Furious Squirrels

About the game

A turn-based nut-throwing duel across the real valley of Hot Springs. The West Ridge Rustlers, a family of fox squirrels on West Mountain, take on the Tower Top Tails, gray squirrels on Hot Springs Mountain. They throw at each other over Bathhouse Row. Set the angle and power, allow for the wind, and use the steam rising over the Row to carry a nut farther. Shake a rival’s grip loose, or knock them out of their tree into a soft leaf pile. Nobody is ever hurt.

Seven native nuts each have a trick you trigger mid-flight:

• the Chinquapin Trio splits into three
• the Pecan Dart dashes straight
• the Black Walnut Burst pops
• the Hickory Hook curls back like a boomerang
• the Sweetgum Drop falls straight down
• the Hedge Apple rolls downhill

Branches break, craters dig into the slopes, and each squirrel can scamper along its own mountain between throws. Every battle is a different spot on the two mountains, with its own heights, trees (oaks, hickories, pines, sweetgums, redbuds, redcedars, Osage-oranges and dead snags), boulders, fallen logs and stumps.

Birds of the season cross the sky: chimney swifts, turkey vultures riding the steam, blue jays, crows, Canada geese, cedar waxwings and, in winter, bald eagles. A nut that hits one glances off, and a blue jay or crow might snatch a plain acorn in mid-air.

The valley’s shape comes from public elevation data. Behind the trees, Bathhouse Row is painted in its true north-to-south order, across seasons, dusk and night. Each battle ends with a Field Notes card that has a real fact about the Row, the squirrels or the nut trees, and its source.

Modes: Story (12 battles that unlock the nuts), Quick Battle (pick the field, family size, wind, steam, birds and rounds, with an acorn shop between rounds) and Practice Range.