Blue eyes, sand, and massive bitey worms. In case you’re a fan of beloved, janky ’80s films or beloved, complicated ’60s sci-fi epics, then you definitely’ll recognise these as the weather of Frank Herbert’s Dune. However oh, what’s this? This is not Dune — that is Starsand, a Swap sport that seems like Dune and sounds like Dune, however shouldn’t be Dune. And that is not a foul factor.
Starsand plops its azure-eyed protagonist down onto a desert planet (not Arrakis) and instructs him to outlive. It would then throw sandstorms at you, have your camp invaded by horrible sand-centipedes, threaten you with searing warmth, biting chilly, thirst, and starvation — and you will have to determine how you can survive all of it.
There is a level behind all of it, too. Starsand’s crumbled desert ruins are house to long-forgotten scriptures, new weapons, and hints of the thriller that lies behind all of it. Possibly you are the sand worm. Wait, no, that is Dune once more.
Starsand is out at the moment on the Nintendo Swap eShop for $19.99/£17.99, in addition to on PS4/5, Xbox Sequence S|X, Xbox One, and PC.
