Nick Bounty In A Case Of The Crabs (2004/Online)

As much as I admittedly waste time playing flash games, I don’t tend to give them much thought. They’re often nothing more than alternative mindless ways of burning hours when you aren’t in the mood to play a classic platformer, no matter how much effort goes into them. There are some incredibly novel flash games out there, swamped in a mass of remakes and ripoffs of old arcade style games, contemporary games, and even other flash games, but even these specimens tend to wash over your mind without etching a noticeable imprint that the cream of the classics do so effortlessly with their genuine age and nostalgic gravitas.

On the rare occasion that a flash game can win me over, it’s usually nothing particularly special in terms of novelty or innovation. A Case Of The Crabs, the first and best game starring Nick Bounty, is one of those. It derives its gaming style directly from classic LucasArts titles such as The Secret Of Monkey Island, with a series of verbs to apply to objects in the scenery, and the inventory. The end credits unashamedly cite the creators of that game as the main influence, whilst openly chastising LucasArts for abandoning the genre that they’d been so influential in, after the commercial failure of the critically lauded Grim Fandango, which wasn’t sufficiently backed in the first place. This event is perhaps one of the most pivotal in the fortunes of point-and-click games, and is why Tim Schafer has his own company, and why I’m reviewing a short flash game instead of yet another excellent commercial title that doesn’t exist.

Humphrey Bogart wouldn't be fit to
fill the shoes of Nick Bounty

In terms of plot and artistry, creator Mark Darin borrows from the themes of Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, although this instalment sees Humphrey Bogart opposite no femme fatale. A Case Of The Crabs is a much more lighthearted affair that recalls the humour of the old Monkey Island games more than the grim spheres of Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, and Nick Bounty is a wisecracking goof who looks the part but doesn’t play it. The game is littered with anachronisms and easter eggs that belie the monochromatic film noir style and the slow jazz soundtrack, which is brilliant for what it is. Most of the background music consists of loops of maybe 15 seconds, and while this would be wholly unsatisfying in a feature length score, it’s a graceful touch to a charming game that takes up less than 8MB that you can play online or download.

Right off the bat, the graffiti and
architecture hint at a different era, but
you often get distracted by the script

The sketches tell a slightly different
story to the one you actually play,
Griffen looks very stressed here

We’re introduced to the game through a sinister music loop accompanying the opening credits over some rough sketches implying the events preceding the opening monologue that imply a more serious tone than the game itself offers. After clicking “Play Now”, you’re ushered into a shuddery urban still with some smooth saxophone and the voice of Nick Bounty meandering through a soliloquy that blends that cheesy old hardboiled narrative style with a silly but charming humour. The Arthur Griffen that we see doesn’t resemble the worried man aware of pursuit in the sketches, and instead appears in Bounty’s office delivering what appears to be a cheerful sales pitch, until it gets cut short with a knife, appearing in Griffen’s back as he slumps to the floor. The unflappable Bounty would have been stood a mere eight yards or so from the murderer, but he doesn’t panic, or chase after the assailant. Nope, Nick Bounty is a detective, not an athlete, so that rapscallion will get his due from cunning and panache alone. You can try leaving the office, but there’s nowhere else in DownTown to go yet, so you had better stay in your office and hunt for clues.

We’re introduced to the game through a sinister music loop accompanying the opening credits over some rough sketches implying the events preceding the opening monologue that imply a more serious tone than the game itself offers. After clicking “Play Now”, you’re ushered into a shuddery urban still with some smooth saxophone and the voice of Nick Bounty meandering through a soliloquy that blends that cheesy old hardboiled narrative style with a silly but charming humour. The Arthur Griffen that we see doesn’t resemble the worried man aware of pursuit in the sketches, and instead appears in Bounty’s office delivering what appears to be a cheerful sales pitch, until it gets cut short with a knife, appearing in Griffen’s back as he slumps to the floor. The unflappable Bounty would have been stood a mere eight yards or so from the murderer, but he doesn’t panic, or chase after the assailant. Nope, Nick Bounty is a detective, not an athlete, so that rapscallion will get his due from cunning and panache alone. You can try leaving the office, but there’s nowhere else in DownTown to go yet, so you had better stay in your office and hunt for clues.

