STARWAVE review for Meta Quest

Tyler Nethers06 mins
Platform: Meta Quest
Publisher: Tigertron / Skymap Games
Developer: Tigertron / Skymap Games
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: Leaderboards, Daily challenges

STARWAVE will be immediately familiar to anyone with VR experience. On the surface, it is another rhythm game that has you smashing multicolored orbs in time with different musical tracks, a la Beat Saber. Beyond that surface-level comparison, however, STARWAVE offers something a bit deeper and more satisfying for long-term players.

The core premise is the same: you hold two rainbow batons and are instructed to smash notes that fly at you in the form of multicolored orbs. Instead of being a stationary player with the notes flying toward you, STARWAVE sees you flying through space and hitting the orbs as you pass them. You are also encouraged to strike the orbs with force, which sends them flying off to explode with a blast of fireworks in space. In addition to the fun visual, striking the notes harder nets you more points than simply tapping them. To add to this, an occasional asteroid will come close, and you can hit your note in that direction, shattering the asteroid for even more points. Earning enough points on each level will unlock a unique constellation that will be added to your collection and will be available for viewing later. These constellations are brought to life and ethereally animated, which is gorgeous.

At launch, STARWAVE has 36 songs available, each with a different trip through the stars to accompany the level. In addition to the standard mode, each day, there is a new “Daily challenge,” a selection of three songs played back to back for a total of 10 minutes. This is great for picking up and playing with limited time or simply getting a brief exercise in between meetings and daily life. And make no mistake, STARWAVE will qualify as light exercise. Even more so than its contemporaries, I found myself moving around the room more with STARWAVE. I would reach up for higher notes or slide to the side to launch an orb at an asteroid. You will absolutely work up a light sweat knocking out the daily challenges if you choose to do them.

Visually, STARWAVE stands alone in the VR rhythm genre. Each trip through space is a blast, gorgeously animated and matching the feel of whichever song it corresponds with. Planets will come and go; you will pass stars and asteroids and conclude each level with a gorgeously animated constellation you have completed before fading off to your next level. Every level feels intentional and unique, where it would have been easy enough to copy and paste the majority of the backgrounds and call it a day.

STARWAVE is not necessarily a game I see myself spending a ton of time on in a single sitting, but that is how I feel about all of the rhythm games on VR. I enjoy hopping on, playing a few songs, and then moving on to something else. The daily challenge mode is a fun way to get me engaged with the game each day, with enough time to enjoy myself but not so much that it takes up the entirety of my very limited VR playtime in a given day. With continued support and some additional songs down the road, I can see myself returning to STARWAVE again and again as time goes on, even after unlocking all of the constellations.

Note: Tigertron provided us with a STARWAVE Meta Quest code for review purposes.

Score: 9