This new roguelike is somehow both disgusting and wholesome at the same time: Morsels free demo is on Steam now

When I think of a creature collector, a mouse running through the sewers turning into a wad of chewed gum or a wilted flower isn’t exactly what comes to mind. But that’s what you should prepare yourself for with Morsels, the debut game from developer Furcula, with the impressive backing of Annapurna Interactive publishing. This is the same publisher as Mixtape, one of my favorite games from Summer Game Fest. Speaking of SGF, I was honored to get an early look at a demo for Morsels that weekend, which is now available to all on Steam.

Morsels is simultaneously disgusting and wholesome, and you wouldn’t believe me unless you played it

Morsels is a top-down roguelike twin stick shooter. You play as a mouse looking for cheese, who is unexpectedly granted the magical power of the morsels. This allows you to obtain the ability to change your appearance at will, swapping between various collected creatures. Shoot and blast your way through the sewers, fighting odd creatures, and eventually taking on a mouse’s true enemy, a group of power-hungry cats.

The first thing that probably stands out about Morsels is its pixelated, faded neon art style, which includes all the horrific, gross-looking characters that inhabit this sewer system. But somehow, at the same time, there is a level of wholesomeness and adorableness to these characters. Sort of like how ugly dogs can actually be cute. Since this is a roguelike, and a fairly challenging one at that, you will be respawning frequently. Every time you do, you are greeted by a giant creature who offers words of encouragement. Somehow, this makes it all worthwhile.

It's nice to have encouragment at the start of each run.Morsels, Developer: Furcula

Morsels is extremely fast-paced. Enemies are all over the place, and if you don’t start shooting them quickly, they will swarm you. Each level has a limited amount of space and enemies within it, but you’ll have to fight your way out every time. Every run, you start with a choice of two creatures. The wilted flower first two blasts in a burst, so it's great at close range. The wad of bubble gum drops bombs that explode in a radius. At least, I think I have those characters right. The game features a comprehensive codex of all the different creatures you can transform into, once you’ve discovered them.

Watch out for the spike balls and the energy beams.Morsels, Developer: Furcula

Once you’ve unlocked a second creature, you can swap between them at a moment's notice. If one of your collected creatures runs out of hearts, you’ll automatically swap to another. Once all your creatures are defeated, you return to the hub and will have to start fresh. However, there is an option to do a quick start. Get right back into the action without needing to go through any cut scenes. But if you want to visit anything in the hub or just take a break, you’ll want to skip this option.

Morsels is not an easy game. You can only take damage four times before you lose a creature. With the amount of enemies and projectiles flying around on screen, not to mention environmental hazards, it’s all too easy to lose a heart here and there. But with most roguelikes, it takes a little practice, a few failures, and then you start to get the hang of it. My Summer Game Fest demo only lasted for half an hour, but thankfully, there’s a free demo available on Steam right now.

A challenging boss fight.Morsels, Developer: Furcula

Thanks to Furcula and Annapurna Interactive for the opportunity to play Morsels at Summer Game Fest. This unique roguelike game is planned to launch later this year, but we don’t have a specific release date yet. Morsels will be available on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam. You can wishlist it on Steam now and play the demo.

• indie games
• roguelike / roguelite
• Annapurna Interactive
• Summer Game Fest