Morsels Review

Welcome to the strange and gritty world of Morsels. If you are a fan of games like The Binding of Isaac and Enter the Gungeon, you may feel right at home here. You play as a hungry, tiny mouse fighting against tyrannical cats who have taken over the world using magical cards that have fallen from space. A mysterious creature in the sewers, who seems to be a parent figure to your mouse, grants you the power to transform into creatures from the cards you collect. These Morsels will help you fight your way from the sewers to the upper world to take down the evil cat regime, using the cards that you have gathered.

As soon as you begin, you are given a choice of a Morsel card from two options. You will transform into whichever form you select; each one has its own unique style of attack. The mouse can carry three of these at one time, and you can swap between them as you explore. Right away, you can see that this twin-stick shooter is full of strange creatures and abominations that do not hesitate to come after you, their attacks relentless. 

To go along with this, there are numerous elemental hazards that are a huge hindrance. The best part is that if you take too long to find the exit, a massive snake shows up to hunt you down. At first, I assumed this reptile would appear every time I played. If it gets you, you’re toast, and your run is over, sending you back to your home in the sewers to try again.

You can play Morsels using a controller or keyboard. I was playing on my Steam Deck, which was docked, and I was using my Xbox controller. This is a twin-stick shooter, so you will use the thumbsticks a lot, but there is a button to quickly swap to a different Morsel, a dash, a button for your special attack, and even one to squeak. I love it when games include cute sound buttons; I end up spending far too much time spamming them!

Each time you start a new attempt, you are given a random Morsel card, whose form you can use for that run. You will find other cards as you explore that can be added to your collection or swapped out entirely if you wish. There are also power-ups scattered throughout the stages that you can use to level up your different forms. There are 14 different Morsel cards to discover here, including a chewed wad of gum and even a flower that is moody and wilted from a lack of vitamin D.

I have played a lot of twin-stick shooters, but I have to say that for the first few runs, I didn’t really know what I was supposed to be doing. The game definitely doesn’t hold your hand or tell you much of anything. There is a guidebook in the mouse’s room, but it mainly provides information about the different Morsels you meet, rather than detailing anything else you will discover. As a result, you will have to learn and experiment on your own.

One thing you will want to make sure to do is pick up any cheese you find by defeating enemies. This dairy treat is used as the primary currency during your run. It can be spent on buying bonuses and buffs found near ladders in the dungeon to enhance your current Morsels. If you already have three Morsels and want to swap one out for a new card you have found, it costs cheese. Finally, some random in-game events will require cheese pieces to progress or to receive bonuses, so be sure to collect as much as you can.

Morsels has a unique art style that is brightly coloured, yet dark and gritty at the same time. All the creatures you encounter in this world have an interesting look to them, including Bidgeon the Pidgeon, the food truck called Bird Taste, where the driver hires you to do food deliveries, and the massive snake that pursues you when you don’t complete a stage fast enough. The soundtrack is very good; it is haunting and gives you the feeling that something bad is waiting to attack at any moment.

You will die a lot, especially in areas packed with tonnes of enemies and shots flying in all directions. Trying to dodge all the foes and environmental threats that await you is difficult. This is one of the most chaotic roguelike titles I have played in a while! 

Each run is randomised, so it will never be exactly the same, but you will accrue XP that helps make your next run a bit easier. Just remember that just because you find a special card or key in one place, it doesn’t mean it will be there the next time you visit. There are also a variety of mini-games to encounter; my favourite is the one that resembles a round of the arcade hit Frogger.

Morsels is a challenging twin-stick shooter with a great visual style and an interesting cast of monsters to collect. If you want a game that is more cryptic and where discovery is required to figure everything out, this title will be right up your alley. However, if you prefer things to be clearer and more thoroughly explained, this game may prove frustrating.