Go whale-watching in Whale to Look
Whale to Look is a cute little Japanese board game all about whale watching. You are a tour guide and you must outcompete your rivals by spotting the most whales in three trips!
Whale to Look: Quick Summary
Score:
7.5/10
Number of Players:
2-5
Time to Play:
30 minutes
A kawaii (cute) little game from Japan that has gorgeous pieces, simple gameplay and a box so small you could pop it in your pocket. It needs a little bit of space to lay out properly and it might be limited in replayability. But if you're looking for an easy-to-pack holiday board game, this is ideal.
What we loved:
Very cute design, the tourists and fisherman characters are delightful
Simple rules, easy to follow rounds
Great to take on holiday
The quality of the playing pieces is very good
What could be improved:
The extra mechanics are sometimes easy to forget
It has a limited replay factor. It won't be a binge fest
As an import, it's a little bit expensive for the size and type of game.
Whale to Look: The review
In Whale to Look, players run whale-watching tour companies in a competitive sea, trying to find the best spots for photographing whales. Rather than a traditional board, players send out tour boats to different areas of the ocean, either to scout ahead and find out whether whales are in the area, or by sending out their tour boats full of paying punters. Players must make educated guesses about the number of fish around each blue zone and then move their boats accordingly to ensure that the most customers see whales before the competition arrives. If an area has lots of fish, then there be white whales aplenty. If the fish are few, then the orcas appear (because they've eaten everything in sight!).
Is Whale to Look easy to play?
We came across this game in Yellow Submarine, Hiroshima, a few years ago. The very helpful customer service chap did his best to understand what we were looking for, and worked around the language barrier (with the help of Google) to find us this game. Small enough to tuck into hand luggage, but still authentically Japanese. Therefore, our box, instructions and pieces are all in Japanese too! Despite this, we still figured out how to play, and we still really enjoy the game.
The English version of Whale to Look comes with very well translated instructions, along with most large European languages (Spanish etc).
The actions per round are quick and, once played through a few times, easy to remember. The main issue we had when playing a few times was to remember all the tiny mechanics in each turn, such as weighing anchor or remembering the radar. These extras might make playing well, difficult for newer board gamers or younger players. But even if you forget, the game is still fun and smooth to play.
What's in Whale to Look?
Whale to Look is a game for up to five players, so in the tiny box is crammed 5 sets of boats, investigators, docks and customers. Despite their diminutive size, the components are designed with care, humour and style. They look really good, and the customers all have their own personalities. The fishermen also look, comically, like classic ninjas from an Anime.
Tour customers fit into the boats really well, and because most of the pieces are wooden, you're not likely to rip the card or paint off the pieces. There is virtually no plastic in the box, everything appears to be card or wood, and this is a really pleasant change from lots of boardgames that still rely on tons of plastic for components or miniatures.
To create the board to play on, fish tiles are placed randomly face down, with sea tiles in the rows in between. This means there isn't a large board to struggle to fit into a tiny box, but also it means you need more space than you think to play. You can just about get away with playing this on a laptray if space is a premium. But it will be snug if there are more than two players.
The pros and cons in detail
What we loved:
The travel size of this game, and the ease with which it can be stored away, are very appealing to us! When you have a large board game collection, space becomes a premium and having a game that's fun, really well put together, but tiny is a big plus.
The components have been lovingly designed and crafted to appeal, but also feel premium and not plasticky. Again, we really appreciate this. The yin/yang design for the white whales and orcas is a nice touch, and the variety of the faces and types of customers is also fab.
The rules are, on the whole, relatively easy to follow. Yes, some extras require remembering, but after a few plays, you will probably have the hang of it enough to have some competitive games.
This game is great at interplay. A bit like matching pairs, Whale to Look involves turning over tiles and remembering what you find, then taking actions to score points. Which means competitive play requires you to watch your opponents and the way they react to tiles as well as finding your own information out too. Knowing your opponent is watching you also means you need to strategise accordingly. For such a small game, with a simple premise, this game can get quite deep.
What we would improve:
The main drawback for Whale to Look is the extra mechanics to remember in each turn. Players need to know when to weigh anchor to score points, when to use your radar, how fishermen work and remember the orcas score big points for NO fish. For younger players, this might be overwhelming or confusing, but if you're used to board gaming, then you'll be OK. Coming back to the game after a reasonable length break also means these extras confuse every time. But this is a small drawback.
There is a limited replay factor on this game, simply because after a few plays, the variety will be gone, and you will be ready to move on to the next one. You will come back to Whale to Look, especially if it becomes a travel favourite, but it won't be a game that stays out all weekend.
Whale to Look currently retails at around £16-£22, which might seem steep for a game the same size as a large box of matches! However, the quality of the components is premium, and the game is comparable in fun to something like an EXIT escape game, which retails around the same price.
Whale to Look: A Summary
Whale to Look is cute, fun and small but mighty. Care and attention have been put into crafting this game, which makes for, overall, a fun time. There are some finicky bits, but mostly the smooth gameplay and tiny size mean this is a great travel board game, or one to hide away easily amongst the bigger games.
Expansions and Related Games
Expansions
There are no expansions for Whale to Look
Related Games
Oink Games specialises in tiny board games. Their catalogue includes: Deep Sea Adventure, Flotsam Fight and Startup Investor
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Whale to Look: Frequently asked questions
Is Whale to Look available in the UK?
Whale to Look is available from a number of board game distributors in the UK, including Amazon, Chaos Cards and Zatu. The box and the instructions are all in well-translated English.
Is Whale to Look good for kids?
Whale to Look is relatively simple to play and looks cute. However, additional mechanics such as weighing anchor or playing radars may be too complicated for very small children. Plus, the small nature of the components means that children will need to be supervised to play this.
Is Whale to Look sustainable?
It's difficult for anything mass-produced and distributed around the world to be truly sustainable; however, there is nothing plastic in this box, it's compact, so it uses a small amount of resources to make, and the paper for instructions, etc, is from recycled materials. Compared to other manufacturers (Hasbro, looking at you...), it's pretty good.
Transparency Notice
This review contains affiliate links to Amazon, Zatu Games, and Chaos Cards. When you purchase through these links, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support our independent reviews while keeping our content free. We only recommend games we genuinely believe in.