a day, an hour, a side, Cancel or Play
Start`Enter`	Play the chosen wave

Cheatsheet

Incoming threats

Missile: Comes in salvos of 1 to 5, each aimed at a building
Balloon: Drifts in from the left at half missile speed; drops three missiles over a house and its two neighbours
MIRV: Splits into three missiles 128 pixels above the ground, two houses apart
Missile aimed at wreckage: Does no further harm

Scoring and repairs

Each house standing after a wave: 100 points
Each ABM left after a wave: 10 points
Shooting down a missile: No points by itself
Silo refill: 15 ABMs each, or 20 if only one silo is left
Lost silo: Rebuilt after a wave with no house lost, or at the end of the night
Lost house: One is rebuilt each morning, except after Saturday

Hours that break the pattern

Sun 01:00: Very slow, few missiles
Mon 04:00: Fewer missiles, but very fast
Tue 01:00: Mostly balloons
Wed 01:00: Balloon Fever: only balloons and MIRVs
Wed 03:00: Fast missiles in small salvos
Thu, Fri, Sat 01:00: Mostly balloons again, faster each night
Fri 04:00: The fastest missiles in the game

Tips

Points come only from what survives, 100 per house and 10 per spare ABM, so one well-placed blast that catches two or three missiles where their paths cross is worth more than a quick shot at each.
Fire into the path ahead of a missile, not at it: the ABM needs a moment to fly up, and the cursor's acceleration means short taps are best for small corrections.
Hit balloons and MIRVs early. A balloon you miss drops three missiles at once, and a MIRV splits into three about halfway down the screen.
Balloons always arrive from the left, which tempts you to empty Milo's silo during Balloon Fever hours. Fire from Staisy's side as well so neither silo runs dry and gets destroyed.
When a silo is gone, protect every house for the next wave: getting through a wave without losing a house rebuilds the silo before nightfall.
Later in the week you can ignore missiles heading for houses that are already ruined and save ammo for the ones aimed at standing buildings and silos.

Secrets

The perfect week

Get through whole days without a single house being destroyed. The cut scenes then follow a separate perfect track: by midweek the villagers decide the whole thing must be a scripted fireworks show, and if you stay perfect all the way to Saturday the ending thanks you for TASing Thwaite instead of revealing the culprit.