A great 4-player beat em' up with charming artstyle and gameplay
Pros:
-Great art style
-Humorous and creative gameplay
-Great co-op experience
-Lot's of replay value
Cons:
-Enemies can be cheap and frustrating
-Doesn't offer much of a single player experience
When it comes to 4 player beat em' ups, you can't really do better than Castle Crashers. It is unique, funny, creative, and just down right fun. It's a game that you and your friends will laugh long into the night with, and it's certainly worth your money.
Castle Crashers is set in a cartoon fantasy-medieval world where 4 knights set out on a quest to rescue their damsels in distress, who in classic fantasy setting, have been kidnapped by an evil wizard. The game allows you to choose one of the 4 knights to play as, each one with their own unique weapon and powers. The red knight fights with a mace and can shoot lightning, the green knight uses a sword and toxic magic, the blue knight fights with a sword and ice magic, and the orange knight fights with an axe and uses fire magic. While each knight has some slight differences, as a whole they play pretty much the same, this isn't necessarily a bad thing however and Castle Crashers allows you to level up after each stage, allowing you to make your knight unique from the rest. Do you want to make your knight more powerful in melee attacks? Or move and shoot a bow faster? Or become more powerful in magic? These, and many other areas, are yours to level your knight up in as you see fit.
Castle Crashers plays just like a classic beat em' up, you move through each level heading in one direction and kill every enemy in your path to advance to the next. However what makes Castle Crashers stand out is it's creativity and charm, the art style is beautiful and well done, and the game is packed with humor that makes the game even better! From riding on pooping deers to escape a giant monster (yes I'm being serious), fighting your friends over who get's to kiss the princess, crashing a cyclops wedding, storming your way through a giant UFO (yes, once again, I'm being serious) and more! Each level of Castle Crashers is memorable and full of surprises, which keeps the game fresh. However the best part of Castle Crashers is that you can experience it with up to four of your friends! Castle Crashers delivers one of the best co-op experiences around, nothing is more fun than teaming up to take down a giant, evil catfish (literally it's part cat and part fish) that is being controlled by a polar bear (like I said, I'm being serious), you and your friends simply won't be able to put this game down.
The single player experience though is lacking, it's the same exact game as stages and everything as the co-op mode, but it just doesn't feel as solid. This is due to the AI, which is more cheap than challenging. They will gang up on players in ruthless waves after waves until you finally clear an area, and they don't hold back on anything. This is very frustrating when alone as there is little you can do when a group of enemies will just gang up on you without mercy, which on later stages becomes a nightmare. However these are minor complaints in the grand scheme of things as Castle Crashers is certainly enjoyable, and it's meant to be played with friends in the first place. The campaign it's self is of pretty decent length, however it does offer plenty of side and bonus elements to keep you busy, from unlocking new characters to play as, tackling the harder difficulty modes, bonus stages, leveling up your knights, and more! Castle Crashers offers plenty of replay value to sink your time into.
Final Verdict:
Despite a couple of minor issues, Castle Crashers is a great game that's well worth your money. It's a great experience that you can kick back with and hang out with your friends on. And it's creative and unique gameplay aspects will keep you coming back!
Castle Crashers get's a 5/5
