REVIEW: ‘Everything Is Crab’ Delivers A Cute Roguelite Experience

Everything is Crab, a 2D top-down roguelite from developer Odd Dreams Digital and publisher Secret Mode, tasks players with surviving for 20 minutes in an open world filled with constantly evolving critters. To keep up, players must munch as much as they can, gaining new adaptations that can lead to an endless number of unique creations to guide through the game. 

To grow your critter, you have two basic options at the start of each game. Munch fruit from trees, or munch on other creatures around you. While fruit can be scarce, there are plenty of creatures to prey on, though many will try to fight back. While you start with only a dodge and a headbutt to combat enemies, as you gain levels, more maneuvers, bonuses, and perks unlock that can push you towards preferring one food source over another, as well as providing entirely different ways of gaining the experience you need to level. 

The multitude of upgrades that can shape your adorable critter delivers Everything is Crab’s biggest hook. With upgrades that provide actions as well as ones that boost different attributes, balancing what you can do with how well you can do it, and how well all the elements of your kit come together is an absorbing endeavor. Seeing your little guy visually change into whatever random assortment of characteristics you’ve picked also adds some fun, often bizarre visuals to the game. 

Everything is Crab’s boss encounters are fantastic.

As the player wanders around the map, they will encounter different terrain types, each home to special effects that can add additional hindrances to survival if not properly adapted, and points of interest that can aid the player in many different ways. There is also a day-night cycle that affects the player’s perceptions and how they interact with some upgrades. But as they wander, they must keep their eyes on the timer. Three times during the game, as well as a final one at the end, a boss will appear to test the player’s evolutionary advancements. 

Everything is Crab’s boss encounters are fantastic. The designs are wonderful and provide a solid challenge without being blisteringly difficult or forcing players into a specific build. I never died feeling like my creature couldn’t beat the boss.

Part of what makes boss battles unique here is the ability to outlast them. For players trying a herbivore run, you can overcome a boss by simply staying alive. When the boss eventually gives up, they still drop a special fruit that unlocks unique evolutionary paths for the players to choose. However, the meat for experience and DNA drops that allow you to reroll and upgrade mutations when selecting them won’t be won. 

Taking the game’s evolutionary challenges head-on is fun, but the execution is fairly shallow.

The final boss deserves special acknowledgment. I won’t spoil anything here, but the game’s gameplay is at its best during this unique fight. How the developers crafted an encounter that could deliver a satisfying ending for any kind of run, aggressive or peaceful, is a stroke of game design genius. 

Allowing Everything is Crab to offer different options for addressing its challenges provides a unique balance for the game. Going defensive and becoming an untouchable little dodge machine is probably the easiest way to survive a run by default, but it’s not as fun as trouncing other creatures and gaining all those combative mutations. 

While taking the game’s evolutionary challenges head-on is fun, the execution is fairly shallow. The player can equip a couple of different attacks, as well as a movement ability and a special ability. The style of attacks, except for some light range options, has little impact on the moment-to-moment gameplay.

Many shifting permaitors can add wrinkles to the experience in Everything is Crab.

Varying cooldown timers and damage output exist, but the slow-paced dodge and hit gameplay don’t keep you in the experience after a few runs. If you are not here for the cute aesthetic or unlocking upgrades, the combat won’t keep you here either. 

Many shifting permaitors can add wrinkles to the game experience. Each successful run unlocks a higher “pressure” option. These pressures make small changes to the system, making things progressively harder. From enemies doing more damage to speed buffs providing diminishing returns, these modifiers stack up over time to challenge players. 

As runs play out in Everything is Crab, players will unlock new mutations by engaging with every element of the game. Pop-ups notify the player when they have reached an achievement, and the post-run wrap-up informs them of what has been unlocked. This approach to unlockables further encourages experimentation if you want to see everything the game has to offer. 

The only time the visuals can struggle is if you go a bit too crazy with your mutations.

Bringing more variety to the experience are unlockable challenge modes. Special modifiers, like maps that are all desert or have some mutations randomly chosen for you, create unique experiences within Everything is Crab. These optional challenges are separate from the core game path, so if you find some that aren’t to your liking, you don’t have to worry about not being able to complete the core experience without powering through them. 

The simple, bright, pixel art presentation brings a lot of goofy, fun energy to Everything is Crab. The animation is smooth, and seeing your rapidly changing little guy move amongst the ever-evolving inhabitants of its world is generally a joy. 

The only time the visuals can struggle is if you go a bit too crazy with your mutations. Having a mouse-sized character with spikes, tentacles, and wings can be a lot to keep together in a clean presentation. Going overboard with the number of different physical adaptations can muddy the look of your character a bit, but it’s not game-breaking; it can just get messy if you go too wild. The rest of the time, though, the monstrousities you craft never fail to look adorably weird. 

Everything is Crab delivers a lot of fun, with just the right amount of challenge. Allowing players to pursue survival however they wish adds some overarching variety to the game, despite its fairly shallow moment-to-moment gameplay. 

Everything is Crab is available now on PC.