Castle Crashers, The Behemoth's follow-up to its 2004 cult hit Alien Hominid, took the ancient beat-em-up genre and revived it using exquisite hand-drawn graphics, entertaining gameplay and a quirky sense of humor.
As the story goes, four knights are dispatched by the king to save a precious gem and his princess daughters, kidnapped by an evil wizard. Each of the warriors possesses a nature element that complements their fighting style. One uses fire to his advantage, while another freezes enemies with ice. They'll need every move they have in their arsenal, as the odds are heavily stacked against them. If the evil wizard's goblin army doesn't cut them down, a number of other supernatural monsters will. We're not talking ordinary ghosts and goblins either. Imagine the sheer ferocity of a gigantic cat monster that hocks man-sized hairballs or a lumbering slug beast thirsty for royal blood.
Castle Crashers features a variety of levels that not only show the Behemoth's creative initiative, but also pays tribute to classic beat-em-ups. One level has you outrunning the large slug creature, jumping over barrels and running through open doorways – a throwback to the classic Battletoads' rocket cycle level. Meanwhile, other levels have numerous paths to take and force you to backtrack. For instance, one stage requires you to bulk up your strength to bust through a steel door. You can't do it at your current strength, but beating a later level gives you access to an item that'll help you out.
Being a beat-em-up, the gameplay does get somewhat repetitive. However, a cool level-up system enables you to learn new moves, such as a spinning sword slash and an uppercut that knocks enemies into the air. You can issue earned points over four skill areas – magic, defense, strength and agility. Over the course of the game, you also unlock new items. Small floating animal buddies, such as a floating ram's head that launches itself at enemies and a small bat creature that sucks them dry are a huge help. There are also additional weapons and characters, which you can combine for hilarious results. Only here can you see the returning Alien Hominid as he beats enemies with a lollipop.
The Behemoth took extra care in making Castle Crashers look and sound like a winner. The hand-drawn visuals look amazing, especially if you hook up your Xbox 360 through HDMI or component cables. The multi-scrolling backgrounds are beautiful, whether you fight on a dirt-laden battlefield or run like hell through a farmhouse. The action can get really crazy at times, especially if you're in the middle of a four-player match, but that's just part of the fun. The enemy designs are off the wall too, including a large mutant bat that licks you for up-close damage or drops big, toxic piles of guano on you from above. There's also plenty of humor, such as a deer farting excessively or a large frog doubling as a blacksmith's workshop. Finally, the music and sound effects have variety, with tunes that range from hard-hitting war themes to tracks that recall the good ol' SNES days.
This game is built for multiplayer and there's lots of it. Along with being able to team up with three friends in a co-op game, you can also endure a free-for-all Arena battle against countless foes. For button-mashing kicks, there's also an "All You can Quaff" minigame, where you chow down on as much food as possible by tapping the X and Y buttons. On the downside, there are intermittent connection issues that occur. We hope that Microsoft will fix this so people can enjoy Crashers online.
There simply isn't a game like Castle Crashers, and that's what makes it so spectacular. The astounding visuals, classic gameplay, obscure humor and hours of beat-em-up action make this worth every one of your 1200 points. Let's just hope we don't have to wait long for a sequel.
Reader Comments (0)