Game Review: King of Crabs (Android)

Who will enjoy this game?

• Fairly casual players new to the battle royale genre and would like something forgiving to dip their toes in
• Gamers who are into crabs (I don’t know, maybe you are?) 
• Button-mashes who enjoy being “king of the crab-infested hill” for 15 minutes

King of Crabs is a casual battle royale that’s as pretty as a rainbow crab but meaty as a flower crab. It is a cute concept with enough content to keep the average gamer hooked on for a week or maybe two, because after a while, the game descends into a grindy chore where repetition is its own reward. Unless climbing your own personal progression ladder is something you take delight in (albeit through sheer obligation because you are a compulsive completionist), your next move would likely involve moving on to something new.

The Positives:

+ Gorgeous graphics 

+ Smooth gameplay (barring a couple of rare crashes) 

+ Easy-to-learn and forgiving game modes (even in PvP) 

+ Pay-to-win is easily avoidable 

Mechanically, King of Crabs plays out like an evergreen battle royale with new players shifting into the session as current/existing players bow out of the brawl. So, if you are the hyper-competitive sort looking for your moment of glory, this game is not for you. One of the game’s key gimmicks is the growth feature, similar to Agar.io’s formula, which sees your crab grow in stature as you rake up more kills – AI or players. It is hilarious (at the beginning) and immensely gratifying to see your skipper of a mud crab take the frame of a hulking beast as you close in on your crab’s maximum growth potential. And with big claws come more power. Medium sized crabs that would have posed a threat in the early-game turn into easy fodder, making you feel like a crusty god. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to feel like a crusty god. 

This game, as it is served, is an easy one to digest and ultimately master. Provided your ISP (internet service provider) doesn’t do you in with a shitty internet connection, you should be able to navigate your way to the top of each game’s leaderboards with very little finesse, luck, and time. The only skill required is knowing when to engage in fights and when to flee – this is exceptionally true in PvP, and is what distinguishes the “true kings” from the wannabes. 

Arguably the least appreciated aspect of the game is how easy it is to avoid forking out money to progress through the game. Never have I felt compelled to shell out real world currency for pearls (the in-game currency). For one, the gacha component is adequately kind and, apart from a few “smashing deals” (pearl-only commodities), there are very few things worth sinking the pearls you’ve been hoarding into – unless you want to look like the swaggiest crab on the beach with that ultra-rare skin. I am not sure if this is a failure in effectively implementing an exploitive mechanic or are the developers genuinely kind. I would like to believe it’s the latter. 

Size is relative, and while the map may feel huge when you're starting out, it's hardly massive once you know the ins and outs.

The Negatives:

- Shallow content and grindy endgame 

- Odd placement of unskippable advertisements

- A score/results screen that can take forever to complete its animation cycle (skippable of course, but only if you’re not interested in basking in the glory of your post-game stats)

Outside a few skins and your crab collection, there is nothing else worth working your way towards apart from maybe hats (yes, your crab can wear hats) but the super rare ones can be very difficult to obtain, let alone max out in level. Hats, like powerups, give your crab some advantages that persist throughout the game: like faster growth, speed boosts, or more experience etc., with some enhancements like ‘higher crit chance’ or ‘more powerful X weapon’ only attainable with the right hat. The implementation is novel but there’s just too little to shout about. 

After two weeks with the game, you would have likely unlocked most of the crabs, collected most of the hats, come close to maxing out your skill points (powerups that provide permanent buffs to all your crabs), and learnt every nook and cranny of the map (yes, one map, not counting the "fun sized" special version). At which point, pat yourself on the back, because you’ve enjoyed easily 90% of the content made for you already. Unless you are a masochistic completionist and have massive interest in seeing the remaining 10%, or have a friend to play with, there’s probably very little incentive to keep with the game. 

One of my biggest pet peeves is the score/results screen. The animation cycle here can take unbelievably long to compete and, adding insult to injury, the experience is further marred by confoundingly inconsistent ad placements on close/exit. Sometimes an unskippable ad triggers and sometimes it doesn't. It's a punishing random event at the end of a play session that only serves to annoy, especially after a bad game.

CONCLUSION: 3.5 stars over 5

King of Crabs is a very pretty game that is, for the most part, a mechanically well executed experience that almost anyone in the casual audience can enjoy. However, the novelty does wear thin very quickly and quite likely, if you have become intrigued by the battle royale formula after playing this, you would be hard pressed to not try out any one of the more popular titles in the genre – PUBG or Fortnite. 

On a less pertinent note, this game will vastly improve your knowledge on crab variety. Do you know what a brown crab, mitten crab, rainbow crab, spanner crab, stone crab, or the Tasmanian giant crab looks like? Well, I do.

King of Crabs is available for download on Google Play (Android) and the App Store (iOS).

[Credit] Images taken from the King of Crabs Google Play shop page.