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Lunar Crabs

Lunar Crabs

Arcade

Overview

Lunar Crabs attempts to resurrect the classic arcade shooter formula with a crustacean twist, but emerges as a shallow experience that fails to evolve beyond its Spectrum-era origins. This Space Invaders-inspired title tasks players with defending their spaceship against waves of lunar crabs using an oversized gun, but quickly reveals itself as a one-note novelty lacking depth or modern polish. While the absurd premise of exploding moon crabs provides momentary amusement, the absence of meaningful progression or engaging mechanics leaves the experience feeling like a tech demo rather than a complete game.

Shallow Gameplay with Fading Novelty

The core shooting mechanics initially surprise with their sheer absurdity - crabs dramatically inflate in size during their "lunge" attacks before exploding into pixelated chunks when shot. This visual gag generates some early chuckles, particularly when witnessing the chaotic swarm behavior. Unlike classic shooters where enemies move in coordinated patterns, these crabs operate independently, creating unpredictable but ultimately shallow encounters. The lack of enemy variety or attack patterns means every wave feels identical, with no escalating challenge or strategic depth to maintain interest beyond the first few minutes.

The crabs are almost just cut-outs who 'lunge' at you by basically increasing in size. It's funny for a while but the joke wears thin.

Gohst

Dated Presentation and Barebones Features

Visually, Lunar Crabs resembles an early 2000s Flash game rather than a modern title. Environments consist of sparse, monochromatic lunar landscapes that fail to establish any sense of place, while the crab enemies appear as flat, minimally animated sprites. The audio design is equally barren, featuring only two functional sound effects - a generic laser shot and a comical explosion when crabs burst. The complete absence of music during gameplay makes sessions feel sterile and unfinished, amplifying the repetitive nature of the shooting gallery. With no power-ups, boss battles, or difficulty scaling, the experience remains static from start to abrupt finish.

Verdict

Shallow arcade throwback with fleeting novelty

STRENGTHS

10%
Small Download30%
Absurd Premise40%

WEAKNESSES

90%
Repetitive Gameplay95%
Dated Visuals90%
Minimal Audio85%
Lack of Depth100%

Community Reviews

1 reviews
Gohst
Gohst
Trusted

In this Space Invaders style game, you play a space man with a rather large gun who has to fend off a rather annoying attack of crabs in order to get back to your space ship. The game is an update of a Spectrum game which means the graphics have improved since those days, however the graphics used do not stand up against modern games. In a word, they’re boring. The crabs are almost just cut-outs who “lunge” at you by basically increasing in size. It’s funny for a while but the joke wears thin. It must be said that even though this is a Space Invaders style game, it’s not in the style of Space Invaders. That is, the crabs are all individuals and they can shoot or lunge at any time irrespective of what the other crabs around it are doing. There’s no music and only some sound effects, one when you shoot and one when the crabs explode (yes, crabs on the moon explode when shot) but these sounds definitely do nothing to save this game from mediocrity. So, in all, it’s not a completely silly game, just a very silly one. It’s not an overly huge download, in fact it's quite small, so you can give it a shot if you like but there’s nothing really here you haven’t seen before.

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