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Starwhal Review

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Admit it, you’ve always wanted to play as an afro topped space narwhal decked with a pink tutu and light saber for a nose.

You haven’t? You haven’t lived!

Starwhal by Breakfall thankfully lets you be able to live out that fantasy. And a few others at that. A local multiplayer fighter, it gives you the chance to battle it out with up to three other players in a fight to the death.

The main premise of Starwhal centres around the local multiplayer offering. Four game modes bring fun and games to the sofa scene and although it’s disappointing to not see any proper online features, that’s pretty much a gimme in the indie Xbox One scene at the moment.

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What has been placed in Starwhal however is a huge laugh. ‘Classic’ mode sees you struggling in a fight to the death as you attempt to spear your opponent’s heart with your huge protruding tusk. ‘Score Attack’ works on similar grounds, but only sees a winner crowned once the timer has reached zero or the completely customisable game rules are met. Both of these are your ultimate narwhal fighting scenarios and really are the bread and butter of the multiplayer offerings, bringing some fast and pretty fluid skirmishes as the whales lock horns, squirming their way out of trouble at the very last minute.

Alongside them however are a couple of takes on the domination and capture the flag modes that we know and love from near on all other multiplayer titles; both big and small. ‘Zones’ tasks you with holding certain areas in an attempt to rack up a score quicker than your opponents whilst the delightfully named ‘Heart Throb’ urges you to grab a heart and swim away as fast as you can. Each are brilliant fun in their own right and really bring something different to the table.

All of the above can be customised with longer or shorter game times, objectives and more and so if you have a few friends around for a number of beers, then you can be sure that Starwhal will not just allow the drink to flow, but will also bring about a great deal of laughter and joy. If you don’t have any friends, then taking on the AI is entirely possible, but it’s definitely more fun with a human or two sat next to you, shouting and screaming in your ear! The 20 arenas which are in place have all been well thought out and can quite easily mix things up should you find that one person quickly gets to grips with the way things play out.

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There is however another side to Starwhal, one that if I’m being honest, is infinitely better than the main event. I say better, because well, it initially is, but it’s a shame that the single player challenges which have been included just aren’t in depth or long enough to warrant numerous playthroughs.

Two modes make up the solo experience; that of ‘Obstacles’ and ‘Targets’. Taking control of your special space narwhal, you’ll need to navigate your way through 30 unique levels as fast as you can. With four different medals on offer for each level, there is a fair amount of replayability included as you attempt to reach the end goal in the quickest time possible, or fly around ‘tagging’ moving hearts before the time runs out. The stages included are well created and work well with the slightly dodgy control scheme which afflicts your loveable whale friend ensuring that it is never as easy as you think to get your bright pink swimmer from one part of the stage to the next.

In fact, it’s so tricky at times that a relatively simple stage that happily dishes out a platinum medal for those able to complete it within a few seconds, has easily beaten me to the point where I’ll still be going round in circles a minute or so later!

Without customisation, you’d probably find the offerings available in Starwhal a bit lacking, but for sheer fun factor alone, it pretty much excels with the tailoring of your little swimmer playing a huge role. Each of the four Starwhals that can go into battle can be wrapped with a number of differing items from butterfly wings, afro hairstyles, tutus and everyone’s favourite light sabre. Bright and beautiful colour amendments ensure that even when in the heat of conflict with numerous other space narwhals, each player can be easily identified. Of course, other than something to play around with for five minutes, the ‘costumes’ amount to very little, but with around 90 choices to choose from, they do at least bring about a decent amount of humour.

starwhal review pic 2

Overall then and Starwhal is worth a little shot. If you were going to dismiss it due to the lack of online multiplayer and only real hype surrounding the local multiplayer offerings then think again, for the single player experience is something that will keep you busy for at least an hour…and much more should you have friends leaderboard scores to beat! That said though, if you don’t have friends to beat then you’ll seriously struggle to find anything to keep you busy and the price doesn’t exactly do it any favours.

I have to admit to never wanting to play as an afro topped space narwhal decked with a pink tutu and light saber for a nose either.

But I’m fairly glad I have! You should give it a go.

Neil Watton
Neil Wattonhttps://www.thexboxhub.com/
An Xbox gamer since 2002, I bought the big black box just to play Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee. I have since loved every second of the 360's life and am now just as obsessed with the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S - mostly with the brilliant indie scene that has come to the fore. Gamertag is neil363, feel free to add me to your list.

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