Gaming
‘Another Crab’s Treasure’ is the best indie game of 2024
‘Another Crab’s Treasure’ is a fantastic little indie game that released last month, and I’ve been enjoying the hell out of it. This game radiates thought and care, and is so fun to blast through. In fact, it’s my favorite one this year.
You play as Kril, a hermit crab who is marked as a squatter and his shell is taken by a loan shark. He decides to set out to get out of debt and buy his house back, slaying all the bloodthirsty crabs and fish in his path with his trusty sword-fork.
This game is a soulslike, a genre of games named after FromSoftware’s Dark Souls series, focusing on extreme but fair difficulty, boss fights, and swordplay.
What sets ‘Another Crab’s Treasure’ apart is easily its atmosphere and art. The ocean and underwater setting is so fun and colorful, looking like a stop motion claymation cartoon, being a far cry from the normally drab, dark and grey environments of other soulslikes. Each environmental set piece and enemy design pops out brilliantly. For an indie game, the beautifully designed UI and characters are wildly impressive for a studio of its size.
Tight controls and combat are key to all soulslikes, and ‘Another Crab’s Treasure’ very much delivers. While a lot of games in the genre focus on swordplay, class-based skills, and crazy sword techniques, ‘Another Crab’s Treasure’ decides to focus heavily on movement.
There’s a roll, a parry, a backstab, a stamina-based flutter jump, a spin attack, a charge, and even a grappling hook move that allows you to swing around and draw enemies towards you. And most of all, the titular mechanic of being able to hide inside makeshift shells that act as shields. Each shell has a distinct power called an Umami move that forces you to quickly adapt in combat.
The battles in this game require skill, planning, and focus, while at the same time providing crazy movement variety that stays completely faithful to the soulslike genre as well as putting a fun spin on it, which makes the game stand out.
And again, the production value in this game is incredibly impressive for an indie studio. In fact, I originally mistook it for a AAA title. Everything here has so much care poured into it that truly shows how passionate the devs felt about this experience.
‘Another Crab’s Treasure’ is fully voice acted, each map is well thought out and the character designs look amazing and create one of the most recognizable indie casts in recent memory. Every crevice of this game is filled with something great, and even random ideas that have no bearing on the game whatsoever are included simply for fun, like giving Kril a gun or a customizable easy mode. Everything in this game just emits the passion the devs put into the final piece.
‘Another Crab’s Treasure’ is a wonderful experience. This game is a complete package of everything I think of when I think ‘video game’, being a fun undersea romp that doesn’t take itself too seriously while at the same time offering depth and challenge. If you’ve got $20, please pick this game up.
