You’ve heard of the Lands Between, but have you ever considered the Sands Between? That’s not a joke, that’s a genuine area in Another Crab’s Treasure, and I don’t think anything sums up the exact vibe that this game is going for better than the name of that one area. This is a love letter to and a sendup of so much of what FromSoftware has done, all wrapped up in a very cute crab protagonist just trying to get their home back, and a deeply unsettling message about pollution that we all already know, but don’t often get to play through.

Another Crab’s Treasure is the second game from Aggro Crab, with their first game being the incredibly good Going Under – a satire of startup culture within a roguelike. I’m not sure if they’ll always be going for these meta-commentary games, but I wouldn’t be angry if that was the case, because so far, they’re two-for-two on hitting the perfect balance between humour and gameplay, at least for me.

You play as Kril, a little crab who’s fallen on hard times. Well, hard times have fallen on Kril to be more accurate, because some local big-shot has decided to start taxing everyone in order to build themselves a castle. This leads to nothing good for poor old Kril, and will set you off on a journey to get your own shell back. Things start of pretty chilled, but as is the way in nearly every Soulslike, they get worse fairly consistently, and the world itself is in danger.

Combat is a little more simplistic than some Soulslikes, but with a few really interesting wrinkles. Alongside your standard and charge attacks, you also gain the ability to not only don different shells – each of which has a different weight and toughness – but also use magic to invoke special abilities from those shells. If you get inside a can of fizzy, for example, you can shoot out a few magical bubbles to harm your enemies. Shells are everywhere once you unlock the ability to use them properly, and most boss fights are littered with different ones so that you can switch up your combat style at will.

It’s genuinely very satisfying, especially as many of the bosses are capital ‘T’ Tough. Seriously, while some go down pretty swiftly, even hardcore Dark Souls and Elden Ring masters will find themselves hitting the odd wall here and there. It’s satisfying though, and the path to victory is always in sight, even if it can end up being a little bit murky. If you do find yourself really struggling, or you like the idea of the game but not the difficulty, Another Crab’s Treasure has some of the coolest assist mode options I’ve seen. You can lower damage, lower enemy health, make yourself invincible, change parry window timings, or just give yourself a gun. All of these are great, and should be a great template for other games in the genre – OK, so the gun might be taking things a bit far.

When you bundle all of this together with the lovely graphics and great sound design, you’ve got a game that’s just good fun throughout. I did occasionally find myself getting a little lost, but exploring the world never felt like a chore, so it was only ever my pride that took a hit, not my enjoyment of the game itself.