SNES Game Review 149: Whirlo AKA Xandra no Daibōken: Valkyrie to no Deai

The game I am reviewing now is Xandra no Daibōken: Valkyrie to no Deai or at least that's what it was called in Japan, this basically translates to Xandra's Great Adventure: Encounter with the Valkyrie. The game didn't come out in America but it did hit Europe and Australia where it was called Whirlo, heck of a title simplification isent it? 

The game is a prequel to a NES game, a game called Valkyrie no Bōken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu that game had you play as a Valkyrie but featured a supporting character called Krino Xandra (known as Whirlo in Europe). This game takes that supporting character who for simplicities sake I will mostly call Whirlo from now on and thrusts him into the role of hero.

So what kind of game is Whirlo? Well its an action-adventure platform game it was developed by Nova Games Ltd and published  by Namco on July the 23rd of 1992 in Japan for the Super Famicom hitting Europe and Australia on the SNES as Whirlo sometime later during the same year. Now this is actually one of 10 games that Nova Games Ltd made for the SNES but in all honesty information about them is pretty much none existent, if you try to look up Nova Games you will find a mobile phone games developer which set up shop in 2014 and a Nova Games Limited which clearly cant be the one which worked on these SNES games as it was set up in 1993 a year after this games release, this particular company was a British game distributor located in Coppull, Lancashire, England which manufactured strength tester machines that had Addams Family and Star Trek licenses. I guess some game studio names just sound so cool they get used multiple times and no one cares as long as the company which used the name last is dead and gone.

OK so lets start talking about the game and lets start with the story. Whirlo/Xandra is living a peaceful and happy life deep in the countryside with his wife and there son in a place called Sandros/the Land of Marvel (Depends on the version your playing). Everything doesn't remain peaceful though, nope one day all of this peace is broken by a huge explosion which is so loud and powerful that it is heard throughout the land. This explosion releases an evil fiend who causes a deadly dust to fall from the sky and this dust makes many of the people across the Land of Marvel ill, it gives them some form of withering disease. Whirlo's son is afflicted with the disease and after overhearing talk of a marvelous curing medicine, Whirlo leaves his wife and child and sets out on a journey to find this medicine and save his son. 

So not that I have talked about the story I guess I will move on to the graphics. Well to start with Whirlo is a great looking little character, basically he is a tubby little green jelly baby sort of looking thing with a three pronged head who walks around naked holding a pitchfork. Strangely on the English box they gave him a mouth which is not present in either the game or the original Japanese art and well they also made him look a little bit more like a frog in my opinion as well as taking away his pitchfork. Its bad art and well OK I should stop talking about box art now and save that for another time. The graphics in general are great though, they look very polished, and there are a lot of different areas with there own designs and everything just moves so beautifully smooth. The game looks nice and pleasant but as I will get into later don't let the happy friendly graphics deceive you.

The music is absolutely brilliant stuff, not only does it fit the game perfectly but I also think its some of the best virtually unkown music on the system, well unknown outside of Japan at least, not really sure how big this game was there so for all I know everyone over there into retro gaming might frequently talk about this game.

I am guessing that this game was released in very small numbers over here, as I never ever saw it as a kid and well it also goes for a heck of a lot for a SNES game nowadays. After playing it I have to say that its such a shame that such a good game seems to be basically unknown. OK so I have let the cat out of the bag and sad the game is good, its good but its also blooming difficult , its darn challenging  but it is also cutesy platforming at its best. One touch from any enemy in the game and you die there is  no energy bar here and no power ups. You have the tool set your given from the get go and that's it.

The jump mechanics in this game are unusual and at first kind of confusing but with a bit of practice you will soon be impressed with what you can manage. You have two jump buttons B and A . B is your standard regular jump button. If you give it a little push then you do a little jump and if you press it for longer then you do a higher jump. A is also used to jump. If you hold down A, Whirlo/Sandora will crouch and start charging and when you release it you do a charged jump which goes even higher, think mario 2 on the NES if you have played that. If you start it from a stationary position the jumps not exactly super high but if you were running when you started holding A then you will jump much higher. If you charge for too long though you will tire Whirlo out and cause him to collapse out of exhaustion for a little bit. If while you're running you tap A then, you will do a long hop. It's a long jump with no real height but a lot of distance. At first all of these different kinds of jump are kind of confusing, it seems weird to have such a range of jumps but this is the beauty of the game, each and every one of them has its own use.

The Y button is your attack button, press it and Whirlo will use his pitchfork to attack enemies. If you do it when standing you'll do a straight stab. You can also stab below you. One of the coolest moments in this game for me is when you run and jump and attack an enemy below you with your pitchfork, you'll find yourself bouncing off of them and if you get the rhythm right you can bounce from enemy to enemy unleashing awesome stylish cutesy death upon your enemies. Its a tough game and it also seems to be pretty darn long, but its highly enjoyable, although for people who find hard games frustrating I can see this game rubbing some people up the wrong way.

OK so if I was to rate this game I would give it a 8.5 out of 10. I would score it higher but I do seriously think its difficulty level might be a barrier to some peoples enjoyment, maybe it could do with a few different difficulty levels perhaps one with a health bar? So if you wanted a Pal cart of this game what would it cost you? The cheapest pal copy which looked genuine that I have seen for sale was about £100 if you include postage. I have often seen people asking for sums like £230 for a loose cart of this, with people asking for £450 or more for boxed copies. Plus you get absolutely loads of fake copies and reproductions of this game. If you want to play it without paying a fortune or resulting in emulation then your best of looking at a Japanese copy of Xandra no Daibōken: Valkyrie to no Deai, you should be able to get a cart only one for about £10 if your willing to keep your eyes open, wait and have it imported, heck sometimes boxed copies of the Japanese version come up for about £30, obviously you need an import console, a modified console or a convertor in order to play it.