Morsels Review – A Scrumptious Meal

Did you ever identify yourself as a kid with Oscar The Grouch from Sesame Street? You know, that green monster that was fascinated with garbage and lived in a literal trash can? Perhaps this is an understatement, because Morsels, a repetitious roguelite focused on toppling down a plutocracy, is nowhere near for a younger audience. The art style itself feels like if Hieronymus Bosch’s body of work was passed through a pixelated filter and exhibited through a CRT TV. The point is, while there are gameplay elements that ground this oddball experience, the way it is presented makes it feel like there is nothing else quite like it.

Annapurna Studios, from Lushfoil Photography Sim to What Remains of Edith Finch, has always had a keen eye for out of left field adventures. In this case, developer Furcula goes beyond a unique art style to tell a story with timely parables, and a brilliant gameplay loop that succeeds in adding new mechanics in the roguelite genre to keep players on their toes. Going down the maw of a monster into their depths to reach the main menu, the tone is set instantly with its perpetually grainy CRT TV filter that everything is permeated by.

One fateful day, magical cards fell down from the sky, turning anthropomorphic animals into powerful monsters. Four cats, known as the Card Barons, took control of these abilities, leaving the rest of society with the merest of, and repeat with me, Morsels. You start as a mouse in the deepest of depths of a sewer, tired of living for scraps and determined to upend the status quo of these literal fat cats. Ascending through each of the areas with a bullet-hell boss fight at the end of each checkpoint to keep progressing, the run-based ordeal is designed for endless replayability.

Before starting a run, you must choose between two random morsels available. This is where it gets tricky from the get-go. Every little critter you choose has a distinct attack and special move. From a melee punch that requires you to get close and personal to a more ranged bubble attack, the more you play, the easier it gets to find your affinity with each of the monsters. What I found a very clever mechanic as an avid roguelike player, is that as you earn and use up to three morsels to rotate, they can level up to a second phase, and then, explode. This urges you to not lean too much in one style, and learn to coexist with several of the 10+ morsels available. Not only does it keep the gameplay active, but also entices experimentation.

Morsels’ top down gameplay allows for fast-paced action that constantly keeps you dodging and fighting back. The character rotation is necessary to tackle each situation differently. Because there is a bar that permits only a certain amount of moves before it reloads automatically, this constantly leaves you vulnerable to the barrage of enemy projectiles that cover the screen when things get hectic, which happens often. The grainy effects sometimes mess with the visual clarity as well. Losing often in the beginning is a natural part of these games, but so is feeling that you are getting somewhere with each new try, and earning experience to level up on every incursion makes it feel rewarding.

Secrets abound on each biome. 3D arcade games that change the art style entirely might appear on your ascent to eat the rich, throwing in a curveball to stray from the usual shooting and dodging. If you stay idle for long, you will die from a ghastly serpent that appears from the sewer lid. Please do not ask me how I know. I was not checking my phone while this happened. I PROMISE. Being able to change the difficult settings to “soft” or “hard” cheese to adjust depending on the level of challenge that you wish to struggle with.

Verdict

Is it aesthetically wrong to classify Morsels as the strangest game I have ever played simply because of its focus on designs based around garbage? I don’t think so, but it at least makes it stand out over the sea of games releasing every day. A seemingly straightforward game, Morsels has some of the most creative ideas I have seen in a roguelite in a very long time. Weird in the best of ways, fans of the top-down shooters and quirky offbeat games should give it a try, because, as they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

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