Fight Crab (2020)

Fight Crab is the answer to a question nobody asked. In case you’re curious, the developers claim the answer is the Tasmanian giant crab, but only the ones who can throw spirit bombs.

Fight Crab is a 3D physics-based fighter in which crabs and other crustaceans face off to see who is the crabbiest of them all. You win by flipping your opponents onto their backs and keeping them there for 3 seconds. There is a Smash Bros. type percentage bar in lieu of a health bar, corresponding to how easy it is to be knocked off-balance. In its simplest, early iterations, you increase the damage by punching with your claws, or when the opportunity arises, pinching or stabbing into vulnerable spots.

As you progress weapons become usable: from the humble knife through to jet engines, lightsabers and, um, seals. You can also grab parts of terrain. If the idea of attacking a spider crab with a tree in one claw and a revolver in the other sounds fun to you, Fight Crab has you covered.

The control scheme is very difficult to describe, but intuitive when you’re actually playing. You move with the d-pad, though movement is automatic based on your last selected direction. Click left and you’ll keep moving left until another direction is chosen. The analog sticks control your claw movement. R + L close the corresponding pincers (acting as a guard), while ZR + ZL swing claw punches. It does take some getting used to, but it works as well as it possibly could.

There is a surprising visual fidelity on show here exemplified by the attention to detail that allows 23 different species stand out from each other a first glance. The crab on crab (oh yeah) action is utter chaos. Light sabers, explosions, kamehamehas could all be in use at the same time and the Switch keeps up. I may never get bored of watching crustaceans swinging halberds or flails as they waddle towards me. Unfortunately, there seems very little by the way of strategy. I had just as much luck charging and swinging punches wildly as I did trying to be a little more judicious: stealing, pinching and stabbing.

There is a campaign, set up with a single sentence story: “Aiming to be the best around, you embark on a world tour to flip as many crabs as possible”. Fight your way through a series of 20+ battles across 7 zones alone, or purchase a partner in crabby crime to help out. This can become repetitive very quickly, although for me that doesn’t make it any worse than any other fighting game. Where things really come into their own though is multiplayer. It’s an absolute blast. Look at it, of course it is.

I absolutely love the idea of Fight Crab. There stands a good chance the idea had its origins in a pub late at night (“No, no a spider crab’s got the reach!”), but then somebody came into the office the next day and actually started making it. I love that the industry is both mature and silly enough to allow Fight Crab to exist, be functional, beautiful and fun. Unfortunately, the repetitive gameplay with little to no strategy means while I’ll be going back, it'll only be when I have friends over.