Castle Crashers Review (360, XBLA)

A game with Ye Olde School Charm

Anyone heard of Tom Fulp? Anyone? Well, he’s the man behind Flash site Newgrounds and part of development team ‘The Behemoth’, the geniuses who created the hard as nails side scrolling shooter ‘Alien Hominid’. But for their next game, producers at ‘The Behemoth’ decided to ditch the aliens, CIA agents and laser guns and go for something a little more…retro. Castle Crashers is set way back in the Medieval times and is fairly scarce when it comes to the plot. The kingdom you are supposed to be protecting is trashed by thugs, a few princesses are kidnapped and the king is left cowering in the corner of the room. Sure, it isn’t a compelling and original story, but it’s told with flare and great comedy insight that you can forgive it. Since when did a game need an original story to be fantastic?

The developers have managed to give a dying format new life and remind you of why you loved games so much in the first place.

You can play as one of 4 knights, each with different magic skills and set off on your side scrolling journey. Castle Crashers relies on a tried and tested formula that worked well for games such as Streets Of Rage, making you constantly run to the right of the screen, encounter an army of enemies and then continue running to the right of the screen. Yes, this does sound like a very dull concept which we’ve all grown sick of ever since the realms of 3D were introduced to us and to be honest, at times I must agree. In later stages, huge numbers of the enemy you’ve faced infinite times before will pop up and face you again as if you’re stuck in a nightmarish limbo. However, huge bosses come in and engage you with a tough fight before battles with little pests become TOO tedious. These bosses usually have a certain pattern of attacks which players can find a flaw in in order to defeat them, but if these guys didn’t have a weakness, we’d all be crying and complaining that the game was too hard on us. For an independent game, this is perfectly polished when it comes to graphics. Obviously these aren’t dazzling effects considering it has come from the Live Arcade, but the graphics are respectable and artistically this game gives off a lot more charm than most games out on the market. Castle Crashers also attempts to inject a few more genres and modes into its veins. The RPG element is clear from the fact that you can level up each character in a basic fashion, allowing you to increase 4 different attributes of your character. Along with this, there are two extra modes, primarily intended for online use. The Arena mode is a basic free for all against opponents, whereas ‘All you can Quaff’ mode is a basic button slamming exercise for your fingers (Flashes of ‘Track & Field’ anyone?) involving you swallowing down huge chunks of food in an all you can eat competition. If you’ve already found this game, you would’ve noticed that it is a pretty high price for an Live Arcade game (1200 Microsoft Points). Rest assured, though, you’re getting value for money. Castle Crashers is a surprisingly long experience and coupled with the extra features, unlovable characters and modes, this is a game you’ll be coming back to time and time again, to play alone or with friends. Admittedly, Castle Crashers won’t appear as an original format to those who have ever come into contact with a Mega Drive. Yet the developers have managed to give a dying format new life and remind you of why you loved games so much in the first place.