[Review] Fight Crab - Nintendo Switch

Developed By: Calappa Games, Nussoft
Published By: Mastiff, Physicality Games (Physical)
Categories: Fighting Game
Release Date:  09.15.20

Have you ever dreamed of watching or even making a handful of crabs fight eachother? Well dream no more, as the aptly named Fight Crab is here to fulfill your deepest fantasies.

Well, what kind of game is Fight Crab you say? You’ll fight and wrestle, one on one, two on two, free for all, and best of all against a giant enemy crab. You’ll find the crabs with their own weapons; a bat, a sword, a gun, lightsabers, part of a jet. It quickly becomes very apparent that this is a very silly game, if it wasn’t from the onset with the tutorial having J Pop playing the entire time.

Controls make sense when you get used to them, but it might take players a small chunk of time to really get used to them. Both sticks control an arm, the L and R buttons pinch your pincers to grab and pick up weapons and various environmental items, and ZL and ZR are used to make your arms strike. Movement is where the confusion might come in, with the left joycon buttons or dpad choosing a direction the crab with automatically move and moving your arms both in a direction to turn. As the camera is always placed on the opposing crab, this can become disorientating and I often found myself getting lose in the chaos because of this or having difficulty finding something behind me. Further in the game you’ll unlock special abilities and attacks which can be closest compared to the Super Saiyan transformation in Dragon Ball Z, as well as the games own Kamehameha.

The single player has you, with the crab of your choice fighting his way to the top as the strongest of all crabs. You’ll go from fighting in the streets with guns and crowbars, to knightly halls with the elusive Excalibur, soon finding yourself in the supermarket. Each of the stages has their own set of weapons, crabs, and boss fight. The game ultimately plays the same regardless of the stage, but seeing items in the environment such as bread, a table, mopeds, etc… definitely changes up each stage and adds to how ridiculous the game gets. If this proves too hard, the game has a shop and a level up system, both of which requiring the currency you earn after each match. Buy the weapons you unlock throughout the stages. Buy the crabs you fight, even including a Lobster, which I mained as soon as I could. Leveling up is incredibly basic with you using your funds to raise stats, but I found that at a point, you might be better off buying a weapon.

The game does have multiplayer in the form of co-operative play, which in my opinion, both made the game more manageable and more of a mess. Difficulty wise, it’s always a help to get more force on your side, but then when all of the crabs get into one big hustle, it really does get quite overwhelming or confusing to see what’s going on. In addition to this, you can go head to head online, which I’d only recommend with friends. The fun in playing with another person, and the ensuing chaos is a thing that is heightened with people you’re actually familiar with as opposed to randoms. The game does allow all of this offline as well, for the event you play the game at a party.

There’s something to appreciate how earnest Fight Crab is with it’s ridiculous premise. At no point did I sense any irony to it, and it’s refreshing for something like this to play it all straight faced and not try to act like it’s above it all. The game isn’t perfect, it’s even quite ugly at times, but I’d be a liar to say I wasn’t having fun the entire time. With a giant smile on my face.