Curse of the Sea Rats Reviews
Curse of the Sea Rats contains all the key elements to be a good metroidvania and, in addition, thanks to its enormous personality and multiplayer mode it manages to stand out within the genre. Because metroidvanias there are many... But there is only one ratoidvania.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Curse of the Sea Rats is a 2D platformer adventure game in which you fight enemies and upgrade your abilities while searching for the evil pirate witch who turned your party into rats. Exploring new areas and defeating the witch's crew is fun throughout the course of the game, and is definitely worth a play-through for those patient enough to deal with its difficulty.
Curse of the Sea Rats is, ultimately, a great game held back from even higher greatness by some of the design decisions that were implemented. It could have had a better start, and some of the mechanics could have been tweaked ever so slightly, but once you get into it, it’s a whole lot of fun. It’s probably better in co-op though.
Curse of the Sea Rats is a comfortable, unique Metroidvania game with a good story, characters, and stunning aesthetics. It lacks challenge and a difficulty selector, but supports up to four-player couch co-op, so you can save the Admiral's son together.
Offering a fun piratical adventure, excellent animation and a fun, engaging story with full voice acting, Curse of the Sea Rats is a great single or multiplayer romp despite some stumbling blocks.
Curse of the Sea Rats benefits a lot from its nice looking cartoon graphics, the well done voice acting and by staying true to the Metroidvania genre at least in most aspects. There are also a lot of optional secrets to find with many references to game classics like Monkey Island, Worms or The Legend of Zelda. The major weak spot is the combat system, that largely fails of being satisfying and well balanced.
Review in German | Read full review
Curse of the Sea Rats is above all a very fun game, easily recommended to be played alone or with friends. With a light theme and full of good pirate stories, it should please fans of action and platform games of all ages. But, as a metroidvania, it falls a little short of the good options currently available in the market.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Despite jarring bugs and inconsistencies, Curse of the Sea Rats is a well-designed game with a clear direction. Petoons Studio succeeded in making an accessible Metroidvania that can be enjoyed by gamers of varied skill levels. Its art, simplicity, and smoothly escalating challenge make it a great way to introduce a younger audience to the genre. If the rough edges are smoothed away, a real gem lies beneath.
Curse of the Sea Rats is a perfectly fine Metroidvania effort. The hand-drawn art is gorgeous for the most part and the combat together with the platforming are both well executed and ultimately satisfying. However coupled with the absence of some odd quality of life features, a general lack of polish and a lack of any real ambition, Curse of the Sea Rats arguably struggles to elevate itself in an increasingly competitive genre filled with top-tier efforts.
What I’m saying is that I’m not entirely sure who is going to enjoy Curse of the Sea Rats. I do know that there’s going to be an audience out there for it, because while it has several issues it also has many redeeming qualities. However, when it’s one of a few million Metroidvanias that are already on the Switch, I fear that Sea Rats will struggle to find that audience, despite being a clear passion project from everyone involved.
I wish I could rate this higher. I honestly had a fun time playing through Curse of the Sea Rats, but the issues I encountered were significant. On top of balance issues and voice line deliveries, I also stumbled across a few bugs here and there including one that basically broke most of the ending. Again the refrain goes, they’re aware and fixing issues, but I can merely hope the patch irons out every last detail. Should the patch fix every one of these issues admirably, I could easily see this being an 8 or even a 9. But even in its current state, it’s a charming experience. Especially for anyone with fond memories of 90s animated features.
Curse of the Sea Rats is a good game for those who want to get into the Metroidvania genre or don't have too high demands on the technical implementation. Veterans, on the other hand, might still lack the final touch, especially in direct comparison with the genre classics. Otherwise, Curse of the Sea Rats is quite entertaining with about 12 hours of gameplay and a detailed world.
Review in German | Read full review
Curse of the Sea Rats is a 2.5D Metroidvania game developed by Petoons Studio and published by PQube Limited. The game is set in a pirate-themed world and follows the adventure of four playable characters.
Curse of the Sea Rats is a beautiful metroidvania that limps a bit in its playability, but stands out for its artistic section and its option to play cooperatively.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Curse of the Sea Rats, called ratoidvania by its creator, is a pretty standard metroidvania. It stands out for its exquisitely animated and hand-drawn character design, and for offering four-player co-op, something not very typical for the subgenre. Despite its interesting premise, its execution has not been perfect. There are many small details that the user can decide to ignore and enjoy the adventure or they can spoil the experience a bit. Even so, the game is fun and engaging, so we can only recommend it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Curse of the Sea Rats is a game that has that classic 2D animation charm, with its character design and voice acting, but the same cannot be said about the game’s gameplay which seems to not be that fleshed out and is too heavily built around its co-op. If you want to experience the game at its best, play it with a friend or younger sibling, otherwise, you won’t have the most enjoyable experience.
While it may have a terrific visual style and appealing characters, the crippling difficulty takes the steam out of the experience quickly
Many of the problems I ran into have been or will soon be patched according to the developers, but unfortunately it was a tad too late to not paint my experience at least a little bit. Overall, Curse of the Sea Rats is a game I think has a lot of potential, but the samey characters and bugs hold it back from being what it seems like it really could be. If you're really itching for a new metroidvania experience, or just really like rats for some reason, you could definitely do a lot worse than this one, but I sadly cannot say I would recommend you dash to the eshop as fast as you can for it.
Curse of the Sea Rats is a competent 2.5D Metroidvania that offers an absolutely delightful style. The story and gameplay are basic at best, with design oversights and shallow combat that unfortunately drive this simple narrative. Still, the small package comes with a fun four-player coop that complements the classic cartoon animation and critters throughout the journey. This platformer won't rattle the scene, but it's a great game for families to play.
Curse of the Sea Rats is never actually bad. Even with the lack of graphic and mechanical refinement, we can still find fun and adventure in its shores. There are a few interesting things in how it creates a diversified world but nothing impressive and the exploration isn't always rewarding.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review