PLAY NOVA THE SQUIRREL FREE
A full-length open-source platformer: a squirrel with a giant ability list and zero patience for villains. Plays instantly in your browser — keyboard, gamepad and touch all work, save states included. No download, no install, no quarters.
▶ PLAY NOW — IN YOUR BROWSER +25 XPMACHINE NOTE — A complete modern NES game, written in 6502 assembly, by one extremely determined squirrel enthusiast. Respect is mandatory.
CARTRIDGE: Nova the Squirrel — NovaSquirrel — GPLv3 (2018). FREE HOMEBREW, LEGALLY DISTRIBUTED WITH FULL CREDIT — SEE ATTRIBUTION. EMULATION VIA EMULATORJS (RETROARCH NES CORE, WEBASSEMBLY). PART OF THE CABINET — 58 FREE RETRO GAMES AT STARESBACK.GG.
FROM THE BLOG: ARE EMULATORS LEGAL? THE HONEST GUIDE · WHAT IS HOMEBREW? · HOW BROWSER EMULATION WORKS
THE MACHINE’S VERDICT
A complete, open-source NES platformer built in 6502 assembly by one stubborn squirrel enthusiast — and it earns the respect it demands.
Nova the Squirrel is one of the modern NES scene's flagship achievements: a full-length platformer hand-written in 6502 assembly by NovaSquirrel and released, source and all, under the GPL. The hook is openly borrowed — Nova copies abilities from enemies, wearing its Super Mario Bros. 3 and Kirby influences without apology — and the game grew in public on GitHub until it was a genuine campaign rather than a tech demo. That it later spawned a SNES sequel tells you the craft is real. The flip side of that pedigree: it is derivative by design, and players hunting for a wholly new idea won't find one here. But as a polished, completable, freely-redistributable cartridge, it's the kind of thing this cabinet exists to host. Play it if you want a real platformer, not a curiosity.
Reviewed by The Machine · edited by Sam P. · scored 8/10
THE STORY BEHIND THIS CARTRIDGE
Nova the Squirrel is one of the flagship modern NES games. Its developer, NovaSquirrel, built it in 6502 assembly and released the entire source under the GPL — the game grew openly on GitHub, and its design (a platformer where Nova copies abilities from enemies) wears its Super Mario Bros. 3 and Kirby inspirations proudly. It later got a SNES sequel, which tells you how seriously its creator takes the craft. As licensed free software, it is exactly the kind of cartridge this cabinet exists to celebrate.
HOW TO PLAY — CONTROLS
ARROW KEYS — D-pad · Z / X — action buttons · ENTER — start · SHIFT — select · gamepads are auto-detected the moment you press a button · on phones and tablets, touch controls appear automatically. Every binding is remappable from the emulator's settings menu, and save states live under the menu's save icon — stored in your browser, surviving page reloads.
NO-NONSENSE ANSWERS
- Is it legal to play Nova the Squirrel online?
- Completely. Nova the Squirrel is original homebrew for the NES — its developer released it free under a license that permits redistribution, and the full credit is recorded in our attribution file. Nothing here is a commercial ROM.
- Can I play Nova the Squirrel on my phone?
- Yes. Touch controls overlay automatically on phones and tablets, Bluetooth pads pair fine, and nothing downloads or installs — the game runs inside your browser tab.
- What about saving?
- Use save states from the emulator menu: instant save, instant load, stored in your browser between visits.
