Fight Crab from Mastiff Games and Calappa Games is a bizarre and over-the-top physics-based 3D battle game that you have to try on Nintendo Switch. Find out why in our Fight Crab review!
In Fight Crab from Mastiff Games and Calappa Games is a bizarre and over-the-top physics-based 3D battle game that you have to try on Nintendo Switch. As the name suggests, you’ll be controlling a crab that is up for some proper fighting, duking it out against other fellow crabs. Do you have what it takes to b crowned as lord of the crustaceans as you aim to flip over every single crab in your path? Since this is one of them fancy physics-based releases, you can expect some bizarre and weird action as you try to wrestle with the game’s controls, as is the case for games such as Goat Simulator, covert robot operation Speaking Simulator, quirky and colorful Totally Reliable Delivery Service, carb-heavy I Am Bread, or eight-legged freak-led Octodad.
You can either take on the game’s Campaign Mode, where you’ll take your crab on a journey to the top of the charts, or you can just relax and unwind for a bit with the Versus Mode, which features both local couch multiplayer, as well as offering you the chance to the take the fight online. Once you get started with the Campaign Mode, Fight Crab will first send you into a series of seven tutorial stages so that you can get the hang of things, or you can set yourself up for some chaos by skipping the tutorials.
The game can be played with the analog sticks and buttons, or you can dive into an all-out battle using motion controls by detaching the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con and putting on the corresponding Joy-con wrist straps for some extra protection. The left and right analog sticks will be used to control your left and right claws, respectively. The ZL and ZR buttons will be used to punch with your claws so that you can deal damage to your opponent so that it’s easier to knock them over.
To guard your crab against your enemy’s attacks, you can press the L and R buttons to close your pincers and assume a defensive position. If your opponent is guarding, then you can use the L and R buttons to close your pincers on top of its claws, grabbing onto them so that you can deal some extra damage. You do need to be careful when guarding because your opponent can do the same thing to you! This is why you can’t just try to land a couple of hits and then guard for most of the fight as you try to find the next opening.
Since the left and right analog sticks are used for controlling your crab’s claws, you might be wondering how you move around each battle arena. This is done with the D-Pad, and pressing left, right, up, or down once will make your crab automatically move in that direction. If you want to speed things up – or avoid an incoming attack as you try to flank your opponent – you can quickly double-tap the same direction to make your crab do a short dash move. You can also press and hold both analog sticks in the same to make your crab turn.
Things get crazier once you start to take on each of the stages in Campaign Mode. Say you’re fighting in a big city as if you were a crab of the kaiju variety. You can use the L and R buttons to grab the palm trees around you to use them as weapons to deal some extra damage to your opponent, or you could perhaps decide to grab a car or two so that you can make them explode on your enemy’s face. This is very important when you’re, say, fighting against a giant lobster that happens to have a katana on one claw while holding a gun on the other one.
As you progress through Fight Crab’s Campaign mode, you’ll be able to level up your crab with the money you receive, to boost its stats and tailor your experience based on your preferred fighting style. You can increase its strength to make its body heavier and its punches stronger, boost resistance to make it harder to knock down, increase its endurance to lower the amount of stamina needed for each attack, increase dexterity to boost the movement speed of its arms or increase agility to boost the overall mobility speed. You can also use your money to purchase new weapons – a knife, a shield, a shuriken, or a claymore being some examples – or to buy new crabs. Each crab will have different base stats, so be sure to find the one that’s right for you!
There’s also Hyper Mode, which you’ll unlock after defeating the final boss of the first chapter in the game. For Hyper Mode, you’ll accumulate energy as you receive damage. Once you have enough stored energy, you can press the – button to enter Hyper Mode, which will make your crab a whole lot stronger for 15 seconds. Once that time is up, you will exit Hyper Mode with a bang – literally! If you have more than one-third of your Hyper Mode gauge full, you can hold down the – button to instantly cause an explosion, which might be just what you need to knock your opponent over.
Fight Crab is a bizarre, quirky, but fun physics-based 3D brawler that you should definitely check out on Nintendo Switch. With 23 different types of crabs, almost 50 weapons, a Campaign Mode, a local and online Versus Mode, a Photo Mode so that you can take some weird pictures here and there, and the ability to level up and upgrade your crab – as well as purchase new weapons – you will have a lot to do in this weird Nintendo Switch release! The game is out now on Nintendo’s console, with a $19.99 asking price.
Disclaimer
This Fight Crab review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Mastiff Games.
