Curse of the Sea Rats

Lore & Background

Curse of the Sea Rats begins when a pirate witch transforms all the people on a prison ship into a rat. The ship's captain offers to grant amnesty to four of the prisoners if they defeat the witch. The game is a Metroidvania where players fight enemies across 2D platforms. Each of the four playable characters has their own set of unique skills, and up to four players can play at once. Players can switch between the characters at set points in the game. The art is hand-drawn. The game was crowdfunded in 2020 and became one of the most successful video games of the year. It was released for Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X/S on April 6, 2023. Reception was mixed. A December 2022 preview from Hardcore Gamer said 'it shows incredible promise so far' and praised the voice acting, animation and visuals. After release, Slant Magazine criticized the game's humor, calling it unfunny and out of place, and felt the game did not use its concept or differentiate the protagonists enough. They noted that bosses were frequently too easy, yet other enemies could sometimes defeat the protagonists with ease. Pocket Tactics praised the graphics but said the difficulty will likely put off casual fans, and input delays on the Switch will frustrate hardcore gamers. NintendoWorldReport said the game 'has a lot of potential, but the samey characters and bugs hold it back'.

Reader's Guide

Curse of the Sea Rats is notable as a crowdfunded Metroidvania that became one of the most successful video games of 2020, according to the article. Its hand-drawn art style received critical praise, but the game's legacy is defined by mixed reception due to technical issues and game balance problems. The Metacritic aggregate scores—59/100 on Switch, 66/100 on PC, and 63/100 on PS5—all indicate 'mixed or average reviews'. Critics highlighted that while the game showed promise in previews, the final product suffered from bugs, samey characters, and difficulty spikes that could frustrate both casual and hardcore players. The game's humor was also criticized as unfunny and out of place. Despite these issues, the game's concept of four unique rat protagonists with cooperative play and hand-drawn visuals remains a distinctive feature in the Metroidvania genre. Its significance lies in demonstrating the challenges of balancing ambition with execution in a crowdfunded indie title.

Did You Know?

• The game was developed by Barcelona-based Petoons Studio and published by PQube.
• Up to four players can play simultaneously, each controlling one of the four playable characters with unique skills.

Gameplay & Co-Op Structure

Curse of the Sea Rats casts players into a nautical nightmare where a pirate witch has cursed every soul aboard a prison vessel, turning them all into rats. The ship's captain, desperate to reclaim his crew, extends a deal: four of the transformed prisoners can earn their freedom back by putting an end to the witch's reign. The game unfolds as a two-dimensional Metroidvania, with players navigating interconnected platforms and battling enemies throughout the ship's corridors. What sets the experience apart is its roster of four distinct playable characters, each wielding their own unique skill set. Rather than being locked into a single protagonist, players can swap between the four rats at designated checkpoints scattered across the level design. The title also supports local co-op for up to four participants simultaneously, making it one of the more social entries in the genre. All of this is rendered in a fully hand-drawn art style, giving every frame a textured, illustrative quality that distinguishes it from the pixel-art or digital-painted looks common to other Metroidvanias.

Development & Crowdfunding Triumph

The story of Curse of the Sea Rats begins not in a boardroom but in the crowdfunding world. Petoons Studio, a small development team based in Barcelona, Spain, launched a campaign in 2020 that quickly became one of the most financially successful video game fundraisers of that year. The project was eventually published by PQube, which handled distribution across a wide array of platforms. After roughly three years of development, the game finally reached players on April 6, 2023, launching simultaneously on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The multi-platform strategy ensured that the hand-drawn Metroidvania could find its audience regardless of which console or system players preferred. The crowdfunding success in 2020 also served as a strong validation of the concept, demonstrating that there was genuine appetite for a cooperative, character-swapping platformer with a nautical rat theme before a single frame of final gameplay had been completed.

Critical Reception & Mixed Verdicts

Despite the enthusiasm generated during its crowdfunding phase, Curse of the Sea Rats landed in a middling spot on review aggregators, pulling in a Metacritic score of 59 on Switch, 66 on PC, and 63 on PS5, each falling in the mixed or average range. Critics were divided on what worked. The hand-drawn visuals, voice acting, and animation drew consistent praise, with outlets like Hardcore Gamer calling the pre-release build incredible in its promise. However, the game's balance drew sharp criticism. Slant Magazine noted a jarring disconnect where boss encounters felt trivially easy while lesser enemies could one-shot the protagonists. The same review found the humor tone-deaf and the four rat characters insufficiently differentiated from one another. Pocket Tactics acknowledged the strong graphics but warned that the difficulty curve would alienate casual players, while input lag on the Switch would frustrate dedicated fans. NintendoWorldReport echoed the sentiment that the game's potential was undercut by repetitive character design and persistent bugs, and Digitally Downloaded suggested the audience is narrow, limited to those who specifically crave quirky rat humor paired with punishing platforming.

Art, Animation & Visual Identity

The most consistently praised element of Curse of the Sea Rats is its visual presentation. Every frame is rendered in a hand-drawn style, a deliberate choice that sets the game apart from the pixel-art or fully digital aesthetic that dominates the Metroidvania genre. This illustrative approach gives the prison ship and its rat inhabitants a storybook quality, with each environment and character feeling crafted rather than assembled from a sprite sheet. Reviewers across multiple outlets singled out the artwork as a standout strength, with Pocket Tactics specifically highlighting the graphics as a highlight. The animation work received similar acclaim, lending fluidity and personality to the rats' movements and combat sequences. Voice acting was another area where the game earned compliments, with Hardcore Gamer's pre-release preview singling out the vocal performances as a particular strength. Together, these elements create a cohesive visual and auditory identity that many felt elevated the game above its technical shortcomings. The hand-drawn aesthetic, in particular, became the game's calling card in marketing and reviews alike, serving as the primary reason many players chose to pick up the title despite the mixed reception of its gameplay systems.