App Army Assemble: Grabby Crab - "Is this charming puzzler clawsome or will it make you crabby?"

Grabby Crab is the latest puzzler from indie developer Tepes Ovidiu, who often makes interesting games. This time around, it sees you pinching gems as the titular crustacean. It impressed Catherine when she played it recently, so we decided to see if our App Army readers agreed.

Here's what they said:

Ever played Sokoban, The Witness, A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build and similar grid-based logic puzzles? Then you'll enjoy this, too. Maybe not love, because there are rough edges and sudden difficulty spikes, but the gameplay is both familiar enough and different enough so it'll tickle those grey cells alright. In short, you must move your crab across a tile maze to some treasure, then carry it to the exit. Tiles get destroyed after one or several steps; there are curses that limit your vision, add movement limits, etc. And there are enemies that further complicate things.

I loved: the art, the animations, and most of the puzzles I met so far. I hated: the control system (let me tap where I want to move, don't force me to swipe) and the random elements (there are enemies that block/destroy tiles - they're not thinking logically, they're more like nuisances, which means you can't really predict what they do and you need to adjust your plans after every single move, and, of course, learn by dying/messing up). I also greatly disliked the tiny fonts (yeah, playing this on the phone requires 100/100 eyesight). All in all, a nice puzzler that I'll definitely complete at some point. A puzzle a day keeps boredom away, right?

Grabby Crab is a tile-sliding puzzle game about a crab searching ancient tombs for shiny gems. Everyone knows that when you venture into ancient temples for buried treasures, you’ll surely run into a few booby traps along the way. Luckily, the controls are straightforward and responsive; simply swipe to move. The charming, colourful graphics nicely pop on the screen, and the hypnotic vibe of the music just seems to fit your ever-swaying laidback hero.

The challenge comes in the form of the environment, where the tiles upon which you move can essentially bend or even crack. Curses can slow you down, limiting the moves you have left, or even restricting the styles of tiles you’ll cross. There is a hint system, and having no timers is a tremendous help as the difficulty spikes fairly quickly, but overcoming the thought-provoking trials is all part of the fun!

You are playing as a crab tasked with bringing a gemstone to a portal. Sounds easy enough, but you move across a tile floor that might break, with an evil warden doing its best to speed up your failure. Along your path, you get to pick up different items that help you, for example, restoring tiles or making them solid. The game is quite fun, and the addition of the warden gives it a bit more urgency. Thankfully, there is a hint system when your trial and error fails you.

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This is a deceptively simple-looking puzzle game. Travel across roles, pick up a gem, and escape. But then tiles are shot out or simply collapse (the little animation for that is very cool), and you have various tools to help you, including, fortunately, a hint system. Really, I made my way through the first five or six levels just with brain power- and really enjoyed the challenge. After that, the difficulty ramped up quickly, and I found myself getting help. A lot. Enough to be a bit frustrating. But honestly, I enjoy the challenge more than I’m frustrated by it. So yes, very challenging, but also very satisfying when you think your way through it. Happily recommend this one.

Grabby Crab is a puzzle game where the objective is to guide your crab across tiles to pick up a jewel and then reach a portal to escape to the next level. This is complicated by collapsing tiles and various Protectors that alter the tiles as you play.
The game is a no-frills puzzle game that is easy to play. The only downsides for me were that the difficulty of the levels ramps up quickly and I found the hint system to be useless.

I liked this game; it was a bit of a throwback puzzle game. To which I’m not the best. But the game hooked me. You play as a crab moving across tiles to fetch a gemstone, but while you move across tiles, the floor breaks, meaning no way back. You have other tiles that allow you to walk across twice; the fun is figuring out the solution. And avoiding failing and the hazard of the warden. (He is a figure that can zap tiles, causing your path to change). Graphics remind me of Adventure Time. If you like these kinds of games, you will like this

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Grabby Crab