Editor’s Note: We’re bringing you this retrospect review as a
special edition release. These reviews are offered as a fresh perspective on a
game that’s been out for a short while, but deserves a new look.
Sometimes there is a treasure trove of entertainment to be discovered laying underneath the cover of simplicity. This has been all but proven with the increased development and rising popularity of Flash games. The Internet is stuffed full of them. Sites like Newgrounds.com can thank them for a large percentage of their daily traffic. Who doesn’t enjoy a quick distraction from work or school? That is what Flash games are all about – although most Flash games lack the depth of full retail games, some of them are crafted into works of brilliance that stack up right beside the best console hits. Thanks to online services like Xbox Live, some of the best Flash games can be easily translated to an experience intended for consoles. It turns out that one of the most recent Flash-based games released on Xbox Live Marketplace, Castle Crashers, is one of those brilliant works.
Castle Crashers is made by Behemoth Games, the same team of guys who originally made and then ported the cult-hit Flash game Alien Hominid to consoles. There are differences that separate Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid, but both of them are stylish side-scrolling action games that will hook anyone who gives them the time of day. Castle Crashers delivers on all of the most important aspects of a Flash game while also offering enough extra content to make it well worth the 1,200 Microsoft Points investment. There are dozens of levels, 26 game-affecting animals to collect, and an RPG-like character customization system. Did I mention that, with its four-player co-op and competitive (local and online) game modes, it is one of the best multiplayer offerings on the Marketplace? Suffice it to say, anyone interested in old-school action games, stylish graphics, and Xbox Live Marketplace should read on.
Read on past the jump, the princess gives you a smooch at the end!
Games like Final Fight, Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, and River City Ransom once saturated the console and arcade gaming markets with their own flavor of simple beat-em-up action. Castle Crashers is like a smooth, evolved form of those games with all kinds of additional perks. There are a couple of modes of play, but the main Castle Crashers mode that tells the "story" is what most players will spend time on. It offers dozens of levels spanning forests, medival castles, deserts, and more – and best of all, up to four players can play cooperatively, simultaneously, via Local or Xbox Live connections. Schweet. The goal is to fight through countless fleets of enemies in order to save the four different princesses that have been captured in the game. At the end of each major boss fight, the surviving players duke it out with each other for the coveted kiss of the rescued damsel in distress.
The controls are simple enough so that anyone who picks up the game should be able to grasp the mechanics. Movement is operated with the analog stick (or d-pad), and the on-screen knights move around on a 2D field that is usually littered with legions of enemies and tons of action. Attacking is done with X and Y for weak and strong attacks, repsectively, and combo attacks can be done by hitting different sequences of the buttons. Although there are not a lot of combos, more can be unlocked as the characters level up. Many attacks can be blocked or deflected with the left trigger, and the knights can perform special magic attacks and moves while holding down the right trigger.
Although Castle Crashers is fun for anyone to just pick up and start playing, there is a level-building system for devoted players and groups of friends who find themselves hooked to the adventure. As you kill enemies, you gain experience points that eventually level up your character and grant him skill points. The skill points can be distributed amongst Strength, Defense, Magic, and Agility categories that really diversify each character. While anyone can enjoy mashing buttons and killing things, it is even more fun to play into your own strengths and weaknesses when customizing your character. A friend of mine preferred to have a nimble magic-caster who could pick off enemies from afar with his high Magic and Agility skills, while I stuck to a rudimentary soldier-like character with super-high Strength.
Each character can also be outfitted with its own weapon, and each weapon modifies the same four stats differently. There are all kinds of tools to use, from typical arms like katanas and broadswords to crazier objects like vines, leaves, and over-sized carrots. On top of that, miniature floating animal buddies can be rescued throughout the world – 26 of them, in fact. Each one of them has their own special ability, and some of them are very useful. Some of my favorites were Rammy (ram that tackles enemies for you), Bipolar Bear (polar bear that attacks any dying friend or foe), Giraffey (giraffe that levels you up faster), and Pazzo (an adorable dog that helps you find buried treasure). Finding these animals is fun and gives anyone who enjoys the game 26 more reasons to play more Castle Crashers.
Castle Crashers is one of the best-looking games I have ever seen, and I say that because of its art style. Everything is hand-drawn, very bright, lush with color, and animates as fluidly as waving silk. The frame rate never drops, even when there are dozens of enemies on the screen walking around, blocking attacks, shooting projectiles, and fading in and out of battle. It is impressive, no doubt, but the fact that Castle Crashers altogether looks like a living, playable (and hilarious) cartoon is easily the most impressive feat. The background music that goes along with the game is so infectuous, and I need to make it a point to say that the overworld map music is actually stuck in my head as I am typing this. I haven’t been so stuck to humming an overworld theme since I wandered around the desert world in Super Mario Bros. 3.
Even with the great graphics and music, easy control mechanics, and fun hack-n’-slash gameplay, Castle Crashers is only as brilliant as it is because it is so hard to stop playing. I think N+ is the only other XBLA game that can get away with being so damn simple, and it is just because both of these games are easy to play while also being so gripping. It would be easy to think that Castle Crashers would get boring, since you simply alternate button presses between X and Y to kill things – but thanks to magic attacks, and even just the situations you are fighting in, the game is always interesting. Even with just one other friend, sitting down and playing through castle Crashers is a fun exercise that can be completed in a matter of a few short, enjoyable hours. Even after the game is completed, the fact that any level can be revisited on the world map at any time makes sure that you come back to look for missing animals and to earn extra experience. It also helps to earn the 12 Achievements, some of which require fun but demanding work to unlock.
If its says anything: in this apartment, the typically ravenous game time spent between my friends and me playing Halo 3 on Xbox Live has been almost snuffed out in favor of two- to four-person escapades in Castle Crashers. It is a game that you might want to play to level up your character, and friends will easily enjoy for a level or two while visiting. They might even get stuck to the controller like you and play through it all the way. It doesn’t require a lot of time investment to love Castle Crashers, but buying the game is probably the wisest choice I’ve ever made on Xbox Live Marketplace. Alongside games like N+, Braid, and Geometry Wars, if you aren’t a believer in Xbox Live Arcade games yet, you most certainly should be now. Buy Castle Crashers as soon as possible, you will enjoy it. Then, pray that it gets a much-deserved expansion or sequel.
