I totally enjoyed the demo for Crabgrass! It’s a cleaning game, but really different. I played as a crab and I cleaned up people’s yards using my sharp claws!
The Backstory of Crabgrass
I played as Snippy Pinch, a teenage crustacean. My Dad has been sick with a disease affecting his claws. They were vital to his landscaping business, but medical treatments are not helping him. So he’s not bringing in any income, and at the same time, he owes a lot of money for the various treatments which didn’t work. I decided to pitch in and take over for my Dad and hopefully earn enough money to pay off his debt. On top of that, my Mother is no help at all. She’s totally self-absorbed. It looks like I’m the one who has to fix this.
The Look and Feel of Crabgrass
Crabgrass is a 2D pixel game. It’s bright and colorful and has a peppy soundtrack. When I walk on any hard surfaces, like inside a building or on a wooden bridge, my claws make a “tap tap tap” sound, which I just love!
The world is composed of a bunch of islands, some very small and some pretty large. They are all overgrown, maybe because my Dad has not been able to attend to them.
There are a lot of cleaning games available right now, and I like most of them! It’s so satisfying to clean something and get a visual reward at the end. (So unlike real life!!) Crabgrass is just as much fun as those other games, but with a spin on it. I’m not cleaning dirt, I’m removing weeds and rocks. And I’m not a human, I’m a crab!! I love it.
After I have cleaned an area, there’s a short but super fun cut scene where the area literally blooms into color with flowers. And there are fireworks! That’s so darn cool!!
The Gameplay in Crabgrass
The tutorial taught me how to use my claws in 2 different ways to eliminate weeds. I can either do a spin, which takes out a bunch of weeds at once or a more precise action, which just removes one weed at a time. That’s important to use if I’m trying to remove weeds around desirable plants.
After I learned my capabilities, I was sent off on a series of quests. Most of them were cleaning my dad’s clients’ properties. I found that to be a blast!! There’s a great sound of my claws swishing as I mow down weeds.
I was given a journal with lots of super helpful information. It included detailed lore about all the characters in the game, my jobs (both completed and in process), quest items, gems, various claws that I can use and flowers that I’ve collected.
The last item in my journal includes the game settings. The game has mild combat. In general, I dislike games with combat, but in Crabgrass, the combat is not difficult at all, and I actually found it to be fun. That’s because the dev very thoughtfully provided different options. In the default setting, I would lose coins every time I took damage, and when I damaged my opponent, they would become bloody. Using the settings I was able to turn off the bloody bit and make the opponent just go to sleep when I damaged them. I could also make it so I didn’t lose anything if I took damage. I tried all the options, and for me, no blood and no loss of coin was the best. But I love how you can set the game up any way you want!! In addition to those great options, Crabgrass has no day/night cycle, no need for sleep or food and no energy levels. Just relaxed gaming at my own pace. Wonderful!
Crabgrass Has a Great Map!!
I love a game with a map. I get lost often in games, so this is always very appreciated. Crabgrass has a great map!! I could see exactly where I was and where I should go. My current quest was marked with a nice red X. I found it very easy to get around and get oriented. In the map below, I had a quest to find Gus. If I headed towards the red X, I’d find him. The pink circle near the bottom is a cleaning job I could do. I could turn both of these markers on or off in the settings. The cloud-like drawings are just areas I had not discovered yet. Once I go to an area, the clouds disappear. This was a very helpful map!
Minigames in Crabgrass
There were minigames, which I usually don’t like much, but I liked these! Some minigames in Crabgrass are optional, but some are crucial to the storyline. I’m glad we have the option to skip some of them. So far, I have played a whack-a-mole type game, but with mushrooms. It was timed, and I usually really, really dislike timed games. But this one was a lot of fun! And I beat it the first time! The dev specifically tried to make the game accessible to all players, so the challenges are not huge. It’s just a sweet, fun game.
A Crab Who Can’t Swim in Crabgrass
Poor Snippy Pinch is a crab who never learned how to swim. His self-absorbed mother never had time to teach him and his Dad was so busy working, he did not have time either. So when Snippy had to cross bodies of water to take over his Dad’s business, his Dad provided him with a pink pool floaty! I thought he was so funny looking in it and so precious at the same time. Just a good-natured teenage crab doing what he could to help his family. Even if he has to be in a pink pool floaty!
Final Thoughts
I spent a very enjoyable 2 1/2 hours playing the demo for Crabgrass. As I played, I had some questions so I joined the Discord where the dev answered them all, and very quickly too. I’m always impressed with game devs who are very responsive to players. To me, it indicates that they are committed to developing an excellent game and want to make sure the players have the best possible experience with it.
The devs for this game are a married couple known as Mr. and Mrs. Donuts, and I think they created something really special! One of them did the programming while the other wrote the story and the characters. They have big plans for the full game too. They plan to include a world which is 4 times as large as the one in the demo and include a snowy region. They also plan to have the save from the demo carry over to the full game, which is projected to release sometime in 2026. I encourage you to try the demo for Crabgrass for yourself. I think you’re going to like it!
Here’s one final screenshot, tempting me to play the full game! There was so much in the demo and there will be way more in the full game!
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