Review: Another Crab’s Treasure

Don’t let its charming stylized looks deceive you – Another Crab’s Treasure packs a real punch.

As FromSoftware enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame for its trademark dark fantasy worlds and challenging, satisfying combat, there have been many Souls impersonators in recent times. From AAA titles such as Jedi: Fallen Order and Stellar Blade to indie endeavors like Death’s Door and Hollow Knight, developers Aggro Crab are the next studio to stick their claws into the mix.

While on the surface of things (or should we say the shell of things?) Another Crab’s Treasure looks extremely silly, but it manages to nail down the core loop of a Souls-like game. Challenging combat, exploration, RPG elements, and dying a lot are key features of this underwater adventure.

Story and themes

In Another Crab’s Treasure, you take control of Kril, a hermit crab whose shell gets repossessed due to missed tax payments. Determined to get it back and return to a life of doing nothing in the tide pool, Kril is soon entangled in a tale much bigger than him. As a protagonist, he brings a very “I wasn’t supposed to be here today” vibe to the game.

As you continue to fail to recover Kril’s shell, the state of the ocean reveals itself to you, and it’s not good. Trash forms the basis of the crustacean economy and is found everywhere. Highlighted of course by Kril’s use of whatever he can find as a shell, the garbage is all-pervasive and is being used for anything and everything, from clothes to buildings to currency. It’s not all fun and games though as a mysterious illness called Gunk has started affecting those most exposed to the pollution.

Coming from the indie team behind Going Under, Aggro Crab, there’s a ton to love about Another Crab’s Treasure. It has an extremely strong sense of its own style and it wears its humor on its sleeve. In a distinct departure from many of its Souls-like brethren, Another Crab’s Treasure is bright and colorful. Characters are cartoonish but extremely well-realized and distinctive, with excellent voice acting.

Tonally, the game pendulums between dark humor (‘crabitalist’ will never stop being one of the best jokes ever written) and existential dread. One way it most flexes its Souls-like credentials is how it deals with heavy themes throughout the game. For a cute game about an angry crab, it goes hard. The soundtrack can’t go without a mention either, it does its job extremely well and creates excitement,

Combat

As with any Souls-like, Another Crab’s Treasure lives or dies by its combat, and you can tell Aggro Crab has worked hard to make a system with depth and real challenge. There’s a huge variety of shells to equip (over 50), with a huge range of special abilities and variations. The fact that they degrade quickly and you often have to scramble around to find a new shell mid-combat is reminiscent of the weapon degradation system in Zelda: Breath of the Wild (which I maintain was a good feature), encouraging moments of excitement, anxiety, and experimentation.

You also unlock access to more combat abilities through the power of Umami. I did find it annoying that parrying and riposting had to be unlocked and weren’t available from the start, but the currency is easy to come by and I was failing to parry enemies in no time. As you defeat certain key bosses you also get access to Adaptations, highly powerful moves that you can use for a massive boost to combat. I’m a simple gamer and my favourite was the really big punch.

However, the combat system is not without flaws. Its fast pace can make it hard to keep track of what is going on, especially given that many enemy attacks will stun or knock back briefly. It’s very easy to lose your bearings when every attack sends you flying across the area. Some bosses especially were made extremely difficult because their attacks were fast, hard to read, and deadly. Dodging was also very hit-or-miss, and enemies frequently had ranges larger than my dodge. Responding to feedback from the demo, Aggro Crab said they were aware that the combat felt a little slippery and unpredictable to some players and had worked to resolve this feeling, and while it is definitely better than in the demo, it doesn’t quite have the polish I’d hope to see from a game where the combat is so central to the gameplay.

Exploration and platforming

As well as Souls-like, Another Crab’s Treasure flexes its 3D platformer muscles, and does an extremely good job of making exploration fun and rewarding. There are loads of areas to go and explore, and almost all of them have a reward of some kind at the end. Levels use verticality extremely well, and you frequently loop back on yourself with unlockable shortcuts and the archetypal “doesn’t open from this side” doors.

It’s a universal truth that any game is improved by the addition of a grappling hook, and Another Crab’s Treasure doesn’t make you wait too long to get your claws on one. It doubles up for both exploration and combat which makes its inclusion feel doubly justified.

On occasion when platforming or doing combat in a small space, I felt like the camera was working against me. It frequently swung around wildly, and the fixed distance between the camera and Kril meant that sometimes I’d be inside a room fighting for my life, but the camera was uselessly showing me the outside wall of a building I was inside. Likewise, when platforming, it felt like you had to ensure the camera was pointing in a very particular direction before leaping or Kril would change direction suddenly (and somewhat nauseatingly) and you’d rapidly be swinging to your doom.

Conclusion

Mild annoyances and nitpicks aside, Another Crab’s Treasure is a gem of a game. It’s not going to be for everyone, but that’s okay. I don’t say that because it’s hard (though it is), because it has an excellent Assist Mode with adjustable settings to make the game incrementally easier if needed, but because the style and humor just won’t land for some people. The game is equal parts silly and dark, not a combo that everyone digs. I found the escalating story engaging and it really pulled me through the final boss gauntlet, but it’s a harder sell if you don’t. Equally, some people won’t like the cartoonish graphics, especially when juxtaposed against heavier themes.

If the style, humor, and premise do appeal to you though, I urge you to give this game a go. It really delivers on what it promises to do and Aggro Crab has to be applauded for that. Get your claws on Another Crab’s Treasure from April 25th.

• Release date: April 25th
• Platforms: Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X |S, Xbox Game Pass
• Price: TBC
• Developers: Aggro Crab
• Publishers: Aggro Crab

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