Castle Crashers - Review
Added October 6th, 2008 by MonjiO
Castle Crashers has quite the pedigree. This sophomore effort from developers The Behemoth is an example of why Xbox Live Arcade was created in the first place and is a worthy successor to Alien Hominid HD, The Behemoth's first title on the system. The game packs old-school multiplayer goodness, Diablo-style RPG elements, new century art and none too few “poop” jokes. These ingredients mix in an alchemic fashion to recreate the sheer joy of classic arcade beat 'em ups like Final Fight and X-Men. Castle Crashers is simply superb, to the point where even network problems can't hold back the game's innate fun.
The storyline is reminiscent of video game plots of yore. There are no deep moral questions asked in Castle Crashers, no attempts at showy depth. You play as one of four differently colored knights (at least until you unlock more characters like the homogenous Gray Knight and the Killer Beekeeper) dispatched by their king to recover a magical crystal and the king's four daughters. These were all stolen by an evil magician and his henchmen, which you'd think they'd have better security against by now.
As you hack and slash your way through more than two dozen levels, you'll fight enemies ranging from aliens (who may look familiar to those who purchased Alien Hominid HD) to sand mummies. Bosses go from a zombie cyclops to a prank-pulling ice king. Throughout all the fights feel inventive and, most importantly, fun. There are seven options when attacking: magic, strong attack, weak attack, jump, block, ranged attack and throw. Magic, for the main four knights, is usually very powerful when leveled up and the red knight's lightning attack being especially deadly. Strong and weak attacks can be mixed to create powerful combos. A key game mechanic is overcoming swarms by jumping into the air and infinitely beating enemies to a pulp.
Fun is the name of the game in Castle Crashers. This is a game clearly designed with four people sitting on a couch in mind. Castle Crashers simply has no peer on XBLA when it comes to local multiplayer. You and up to three friends can run through the game's scenarios together and, awesomely enough, the game only ends when all players are dead. If a player dies, all living players have a chance to revive their friend by running over to him and mashing the Y button. There are no credits or lives, so all players rely on the person sitting next to them in order to win. The experience is matchless, and something video games haven't seen in over a decade.
The graphics are very much influenced both by the game's and The Behemoth's roots in the flash-based site Newgrounds. Characters pop with personality, making each fight a new and (usually) hilarious combat. Occasional decapitations of enemies reward the player with a few gobs of blood, and it's been some time since I've seen a game have so many different takes on poop. The game occasionally feels like a flash game due to the style of its 2D animation, which is both good and bad. Castle Crashers doesn't attempt, for better or worse, the realistic look of games like Streets of Rage 2 and Final Fight. However, by keeping a low budget feel, the game has an abundance of personality which is something that many XBLA games lack.
The sound in this game is, in my opinion, without match for an XBLA-developed title. The first thing that really stands out about Castle Crashers is the blaring of its main theme over the introductory cinematic and main menu. The sound never lets up, with unique themes linking levels and areas. It's also remarkable in that, while you're playing the game, you never quite think about how good the sound is. The music never attempts to overwhelm the gameplay or get in the way of the game's sound effects, which is great. Each weapon hit sounds meaty and satisfying; a necessary component of any beat 'em up game.
It's not all roses for Castle Crashers, much as I'd like it to be. The vaunted online play is in shambles, with connections frequently dropped. Castle Crashers, like TMNT1989 before it, seems custom tailored for four player online. However, in addition to dropped games, actual Live gameplay occasionally suffers from intermittent lag, slowing the game down tremendously when it occurs. Graphically, it's easy to lose your character in the middle of a fight as you are swarmed by enemies. This happens often on SDTVs, I've discovered, and seems to be unavoidable. The only solution I discovered was to hold down the right trigger, used for magic attacks, because it causes your character glow.
So then, what of these crashed castles? Are they worth 800 MS funbucks? Yes. I can say it more times if you want me to. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Especially if you have three (or more!) friends. The Behemoth has made one of the best games on Xbox Live Arcade, and it's a 2D beat 'em up that feels fresh from an early '90s arcade. It's beautiful, it sounds great, and though it has occasional stumbles, it is some of the most fun you can have with your Xbox 360.
