Another Crab's Treasure - Switch Review

Steve Whiting -

Another Crab’s Treasure is published and developed by Aggro Crab, whose only previous title, Going Under, was met with positive reviews back in 2020. The marketing has been pretty irreverent and tongue-in-cheek, which personally, I think makes for a more appealing and exciting product in an otherwise typically neutral marketing landscape.

I’m sure by now many of you have heard of the comparisons; SpongeBob meets Dark Souls/Elden Ring meets The Little Mermaid. As banal as this sounds, Another Crab’s Treasure looks to stand alone as its own experience and rise above the somewhat rudimentary 'souls-like underwater’ tag that it already has.

The Good

In Another Crab’s Treasure you play as Kril, a small hermit crab who, right at the start, has his shell confiscated by a loan shark (who is, in fact, an actual shark). Kril plays the literal little guy railing against the authorities, all of whom are an ignorant and unfair bunch. A very relatable plot, intertwined with stark notes on the state of the world’s ocean, sets the foundations for what is actually one of the most engaging plots I’ve seen on the Nintendo Switch for some time. It’s easy to dismiss Another Crab’s Treasure as a purely comical experience, and that’s what I expected, to be honest, and while it is funny, the storytelling itself is top-tier.

For those of you like me who have been mentally broken by pretty much every FromSoftware title, it’s welcome to see that Aggro Crab takes a somewhat more pragmatic approach in Another Crab’s Treasure. The combat is still extremely challenging and at times frustrating, but there’s no stamina bar for example, which is one less thing to worry about. The parry windows are also fair, but you’ll still find yourself rolling around like a little racoon, trying to dodge every boss attack. All in all though, I can count the number of headaches that Another Crab’s Treasure gave me on one hand, which for a souls-like, tells you they’ve got the balance right.

Lastly, Another Crab’s Treasure is just downright fun. Kril picks up everyday trash items (cans, banana skins, etc.) and uses them as shells, all of which provide different levels of protection. The bosses and cast of characters that you come across in your travels are all hilarious and full of imagination. Working the trash into environments, character models and weapons really shows off Another Crab’s Treasure’s creativity. You can tell that hours of careful design and thought have gone into every nook and cranny of the game world, and it’s a joy to explore as a result.

TL;DR

  • A funny, but powerful story
  • Fair for a souls-like
  • It’s an absolute hoot

The Bad

While Another Crab’s Treasure is laugh out loud funny at times, I did find this somewhat jarring with some of the souls-like elements. I mentioned in my review for Curse of the Sea Rats that every time you die, you get teleported back to a save room and met with a somewhat dry, derisory comment from a smart-aleck character. It’s funny the first time, the fifth time less so, and the tenth time not at all. A good example of that here is the very first boss you encounter (Nephro), whose voice acting is very shouty. You will inevitably die a few times because it’s the first boss and you’re working things out. When I heard his shouty voice acting for the umpteenth time, the vein on my forehead was starting to go... Just sometimes, it doesn’t work.

The environments in Another Crab’s Treasure are rich with colour and the 'Ooh, what’s that’ feel you get in The Legend of Zelda; Breath of the Wild for example. However,  the environments can get quite samey and sometimes it’s just the same textures as far as the eye can see. Sure, with sand, there’s only so much you can do, and the environments do vary more as the game progresses, but certainly early on, the visual variety is lacking.

Lastly, the map in Another Crab’s Treasure is strangely limited. Another Crab’s Treasure is actually more linear than I was expecting, which is absolutely fine, and therefore a functional map isn’t too critical. However, you can’t even scroll around or zoom in or out of the map, which makes it difficult to work out where you need to go sometimes. You know, often you just want to take stock and see the bigger picture, but in Another Crab’s Treasure, the map is just permanently zoomed in to whichever area you are in at the time. The ability to drop markers to remind you of certain hard-to-reach areas would have been welcome to this old explorer too. Ho-hum.

TL;DR

  • The humour can grate in especially difficult sections
  • Sometimes samey environments
  • Map has hardly any functionality

Final Score: 8/10

On reflection, I now realise how original Another Crab’s Treasure actually is. It’s quite bold to take a genre known for a certain tone (gloomy, gothic moodiness) and overlay a completely polar opposite tone on top of it. That takes some cojones! But Another Crab’s Treasure pulls it off, and Aggro Crab must be applauded for presenting a challenging, meaningful and, at times, riotous gameplay experience.

Thank you for checking out our Another Crab’s Treasure Switch review, thank you to [PUBLISHER] for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support: