An asian game developer I worked for once told me “Less is more”. And this game is exactly built on this philosophy… But it dives deeper into the abyss than you’d expect.
Fight Crab is basically what you’d expect. It’s a crab fight!? But where our real-life specimen only duel for mating purposes and protecting their square meter of beach sand, in this game you do it for glory, fun, and money!
The game is pretty self aware and you shouldn’t expect a lot of realism because instead you’ll find a game that is just plain fun. It has this very arcady feel and you’ll be laughing with friends in no time once you pick it up. You can choose from two playstyles, one with gyro controls using the Joy-Con as your left and right pincers or you can opt-out for the traditional controller layout. Both do a pretty good job of controlling the creatures and their fearsome limbs but there is just a tad more fun to use the gyro controls instead. With the directional buttons you’ll make your crab move like the tank it is in nature’s battlefield in any direction as you strafe into chaos. You can throw punches or hold opponents to inflict damage and in true Smash bros style the more your damage percentage increases the more likely you are to be flipped over by your foes and vice versa.
There’s a lot of fun with the pincers in the beginning but it gets boring quickly… Not to worry, you can equip your pincers with upgrades in the shop using in-game money you win from your underground crab fights! From knives to NASA rocket thrusters and even a joust to keep enemies at distance. And this is where the game gets more tactical. Every creature and weapon will impact your stats on the battlefield ranging from stamina, speed to strength, and more. You can level up stats and choose your own play style. Some enemies require a certain strategy and even when playing online you’ll be amazed by how good some players already are!
The visual style is not the Switch’s best-looking child but if you’re into arcady graphics it’ll please you sure enough. The game doesn’t really need good graphics to keep you entertained. It’s just plain fun to throw around furniture or palm trees at a rare blue lobster with a gun and kitchen knife.
The game is fun and it offers in-depth gameplay and mechanics you wouldn’t expect. But in the end, it’s not a game you’ll keep playing once you finished the main campaign and had a few online brawls. Maybe some free DLC could help lengthen Calappa Games & Nusoft’s crab brawler with a deadly twist.
