Even jaded gamers can be pleasantly surprised. When you’ve been around for this long, you eventually come to realize that most games won’t live up to their price tag. But we stick around, because once in awhile the world gives us a Bioshock or Portal. These are the rarities that remind us what video games can be, and why we choose this medium over others as our entertainment avenue of choice.
So when Castle Crashers was announced, it was easy to dismiss it as just another side-scrolling brawler. We played Ninja Turtles and Streets of Rage, so why go down that road once more? Despite the fact that it was being developed by The Behemoth of Alien Hominid pedigree, there was only so good the game could be.
Boy, were we wrong.
Castle Crashers is about four knights who embark on an adventure to rescue the princesses kidnapped from their kingdom, and that’s pretty much it. The story exists as primarily as a vehicle to drive the gameplay, and is smart enough to stay out of the way of what really makes the game fun.
Up to four people, in any combination of local or Xbox LIVE players, can team up to take on wave after wave of baddies while moving from left to right, screen to screen. There are light and heavy attacks, ranged weapons, and magic all at your disposal for creating deadly combos. As you defeat enemies, your character levels up and can learn new combos, magic attacks, and you can distribute stat points between power, agility, defense and magic. The implementation of RPG elements goes even further, with tons of weapons with different stat bonuses that can be found and wielded. The final piece of the puzzle are the so-called animal orbs you can collect; each have a unique effect, like a floating ram’s-head that knocks down enemies or an owl that brings you hidden health items. The variety in all of these areas is fantastic, as well. For example, you could be using a light saber as your weapon one level, and a dead fish the next.
Castle Crashers has the winning combination of addictive RPG ingredients, while the action is frenetic and challenging without ever being overly-punitive. With four players, the pace remains frenzied, and even with all that help, the game is still tough. The upside to dying often is that other players can run over to a fallen knight and perform a quick CPR mini game to bring them right back into the action. It brings a fun sense of panic to Castle Crashers, and since all players need to die before you’re forced to start the level over, the “punishment” for poor play actually adds more enjoyment to the mix. Obviously, much of the amusement of this game comes from sharing the experience with others.
Fans of Behemoth’s previous game Alien Hominid (also available on XBLA) will instantly recognize the unique, hand-drawn visuals, while those new to the artistry are in for a treat. Make no mistake – Castle Crashers will charm your pants off. The artistic style of Dan Paladin is altogether magnetic and adorable, pulling of an approachable aesthetic so deftly that he has created a game with decapitations and gore that you can play with your mom or girl fiend. That intangible Wii characteristic that draws even non-gamers into its fold is present here, but in a fashion that proves you don’t need dumbed-down “kiddie” graphics to attract the masses. The presentation of Castle Crashers is magnetic, so that no matter what end of the gamer spectrum you occupy, your eyes will stuck to that screen. The levels are varied and colorful, and the animations are slick. A few minutes with even the trial game will demonstrate how short the above gushing has fallen.
Not to mention, Castle Crashers pulls it all off with a tongue-in-cheek smirk on its face. Portal proved that sprinkling in just the right amount of humor is like an arcade multiplier, wherein every point that Castle Crashers scores is only magnified by its tone. It may never be laugh-out-loud funny, but the game is consistently wrenching chuckles and smiles from its audience. The degree of subtlety is what makes engaging, as it never hits you over the head with its jokes like Battlefield: Bad Company did.
The music is perfectly complimentary, too. The soundtrack of Castle Crashers is filled with catchy, radio-friendly techno that accents the action without distracting from it or becoming annoying. We caught ourselves saying, “Oh, that’s a cool song,” quite often. Just like the rest of the game, the music is a subtle and smartly-integrated piece of the puzzle that never oversteps its bounds.
Every so often, a game comes along that elevates a genre to a point so far above its peers and predecessors that a new standard emerges. Half Life 2 and Halo: Combat Evolved have each done that very thing in the first-person shooter realm, for example; they certainly weren’t the first to tread that path, but they brought the experience into the sublime. In that vein, Castle Crashers has perfected the side-scrolling beat-em-up. Until now, no game in this genre has put together a package as complete this. 1200 Microsoft Points? That’s fifteen bucks well-spent.
Rating: 
Leave a Reply