Horseshoe Crab Rescue! 2D

It's breeding season for the horseshoe crabs, which means they've come up to the beach to lay and fertilize their eggs. But there's a problem - if a horseshoe crab gets stuck on its back, it can't flip itself upright! Race to rescue the horseshoe crabs by flipping them upright before time runs out!

Horseshoe Crab Rescue! 2D is a fast-paced casual action game made with GB Studio and available as a ROM for the Nintendo Game Boy family of handhelds, as a Pocket file for the Analogue Pocket, and to play in your browser. The gameplay is simple but addictive, and plays well on these retro handhelds.

The game consists of 20 stages of increasing difficulty. Each stage challenges you to rescue a certain number of horseshoe crabs before time runs out. The time limit for each stage typically ranges from 10 - 15 seconds; if you fail, you can retry the stage until you beat it. Expect your first playthrough of the campaign to take between 10 and 20 minutes.

Once you complete the campaign once, you will unlock Time Trial mode, which tracks how long it takes you to beat the campaign and saves your best time. Beware - if you fail a stage and have to retry, the clock keeps running! How fast can you speedrun the game?

Handheld Controls

• Move: D-pad
• Rescue: A
• Pause: Start
• Retry Stage: Select

Browser Controls

• Move: WASD or arrow keys
• Rescue: Z or J
• Pause: Enter
• Retry Stage: Shift

Horseshoe Crab Rescue! 2D is the official demake of Horseshoe Crab Rescue! The original game was released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop in 2021 and is notable as one of the last games ever released for the 3DS, and also for having been played by a chicken: 

Like its predecessor, Horseshoe Crab Rescue! 2D is inspired by real-life rescue events organized by animal welfare and environmental groups, where volunteers patrol the beach and help horseshoe crabs that have gotten stuck on their backs.