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Do I really need to say anything?
Okay, so you're a giant crab, in space. What else do you need to know? Just go and download
it. It's truly awesome and batshit insane. I can't imagine how the devs came up with
the premise of Crabitron, and I don't care. This is probably the most fun I've had playing
an iOS game. Two Lives Left have created a masterpiece of originality with some of the
best controls I've seen on touch input devices.
Using two fingers for each of the crab's appendages, you direct the movement, angle and pincing
of of his claws. It makes for an incredibly tactile and visceral experience. It actually
feels like your fingers ARE the claws.
As you're making your way through the seemingly endless waves of asteroids, rockets, tourists
and hamburgers, there's a few different ways at clearing the screen. You can smash, you
can crush, or you can eat. Smashing isn't the most efficient method of destruction and
will net you the smallest amount of coins - the in game currency for Crabitron. Crushing
will net you the most amount of coins, but takes a certain level of finesse to accomplish.
Eating things is great for other things, such as replenishing health.
If you're skilled enough, you'll figure out how to crush cars, eat the passengers and
deflect any incoming projectiles all at the same time! Speaking of projectiles, it's entirely
possible to catch and store these in either your claws or mouth and then release them
in a powered up fashion. Later in the game you'll be able to aim these more efficiently
with targeting reticles unlocked in the store. Other powerups include additional in-game
boosts that the player can interact with, upgraded burps (that's the swallowed projectile
mechanic I was just referring to) and upgrades to both the left and right claws. Because
these are upgraded seperately, you can focus on the claw used in conjunction with your
dominant hand or do things like have one claw for power and the other for utility. It's
all very versatile.
None of the powerups can be "bought" with real-world cash. These are all earned from
playing the game. What you can purchase though are a coin doubler and a coin tripler to speed
up the rate of income by two and three respectively.
It would have been very easy for TwoLivesLeft to include the option to purchase in-game
cash, but they remain ever classy. What do you expect for a bunch of Australians? Hey,
speaking of Australians, there's even sharks in this game. They have laser beams on their
heads. Actually it's full of cool stuff like references to popular culture and other independent
video games. They even put in Cyberclops from Punch Quest. Now that's just badass!
Still here, huh? Why haven't you left this page to go and play this? Crabitron is without
question, the most fun I've had on the iPad. Oh, it's only available for iPad which stands
to reason considering the input method required. Heck, I'm already grabbing my eyeballs and
getting my arms completely tied up. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to control
on a smaller device. Crabitron costs $4.99 but you might catch it on sale for $2.99 at
the time of this review.
Thank you for joining me for today's review. Be sure to subscribe for more info on the
latest mobile games. This has been Alex for Game Mob. That's www.gamemob.com.