Bring's Back Old Memories
Castle Crashers to me is one of the best games I have played this year. I have always been a fan of the beat-em' up games like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game, The Simpson's arcade game, the X-men arcade game, etc. Ever since I was a little kid going to arcade's, these were always the games that I would spend countless hours and hundreds of dollars playing. When The Behemoth first announced that they were making a beat-em' up style game for XBLA, I was already super syked. I am a big fan of Alien Hominid. I played it originally on Newgrounds.com, then I purchased it for the PS2 when they released it for consoles, and then, I finally purchased it when it was released for XBLA. I have always liked the art style that Dan Paladin uses so I have been waiting in anticipation for years for this game to come out. Now it finally has and I must say, it was worth the wait.
This game is a beauty to look at. The art style is so crisp and clean looking, especially in HD. The classic hack n' slash formula works very well for this game but while you might be worried that it begins to get repetative, the RPG elements that they added to the formula make the game that much better. After you level up your character, you are allowed to spend skill points that you aquire on 4 different attributes: Strenght, Magic, Defense, and Agility. These are pretty self explanatory so I won't go into what they do. At certain levels, your character also gets a new combo manuver. There are just enough of these to make the combat refeshing just when it's about to get repetative. The magic is one of the best new features to the beat-em' up formula. Each character has his own magic attack that varies from elemental like fire or ice, to phisical like saw blades, arrows, to bizzare like shooting bees. This just adds to the combat and makes the game that much better.
The story is pretty stock. 4 princesses get kidnapped and you have to save them. Along the way, you have to fight a multitude of enemies and some bosses along the way. Alien Hominid had some amazing and creative boss fights and its the same here. The boss fights in Castle Crashers really make the game. The final couple of bosses in particular are super fun. The game is not only fun but actually quite hilarious. The comedy in this game is top notch and in some cases fairly subtle. Whether it's deer being propelled by their own poop or enemies holding up white flags when they die, its all pretty funny.
Another part of the game that is worth mentioning is the online co-op. While most people seem to be suffering from lag and frequent disconnects, I haven't had any of those issues. I successfully played through the entire game which is around 5-6 hours with a buddy of mine with zero lag or disconnect issues of any kind. The online co-op just makes an already excellent game that much better and the fact that you can have up to 4 people playing online together is just plain awesome. One of the best parts about playing co-op is that after you save a princess, you have to fight your companions to see which gets to kiss her. It is these little touches that make the game amazing. There are a couple modes other than the story mode which are just a battle mode and a minigame where you try to eat the fastest. These are okay but not really what the game is about, they are just bonus modes in my mind.
All in all, I would say that this is a must play for anyone who is a fan of the old beat-em' up style games and really for anyone looking for some good co-op hack n' slash fun. The Behemoth is working on a patch to fix the online bugs, so people who are suffering from the online issues will soon be able to experience the game in all it's glory.
5/5
