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Waves

Waves

Waves is an Arcade Twin-Stick Shooter that's all about High Scores. Build your combo and drop bombs in pursuit of Leaderboard dominance over seven game-modes!

In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “Twin-stick arcade shooting” (42 of 95 reviews) and “Free game praised repeatedly” (15). What reviewers agree on ↓

Released Nov 16, 2011 Developer Squid In A Box Ltd Platforms Windows Bullet HellShoot 'Em UpTwin Stick ShooterShooterArcade
View on Steam ↗ Free (US · as of 2026-08-12)

What players say

Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-26 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-13.

95.2%positive1,570 reviews

What reviewers agree on

Praised
Criticised
Bar length = how many of the 95 reviews raise the point On criticised points, the pale part = reviewers who still recommend the game Select a point to see the exact counts and what reviewers wrote.

Counted across 95 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 95.2% positive rating · as of 2026-05-13

Recommended · 15 found this helpful

“Wow only started to play it a few days ago and this game is a top down arena gem and it's been free all this time... well at least since 2014 when I added to my game library. Basically you want to wait/survive/manipulate the field to get as much stuff on screen as possible so…”

— a player, Steam review · 4 hrs played
Recommended · 1 found this helpful

“Cheers! Thank you for leavings this gift! Rest eternally in peace Dev, your legacy is one of a kind, and for all ;) SHMUP, Bullet Hell, survive, combo, ∞ Hold, challenge, bombing runs, there's quite a few! What mode this special: Slowing down time with right click and shooting…”

— a player, Steam review · 4 hrs played
Recommended · 0 found this helpful

“An underrated GEM... Picking this back up is so much fun every chance I get. My favorite modes are Bombing Run, Chase, and Hold. R.I.P. to the developer. Highly recommend this one :)”

— a player, Steam review · 5 hrs played
Read more reviews ↗

Player activity

Monthly average concurrent players, self-collected from the Steam API since Aug 2026.

28peak since Aug 2026
0 5 10 7 avg · Sep 2026

Achievement stats

Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-10-20.

54achievements
7.6%median completion
2.2%rarest: Stars In My Eyes
51.8% of players 34.3% of players 33.6% of players 33.1% of players 28.6% of players 27.6% of players 26.9% of players 26.2% of players 25.9% of players 23.5% of players 23.5% of players 20.9% of players 17.2% of players 16.3% of players 14.8% of players 13.4% of players 12.9% of players 12.7% of players 12.2% of players 12.1% of players 11.7% of players 11.4% of players 9.8% of players 8.9% of players 8.7% of players 8.6% of players 8.6% of players 7.6% of players 6.4% of players 6.3% of players 5.4% of players 5.2% of players 5.2% of players 4.7% of players 4.7% of players 4.6% of players 4.4% of players 4.2% of players 4.2% of players 4.1% of players 3.4% of players 3.0% of players 3.0% of players 2.9% of players 2.7% of players 2.5% of players 2.5% of players 2.3% of players 2.3% of players 2.2% of players 2.2% of players 2.2% of players 2.2% of players 2.2% of players 51.8% 0% most earned rarest
Almost everyone has
51.8%Kill them all! — Kill 1000 Enemies in total.
34.3%GET TO THE CHOPPA — Pick up a multiplier just before it despawns.
33.6%Roundhouse Kick — Get 10 point blank kills in 1 second.
Rarest badges of honor
2.2%Stars In My Eyes — Get 5 stars for all 20 levels in Challenge mode (across any number of games)
2.2%Rising Star — Get at least 4 stars across all levels in Challenge mode in a single game.
2.2%Galaxy — 5-Star every Challenge in a single game.

Price tracking

US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.

Freecurrent · sampled 2026-08-12 07:53 UTC
Freelowest since tracking began2026-07-11

Latest official news

Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.

Feb 20, 2021
Waves 2: Notorious - Dev Stream Today @ 3 pm GMT (10 am ET)

I am streaming some Live Dev of Waves 2: Notorious over on Twitch today from 3 PM GMT. These streams tend to run for 3-4 hours so feel free to pop in and say hi! This week's project is a new UI flow,

Feb 13, 2021
Waves 2: Notorious - Dev Stream Today @ 3 pm GMT (10 am ET)

I will be streaming some Live Dev of Waves 2: Notorious over on Twitch today from 3 PM GMT. These streams tend to run for 3-4 hours so feel free to pop in and say hi! This week's project is making som

Feb 06, 2021
Yet More Waves 2: Notorious - Dev Stream Today @ 3 pm GMT (10 am ET)

I will be streaming some Live Dev of Waves 2: Notorious over on Twitch today from 3 PM GMT. These streams tend to run for 3-4 hours so feel free to pop in and say hi! This is starting to become a regu

Jan 30, 2021
Waves 2: Notorious - Dev Stream Today @ 3 pm GMT (10 am ET)

I will be streaming some Live Dev of Waves 2: Notorious over on Twitch today from 3 PM GMT. These streams tend to run for 3-4 hours so feel free to pop in and say hi! The stream will mostly be focused

Jan 12, 2021
Join In On Discord!

If you've just joined the Waves community recently or you've been around since the start you can find other fans on the Squid In A Box Discord Server! By joining the Squid In A Box Discord Server you

Games like Waves

From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.

Chippy Chippy 92.3% · 697 reviews shares Twin Stick Shooter, Arena Shooter, Abstract, Score Attack Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 91.6% · 909 reviews shares Twin Stick Shooter, Psychedelic, Arena Shooter, Score Attack Swarmlake Swarmlake 93.0% · 971 reviews shares Arena Shooter, Fast Paced, Score Attack, Shoot Em Up Planes, Bullets and Vodka Planes, Bullets and Vodka 85.4% · 979 reviews shares Fast Paced, Score Attack, Shoot Em Up, Bullet Hell HYPER DEMON HYPER DEMON 94.2% · 2,861 reviews shares Bullet Time, Psychedelic, Arena Shooter, Fast Paced Kill The Crows Kill The Crows 95.5% · 1,787 reviews shares Bullet Time, Twin Stick Shooter, Arena Shooter, Score Attack UBERMOSH Vol.5 UBERMOSH Vol.5 95.4% · 540 reviews shares Twin Stick Shooter, Cyberpunk, Fast Paced, Shoot Em Up Jet Lancer Jet Lancer 94.1% · 742 reviews shares Twin Stick Shooter, Fast Paced, Shoot Em Up, Bullet Hell

Screenshots

Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.

Facts & details

From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-13.

GenresAction, Indie
Player tagsBullet Hell · Shoot 'Em Up · Twin Stick Shooter · Shooter · Arcade · Top-Down · Bullet Time · Cyberpunk · Time Manipulation · Action · Colorful · Abstract (SteamSpy community voting)
FeaturesSingle-player · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Steam Trading Cards · Steam Cloud · Stats · Steam Leaderboards
LanguagesEnglish * *
ControllerFull support
Achievements54
Official sitehttp://waves.squidinabox.com
Minimum system requirements (PC)

Minimum: OS *: Windows XP SP2, Vista, 7 Processor: 2.0+ GHz or better Memory: 1 GB RAM Graphics: Shader Model 3 Compatible video card DirectX®: 9.0c Hard Drive: 250 MB HD space