If you have been around on the Internet for long enough, chances are you'll have seen the very popular crab rave dancing meme in some form or another as the April Fools' song proved to be quite the hit as far as viral videos go in today's seemingly-endless entertainment climate. Yet for all its popularity, the entire premise seemed to be criminally untapped as far as what could be done with these charming crustacean critters and the tropical world they inhabit.
Noisestorm, both the creator of this intriguing game as well as the light and euphoric music hit back in 2018, sought to remedy this by greatly expanding on the idea and turning it into reality as a fast-paced third-person shooter that features much of the joyful mechanics seen in such looter shooters as the Borderland series alongside having a heavy focus on the 'roguelike' aspect of each run being wildly different from the next.
Diving right into the fray here, Crab Champions has you taking control of a lone crab, armed to the teeth with a fully automatic rifle and grenade alongside a pair of powerful claws and the determination to get the job done, where the goal is to make it through twenty eight islands that are separated by four diverse biomes, each of them having seven entirely unique arenas where the action takes place in alongside a further one or two for specific horde stages.
Before each run, you are placed into a starting 'hub' island of the sorts where you are free to choose your own weapon alongside the ability and choice of melee weapon that you can use to fight off the many enemies that you'll encounter throughout each run. Something worth noting is that you'll always begin with the auto rifle, grenade and claws that I spoke of earlier however you can slowly unlock the remaining 19 weapons, 6 abilities and 4 other melee weapons by gaining 'keys' that are granted upon completing each biome and double that if you can finish an entire run without dying.
Though as far as the gameplay itself goes, Crab Champions pits you against a wide variety of creatures you'd typically see in the tropical islands, such as the hard-shelled limpets that tank damage when hidden and agile starfish which fly high before quickly honing into your position alongside various crabs that are also capable of wielding their own guns and spells to use against you. However there also exists enemies more often seen in the fantasy genre, like floating skulls that range from spewing balls of fire and spikes of ice all the way to spawning homing explosive barrels and spewing lasers of death at you plus pumpkins that aim to kamikaze you with their own elemental explosions and the likes!
Given that you typically start off pretty weak in these roguelike games, each island cleared will reward the player with one (sometimes two or three depending if it's the start of a biome or a boss fight) chest that each offer different items that the player can use to enhance their attacks, whether this be their gun of choice or the ability/melee weapon of theirs or even more indirect perks that can benefit the player in other ways. These chests can also vary too in what they offer as most will focus on a particular type of bonus, whether this be relating to the DPS of one's weapons or their own health, increased RNG via 'luck' or dishing out attacks faster alongside superior chests typically associated with bosses that grant epic or even legendary tier perks.
What I admire in particular is the many perks and gun/melee/ability mods that one can acquire as a lot of these can synergize in surprisingly effective ways. For example, combining luck/economy chest awards to build up a lot of money and good items early on so that, with enough skill to last out enemies with subpar weaponry, one can accelerate their progress to not just being overpowered but essentially god-like powers once you 'loop' back to the start with more powerful enemies but with an even better starting point! Another effective strategy I quite enjoyed using is combining fast-firing but weak guns with perks that compliment a firearm that fires dozens of bullets per second to maximize the DPS output more effectively and focus on other benefitting perks without risking falling behind, though this strategy falls apart with much slower weapons.
On the topic of weapons, the twenty currently on offer during this stage of Early Access range from the fast-firing types (Minigun/Auto Rifle/Orb Launcher) to those whose damage is best dealt up close. (Auto Shotgun/Flamethrower/Burst Pistol) Meanwhile some replace the ability to aim with higher firepower (Dual Shotguns or Pistols/Laser Cannons) and others opt to go for a more 'magical' approach to dealing further damage with unique approaches to attacking enemies with. (Arcane Wand/Ice Staff/Lightning Scepter)
Certainly the wide arsenal of weapons to choose from alongside abilities and melee weapons that compliment your playstyle is one big aspect of Crab Champions that I can compliment it on, however it goes even further than this as the gameplay of these types of games are always prone to the risk of becoming stale once the average player has worked out how to consistently succeed at the game.
To this end, the developers also included a difficulty modifier that is symbolized by increasingly valuable symbols of achievement. These start off with bronze, silver and gold for the easier tiers that progress through sapphire, emerald, ruby and diamond before climaxing with the highly-prestigious 'prismatic' tier that requires almost all of the red modifiers that make the game more challenging in various ways, ranging from boss-tier enemies that ambush you on the third island of each biome and locking perk slots behind crystals (this game's currency) that need to be bought to unlock to even having a slow but immortal snail that can outright end a run simply by contact with it!
Of course, for those looking to enjoy Crab Champions on a more casual basis or simply to mess around with, there also exists green modifiers that reduce the difficulty level which can prove quite beneficial for chasing certain achievements on this game, though largely it serves as a way of easing newer players into the intense rougelike action without scaring them off too quickly as it is a big bonus to be able to play this on multiplayer with friends for even more fun and shenanigans!
One last thing I'll touch upon here is the graphics as the bright and colourful artstyle of Crab Champions is quite pleasing to the eye without looking oversaturated or too bright to the point of becoming an eyesore, matching the equally-whimsical premise of sentient crustaceans duking it out on islands with modern guns and magical spells. However this is a game that is fairly demanding on the PC specs compared to most regular indies and is about on par with the first Subnautica game with getting the most out of my personal computer's fans whirring loudly in the background!
It's why I'll attach my PC specs here for anyone who's curious about trying this game out but doesn't have the most beefy PC gaming set-up as I had to reduce most settings to a lower intensity/resolution so that it doesn't strain my computer too hard. Though even at moderate graphics settings, the performance is pretty stable all around and you can expect to enjoy a pretty smooth experience if your PC specs are even remotely close to my own, let alone having better hardware.
Honestly, the worst nitpick I can think of as far as complaints go is that there is no 'extrinsic' progress that offers a permanent leg-up as you become better at the game in that 'intrinsic' progress. But outside of that, Crab Champions has a lot going for it as far as offering a tight action rougelike with looter shooter mechanics goes and it is one that I can easily recommend to those looking to jump right into this excellent crustacean-flavoured third-person shooter, enjoy having the time of your life with this one!
