Who would have expected that Soulslike would just become its own genre? At this point we have the likes of Lords of the Fallen, Lies of P, and now Another Crab’s Treasure, which is easily the cutest of all of them. The basic premise is that Kril, the titular crab, has his home (shell) taken away for not paying the taxes of the sea. Kril doesn’t like people, but is forced to rejoin civilization in order to get his home back from an ocean that is getting more and more polluted as the story progresses. Basically, this is a cute game that can be difficult and has an ecological message. It’s like learning how to play Gojira. If you get that, you’re welcome. If not, “Flying Whales”.

This is why we aren’t allowed plastic straws anymore.

To start off, there are a few differences you’ll find with Another Crab’s Treasure compared to other games in the same genre. That’s a lack of a stamina bar. This does make things a fair bit easier, not needing to be concerned about resource management, especially during some of the more annoying fights. If you’ve played Elden Ring, one thing you’ll be used to is how fast and often some of the bosses come at you. Honestly, only right after learning how to fight, there’s an optional boss just off to the side that’s more than obvious. You might even innocently wander up to it just to see what’s moving around a hundred feet away from the main path.

The next key difference is the accessibility options. That’s right, if Another Crab’s Treasure is getting too difficult, you don’t need to “git gud”, you can just make the game a little, or a lot, easier. Some of the options are increased health, taking less damage, or a gun. Yup, just straight up give yourself a gun that kills every single enemy, bosses included, in one shot. Now the gun counts as a shell, so there will be points in the game where you have to drop it, but you can immediately give it back to yourself in the options menu.

Just give me the gun. Gun kills crab.

Let’s talk about these shells then. While there isn’t stamina, there are resources that you need to manage. The first one is your shell. You’ll find a variety of shells around the ocean, each of which has varying weight, durability, and abilities. They essentially act as armour and a shield all in one, plus as a second weapon. Something like a pop can is light, offers more protection than a banana peel, and has a special ability to make bubbles that hurt enemies. It’s silly and it’s cute jumping into different shells, and it’s nice that not every single pop can looks the same.

There are differing names on the cans and colours of the cans. As mentioned, that’s just one of the 69 (nice) shells. On top of the shells, you have a fork. That’s your weapon, a fork. It’s fine and it essentially does the job the way a sword would. You’ll also be able to upgrade it throughout the game, but there are no other weapons. It’s a massively missed opportunity to be able to use the fork as a sort of spear, a knife as a sword, and a spoon as a hammer/blunt-type weapon.

At least some of the bosses look cool, right?

Kril is adorable. I relate with Kril because I also often don’t like being around people. The characters are all written really well, almost like a slightly more adult SpongeBob SquarePants. Plus, extra points for the characters being voiced remarkably well; the voice actors do a great job of bringing the characters to life. Unfortunately, the soundtrack is really underwhelming. The music is incredibly repetitive, which can be irritating if you’re stuck on a boss for a while and you keep hearing the same short tune over and over again. In addition, the song isn’t particularly memorable or great, so it’s not like it’s a tune you would even want to choose to hear, and here you are listening to it on repeat. At least there’s a gun.

Nephro has too much energy for someone I just don’t want to talk to.

In a world absolutely oversaturated with Soulslikes at the moment, it’s hard to say that Another Crab’s Treasure will even make a splash. While it’s cute, and has the difficulty levels to fit the genre, the actual controls don’t feel particularly cooperative, and I found when I was trying to dodge attacks, I would very rarely move the way I feel like I should. Unlike other games in the genre, Another Crab’s Treasure starts to look bland very quickly. The world feels very samesy throughout a lot of it, with the main colour you’ll be looking at being blue. I understand being in the ocean, but not everything has to have some sort of blue filter over the top of it. You know what they say about one man’s trash though, it’s Another Crab’s Treasure.

Another Crab’s Treasure is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

Reviewed on Xbox Series X.

A copy of Another Crab’s Treasure was provided by the publisher.