X Trench Run
Space Waves
Space Waves is a one-button arcade game where you guide a small arrow through level after level of spikes, walls, and spinning cogs. Hold to climb, let go to fall, and try not to crash.
It is free to play in your browser, and the difficulty ranges from gentle warm-up levels to runs that punish you for blinking. You pick the level, so you decide how brave you want to be.
What is Space Waves?
Space Waves is a side-scrolling skill game. Your arrow moves forward on its own and you control only its height: hold the button to rise, release to glide down. The whole game is reading what is coming and timing your climbs and dives so the arrow threads the gaps. Each level ends when you reach the finish, unless you hit something first.
How to play
The arrow always drifts downward when you let go, so plan ahead. Rising takes a moment, which means you start moving up before the gap, not when you are already on top of it.
Desktop controls
- Hold the left mouse button, W, or Spacebar to go up
- Release to come back down
- P to pause
Mobile controls
- Hold anywhere on the screen to go up
- Release to drop back down
Reading the obstacles
Gliding only takes you down, so any incline ahead means you need to climb early. For the round spike clusters, staying low is usually safer than trying to arc over the top. When you are boxed in with hazards above and below, tap in quick bursts to zigzag through while keeping your forward speed steady.
Game modes
Space Waves splits its levels across three modes, and you choose where to start in each.
Classic
Pick a level and reach the finish to clear it. There are three worlds: World 1 is simple, World 2 stays easy, and World 3 is the lava floor that turns the screen into a timing test. Level colors hint at the difficulty, so a green level gives you wider angles and room to build straight momentum, while harder picks pack in tighter gaps and more obstacles.
Endless
One continuous run with no finish line. You go as far as you can and the distance becomes your high score.
Race
You run a level against other arrows across more than 19 stages, with an easy or hard difficulty. You cannot touch the other racers, but you can watch them, including the ones that vanish when they crash. A tracker at the top shows who is leading and how much course is left. Glance at it too long and you crash, because one mistake ends your race.
Customization
You can swap your arrow's look between options like a fiery arrow or a rounded one, and some arrows take color skins on top of that.
Tips for clearing levels
- Start your climb early. The arrow needs a moment to rise, so move before the gap arrives, not as you reach it.
- On lava levels, settle into a steady zigzag of small peaks and dips rather than big swings.
- Stuck on a round, try practice mode. It lets you resume from your last crash instead of restarting the whole level.
- After a crash you see how far you got as a percentage, which is a quick gauge of progress on the tough levels.
- Sometimes a crash offers a resume from where you fell, often after watching an ad. It is a single chance, so be ready before you tap it.
What makes it hard
The control is dead simple, but the arrow's slow rise and constant fall mean you are always playing slightly ahead of where you are. Easy levels forgive a late reaction. The lava floor and the harder race stages do not, and that gap between knowing what to do and doing it on time is where the game lives.
Play Space Waves on mobile
Space Waves has a mobile app as well as the browser version. Keep playing here with no install, or get the app from Google Play and the App Store for a home-screen icon and touch controls built for phones and tablets.
Similar games
If you like Space Waves, try these other free games on X Trench Run.
Space Waves gameplay video