Nick Bounty's Office

The map screen, with a save/load feature

Armed with six actions, “Look”, “Get”, “Use”, “Talk”, “Move”, and “Shoot”, it’s time to get to work. After searching around, you acquire the knife and the crab that Griffen carelessly dropped on his way to the floor, and these will be your greatest allies. A few other things are here, but without spoiling things too much, your sniffing around should lead you to a clue that unlocks your next location. Leaving the office prompts the map of DownTown and a voiceover containing more twofold monologue, and the revelation of the Shiny Barnacle Shipping Docks.

Bill polishes barnacles for a living

Over at the docks, you meet your first character. Despite the work required to get the attention of Barnacle Bill, he’s not incredibly helpful. Knifing and crabbing your way through the set will eventually open up the theme to the game, as well as two more locations, a couple of restaurants. Jim’s Shack O’ Crabs is largely a sideshow, but the Blue Crab Café offers more. Once you’ve been back and forth among the locations a few times, you should have a fake ID card and a counterfeit crab in your possession (trying to talk to your live crab gives the line “Hello wittle crabby”, and trying to talk to the impostor gives “Hello wittle fake crabby bastard!”). It is at this point that the anachronisms really start to flood in. The Blue Crab Café has an electronic device on the doors going by the name of Autobouncer 5000, and examining a poster on the wall causes Bounty to drop the line “Hey, I saw this old flyer here back in ’89”. After doing all the useful things you can, as well as plenty of useless things like “Look at big ass neon crab sign”, talking to inanimate objects (“Hey, hey you!”) and trying to shoot everything (“That’s a waste of good bullets!”), you should be able to crack into the café with a genuine fake ID.

Something tells me that not all is
1940s in this part of town

Bounty has a unique way of talking
himself out of conversations

More monologue leads to a little dialogue with a waitress, who points you out back, but not in that way. You can introduce yourself to the blues-rocking cook, who is, naturally, about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Head out back and a cutscene puts Bounty face to face with an armed henchman, the mighty Wilbur. Bounty pushes his limits with some wisecracking, and is introduced to the main antagonist, known simply as The Boss (no Bruce Springsteen joke opportunity was missed). A monologue here includes an anachronous jibe at Rush Limbaugh, and the dialogue features a ghoulishly bad accent from the fat man. Bounty bluntly states his intention to bring The Boss to justice for the murder of Arthur Griffen, because although he has Wilbur to do his dirty work, he’s obviously the podgy assassin depicted in those early sketches with the knife. The Boss turfs Bounty out of his office, and Wilbur isn’t letting you back in.

I agree with Nick: Bounty isn't big
on lying to his audience

Your mission from here is simple. Get some evidence and get it past Wilbur. With enough searching (somewhere along the line you’ll get to successfully use the “Move” function for the only time) and a visit or two to Jim’s Shack O’ Crabs (which features oddly canned dialogue of a lower fidelity than the rest of the game, which is either a shame or a homage), you should be able to achieve this. The icing on the cake that makes this game really stand out is the ending sequence. Bounty presents the evidence to The Boss, who destroys it. Bounty then has an epiphany, and foolishly tells The Boss that he can get a forensics team (from the future?) down for some real proof, at which point he turns his gun on Bounty. The gun is failing in this mock action scene, and it’s finally time to use the “Shoot” option, although Bounty has a game-defining surprise in store for us at this point which I just cannot spoil. Eventually you’ll figure out what to do and witness the long descent of The Boss, and the game is sealed with another daft monologue.

The fully-explored ending takes the
game soaring above other flash games

The smug face of a case closed
precedes the end credits

Nick Bounty In A Case Of The Crabs contains all the right ingredients for a fantastic game, and it’s easy to imagine a longer game as a commercial title. Sure enough, a longer sequel was made, but Nick Bounty And The Goat In The Grey Fedora suffered from overcomplicated and convoluted ambitions, a conversion from a two-dimensional look to a plastic three-dimensional set, and a loss of the jazz and the majority of the film noir elements that gave A Case Of The Crabs so much of its charm. The dialogue was there, but Bounty was put in a completely modern environment that didn’t suit him. If you really enjoy the dialogue of A Case Of The Crabs, by all means play The Goat In The Grey Fedora, but be aware that it cannot hold a candle to the original, a lovable, brilliant blend of old point-and-click adventure and film noir that the mind behind it could not replicate. Depending on how sharp you are, grab yourself a free half hour, play, and enjoy.