Rougelites are a genre that I am slightly unfamiliar with. Most of the time, I play RPGs or action-adventure games, but when a rougelite clicks with me, I get invested. I sink hours of my time into not only completing the main story but also exploring and learning as much about the world as I can. With games like Hades, I immediately got hooked and spent hours doing countless runs. Losing my time learning more about the characters and the history of the world. And while I haven’t played the sequel yet, I’m sure I will soon after playing through Morsels.
Morsels is a quaint rougelite from developer Furcula and publisher Annapura Interactive that oozes charm all over the place. One of the first things you notice about the game is the art style. It’s a very charming look that blends the look of a dank sewer with marshlands, trash worlds, and even the clouds above. Another fun part of the game is how it occasionally switches up. Whether it’s 3D arenas, an 8-bit shooting range, or even a claymation-inspired area. The game loves to show you how ambitious it is and how it stands out in the sea of similar games.
The Crumbs of Story
Morsels is a world where mysterious cards fall from the sky, granting the wielder incredible power. Four cats, named the Card Barons, took control, and to ensure they stay in charge, they destroyed the Cosmic Card, which is said to hold incredible power. Ripping it up into four pieces and scattering them across the world. The game begins with the player, a small mouse named Mousel, being spotted by a cat and thrown into the sewers. When the player reaches the bottom, they spot one of the mysterious cards floating into the room ahead. Once given control, a sentient fatberg awakens to tell you to take the card and make your way out of the sewers. On your journey upwards, you’ll run into all kinds of crazy characters that you’ll either learn to love or dislike due to what effects they can give.
As I stated before, I love to learn about the worlds of games whenever it piques my interest. Unfortunately, with Morsels, the cutscene that plays when you open the game contains almost all of the story. There are little bits of dialogue from the Card Barons when you reach them at the end of each world. But most of the time, it’s very little and doesn’t lead to learning much. It’s disappointing because the world of Morsels is interesting; you’ll see bits of world-building everywhere. There are gangster rats, frog royalty, and even secret areas like hidden labs and the moon. And while it does flesh out the world, it’s nothing substantial.
Entering the Cheese Grinder
The gameplay of Morsels is simple; once you enter a stage, it’s up to you and your “Morsels” to find the ladder to the next floor. Along the way, you’ll find a variety of enemies that’ll try to take you down. This is where the main gameplay mechanic shines. Each card you find, either by lying on the floor or by completing a challenge, has a different Morsel you can turn into. You can hold up to three cards (only two when you reach the final difficulty), which means strategising to learn which cards complement your preferred style.
Will you shine best with Pebsel, a tiny rock that is impervious to damage when rolling? Or Smugsel, a little gas cloud that punches and likes to get up close and personal? Each creature differs vastly from the other, meaning some runs you’ll have Morsels that work perfectly for you, and other runs will have you struggling.
With the main character being a mouse, it’s no surprise that the main currency of the game is cheese. Cheese is used to purchase items at the shop that spawns randomly across the world, get a weapon at a gumball machine, or buy perks that usually spawn near the end of each stage. It’s best to try to pick up as much cheese as you can, as you never know when you’ll find an item or perk you want or need when you’re in danger.
The other currency you pick up is experience, which is used to level up and evolve Morsels. You’ll find it as blue stars that you gain when killing an enemy, completing a challenge, or destroying fish cans. When a Morsel gains enough experience, it’ll evolve into a stronger form. Which is good, but that also means they’re closer to death. Morsels can only evolve once; if they gain enough experience a second time, they’ll mature and leave your party. The good news is that once they do, you can pick up a small version of them and even help you out every so often.
Every time you enter a stage, you can find a daisy. Daisies are one-time use items that protect the player from harm and from the loss of a heart. Daisies stack, meaning you can go into boss battles with multiple. Protecting you and even hurting the boss if you have the right upgrade from the shop. Another pickup you’ll want to keep an eye out for is purple wish orbs. Running into an NPC, you’ll usually see that they have two options you can choose from. Most of the time, you have to choose the first option, but having one of these purple wishes lets you select the other. Whether it’s healing all your Morsels or even saving one from death, wish orbs are vital to keeping your run from derailing.
Morsels also has a system of power-ups to make your runs more interesting. The most prevalent are called perks and are bought or earned during exploration, making runs slightly easier. Such as getting more critical damage, moving slightly faster, or gaining a longer dash. Perks change the run for all Morsels, but each also comes with an individual secondary skill called Morbs. Sometimes it can be a rage that makes attacks stronger each time the player is hit, even one that increases cheese pickup. Morbs change each time a new run starts, meaning no two Morsels are the same each time.
While it’s fun to listen to the music and explore each stage, it’s also about not taking too long to reach the ladder to the next floor. If you don’t, the music will disappear, and the world darkens slightly. That’s when the Adder will come for you. The Adder is a giant snake that roams the stage when you take too long and is also a one-hit kill. No matter how strong you are, or how many Morsels you have on your team. If you don’t leave before it gets you, it’s back to the sewers for you.
The Slightly Moldy Issues
Unfortunately, Morsels has some issues that I can’t let slide. For starters, it can get very slow at some points. When I first played the game, I noticed that the loading screens from transitioning to each stage and world slightly lagged. At first, I didn’t think too much of it, as I thought that it wouldn’t be too noticeable. That’s when it began to unfold. Since this game is a rougelite, the player will fail repeatedly. Meaning that the loading screen, which I didn’t pay too much mind to, began to show up a lot.
Each time a new run started, and at the beginning of each world, the loading screen slowed down due to lag. But it gets worse from there. As soon as I began a run on Cheese Nightmare 2, the second difficulty you unlock after beating the main game. I noticed that even while playing, the game began to stutter. From moving taking a half second longer, to the particle effects of beating an enemy slowing the screen down, it became more and more unforgivable. The worst of it all was when the game crashed on me. I was playing this software on my Nintendo Switch 2. No other game I’ve played on the system has had these issues to the same extent as Morsels.
Another issue I ran into was that the game softlocked me during a run. I was simply exploring when I killed a hermit crab, and I saw a manhole underneath where it died. Curious, I jumped in and found a treasure map. Excited by this discovery, I jumped into the next manhole and found myself stuck in a locked area. Unable to get out because I didn’t have a key. The worst part is that I was able to see the exit to the next floor right below me. I was even able to kill the fly that unlocks the ladder. I saw freedom right below me, but I was a prisoner to the game.
That’s when the Adder came and killed me, ending a run that could’ve potentially won. A minor complaint I have for Morsels is the number of Morsels there are in the game. Fourteen creatures can seem like a lot, but after countless runs, you’ll start to wish there were more. Fortunately, the mix and match of Morbs and evolutions of the Morsels keeps it fresh enough from getting stale.
Even with most of these issues, I still had fun with the game. It’s charming and super addicting to just start a new run the second you fail. Without a doubt, a highlight of 2025 that I will continue to enjoy for quite a while.
Disclaimer: Morsels was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2.
