Fight Crab Review

Fight Crab

Release: January 1, 1970
Publisher: Mastiff
Developer: Calappa Games
Genre: Switch Reviews
PEGI: T
Comments:

 

Comment

Fight Crab is a new type of 3-D fighting game that grants the player complete autonomy and control of their limbs as a playable crab.
Create your own play-style and unique moves by utilizing the physics of your surroundings, and the unique movement style of each species of crab.

The battles are Super Smash Bros in how they play out, there is no health bars, just percentage of damage done to you and your opponent.  Your goal is to flip your foe on their back for a 3 count in order to win your match. Along the way you will eventually get outfitted with various weapons, shields and items. Which in itself is a weird concept as crabs are basically armored already and come with claws…but hey I’m not gonna complain too much when I get to basically wield Thor’s Mjolnir and go at it against a lobster. But overall the higher the damage to your opponent the easier they are to flip over (and hold down if you choose) or in some stages you can knock your opponent out of the “ring” for a win.

Now the game overall sounds simple, however the control scheme really isn’t. Moving a crab is a surprisingly slow feat and not easy to accomplish in the game, so I made a habit of just setting it so he always would approach the opponent and not stop. Each trigger controls the swinging different claw of your creature while the bumper allows you to pick up items, block, or stab your enemy. The environments are pretty destructible which also allows you to pick up items, from swords, to dumplings, to liquor bottles to smash your foe.

Graphics on the Nintendo switch are good enough, the character models are all painstakingly done by someone who REALLY knows what they are doing, however the environments, backgrounds and such are not great. Menus are clunky and look like something out of early flash animation games. As you progress through levels and waves of enemies you gain “currency” used to update attributes of your crab, buy weapons, or unlock additional crabs with their own stats and perks.

Overall the game is a lot of fun to play, my 5 year old thought it was fascinating and funny to see the crabs in action. If you want something to just unplug your brain and play, I had enough of a fun time with Fight Crab to justify it.