Curing Space Whales With Flamethrowers in Blubber Busters

There’s something really unsettling about flying whales. Perhaps I first realized this while refusing to acknowledge their grim existence in Dishonored. Then there was Aik, which somehow managed to incorporate the floating sea beasts into its black and white ecosystem. Luckily, a fresh Kickstarter game called Blubber Busters shines a more colourful light on the sea behemoths, this time by putting players inside them… for medicinal purposes, of course.

Made by a handful of talented people hailing from studios like Riot Games and Harmonix, Blubber Busters is a 2D action-packed platformer which already looks really damn promising. The main premise of the game is that you’re at the helm of a “space veterinary platform” dealing with hurt space whales. This means that each level takes place inside a sad whale patient waiting to be treated. Just the thought of it all makes me giggle.

The majority of Blubber Busters consists of you blasting away at pesky bacteria, parasites and all manner of evil creatures while jumping around platforms made out of whale intestines. For some reason, you can also find cash inside whales. Don’t ask me why – all I know is that you’ll be able to upgrade your space clinic in order to accommodate more patients and better analyze their woes.

While the game is mainly inspired by 2D combat platformers of the olden days, it also modernizes the formula by bringing different playable characters. Each one gives you various unique abilities and playing styles: for example, you might pick a whale-loving janitor who prefers his trusty flamethrower, or a permanently grieving bot specializing in deadly defibrillators. There are three characters planned as of now, with a fourth one locked as part of a later stretch goal.

Maybe thanks to all the ex-Riot Games artists working on the game, Blubber Busters already looks polished to the extreme. Animations are especially impressive, with their quality and style being reminiscent to what you’d see in League of Legends. The art style reminds me a lot of Awesomenauts, but with more cartoon explosions and green goop flying all over the place.

All in all, Blubber Busters‘ Kickstarter asks for $340,000. Although it seems like a reasonable sum, I’m somewhat surprised to see that it covers only a Steam release for PC. As it stands, Mac and Linux are mentioned alongside PS4 and Xbox One as potential platforms part of higher stretch goals.

(Ed. We’ve added the promising Blubber Busters to our Kickstarter Curator page, check it out at Kickstarter.com/cliqist.)