Ever wonder what it would be like if Narwhals were in space rather than under water? “Starwhal,” developed by Breakfall, is an indie multiplayer game where the player can pick a colored starwhal to battle against two to four other competitors in the expanse of outer space.
Though this doesn’t seem like much, this game can give the player hours of fun versing his/her friends and trying to stab them while dodging their starwhal’s horns in the process.
There are four game modes in “Starwhal.” In Classical mode, the objective is to be the last player to live in a match against friends. In Score Attack mode, the players aren’t eliminated, but instead the match has begun a race against time to tag one another and get the highest score before time runs out. In Heart Throb mode, the game is set like king of the hill, where the player who has the heart when time runs out wins. Finally, there is Zones mode, where the players gain points by capturing control points. Some of the best zones are with the background of the planet, Spacetopus.
Customization gives the player the option to make the starwhal have a look that suits the player’s personality and horn of choice. The horn options vary from a normal narwhal horn all the way to a light saber. With the addition of helmet and costume options, the starwhal can look its best when going up against opponents.
The game comes with more than 20 arenas for the players to verse in, as well as many obstacle and challenge levels to practice in. These come in handy in later stages that introduce new hazards that will take cunning and strategic thinking to work through, such as glass blocks.
The color scheme of the game is bright and vivid, which gives off a retro look, making the game pop out with a bit of a nostalgic feel to it. There are even grid lines that are used as the walling of the arenas that look like something from the universe of Tron.
If there is any issue with the game, it is the repetitiveness of the gameplay. Every level is won by stabbing the opponents with horns in order to win.
Looking past this little flaw, the game itself is just silly and a blast to play for any party or group of friends. It comes on the PC, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4, and will soon be released on the Wii U and in the Nintendo E-Shop. This game gets a 4.3/5.
