Is there a particular roguelike game that comes to mind when you think of the genre? Is it running around in Hades trying to escape the underworld as Zagreus? Or maybe the iconic The Binding of Isaac flashes through your mind? Maybe you don’t think about crabs yet, but you’ll be thinking about them soon. The journey of Crab Champions from meme to full-blown game was quite an interesting one. Despite its comedic origins, the game maintains a surprisingly smooth experience despite its comedic nature, without sacrificing gameplay.
Crab Champions lets you control a crab on an overworld island and start your run to be a champion. In each level, you’ll have to clear a horde of crabs, ants, pufferfish, and other enemies or survive until the timer runs out. Upon completion, you will be rewarded with an upgrade of your choosing. After choosing your upgrade, you get to choose what kind of upgrade you would like next. For example, you could choose between a health upgrade or a damage upgrade after completing the next island.
As you progress through the game, you will be collecting crystals so that you can spend them in the shop island, which pops up every few levels and allows you to purchase upgrades and heal before you continue your journey. It is after defeating a boss at the end of each biome that you will become a crab champion. By defeating each boss in the overworld island and collecting the keys they give you, you will be able to unlock new weapons from the vast arsenal available to you.
The gameplay itself is much smoother than I expected it to be. I really enjoy the movement once I get used to it. With the ability to slide and flip, you can cover a lot of ground in one jump. Constantly moving keeps you safe. The runs have a little bit of a learning curve, and many of my early attempts ended in death after only a few levels. Once you get the hang of the movement and combat, you can focus on unlocking weapons and optimizing your upgrades to become the most powerful crab around.
However, the game is not without its flaws. Spectating while playing with other people is uncomfortable and clunky. The camera doesn’t keep up with the player’s movements. Having trouble getting multiplayer to work, I found that clicking the join game option on the Steam profile worked best instead of inviting others. Fortunately, a plan appears to exist to continue developing and improving this crab roguelike. The overworld spawn features a giant billboard that acts as a roadmap of sorts for the game, with plans to include new biomes, enemies, changes to bosses, and overall more variation and choice for each run. While Crab Champions is not perfect at this point, it is still a fun journey through the islands as a crab blasting anything out of your way as you go. Although there is some clunkiness to it, the gameplay itself is enjoyable once you get used to it.
