up demented warrior-bear people has never been this much fun.
In the early 90's you couldn't go past two or three machines in the arcade without coming across some type of beat 'em up, whether it was the ever popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons, Dungeons and Dragons, Alien vs. Predator, or quite a few more. Hell, even early console releases saw a lot of success with stuff like Splatterhouse, Streets of Rage, Final Fight, etc.
That said you don't really come across straight up modern brawlers today like you did back then. Sure, we've seen God Hand, The Warriors, and a few other stand outs, but for the most part we like our modern video game action heroes to be loaded down with pistols and automatics, grenade launchers and RPG's, and there's not a lot of problem solving that involves a good, old-fashioned, blunt instrument. At least, not like the good old days.
Well, the newest title from small developer Behemoth (of Alien Hominid fame), seeks to solve that problem with Castle Crashers, a new, 4 player beat 'em up in the classic vein of the coin-op Konami titles, with little nods to other series like Golden Axe tossed into the mix. You select from 4 different colored knights, each with their own particular brand of magic ability, as you battle it out with bear warriors, thieves, black fuzzy things, giant bosses, and a host of other creatures across a constantly expanding world map.
The controls are simple and basic, with one button for light attacks, one for strong, a jump button, and magic that can be performed by holding down the right trigger and pressing another face button at the same time. However, to keep players engaged across all the levels, Castle Crashers also employs a basic leveling up system thru gained XP for every hit you land, which allows you a bit of customization by deploying points to 4 different stats.
Also, Castle Crashers places a heavy emphasis on the use of weapons, with quite a few being found as basic drops off of other enemies. Once you discover a weapon in the field, you can then go and change out your weapons back at the main blacksmith hub, along with small critters that you locate and befriend along the way, all of which perform a different function, such as gathering hidden fruit for heals, or performing knock down attacks on enemies.
There's quite a few little, hidden things to uncover in Castle Crashers, including a wide variety of unlockable characters. In addition, there's a few different ways to tackle the main story, and you can bounce back and forth between levels you've completed to help grind up a bit of XP if you're running into a tough spot or two.
The real appeal of Castle Crashers, however, comes from the 4-player mode. As of this writing, the actual online mode is a bit of a buggy mess, with constant crashes (no pun intended), which can delete entire save files, so until a patch releases, I highly suggest holding off. However, the local 4-player option is a definite blast, and shows what the game will be capable of online. Castle Crashers seems to up the difficulty for the 4 player mode as well, tossing more enemies at you than usual, which leads to one hell of a melee fest on screen whenever you get a full match going.
The other big appeal comes from the stellar 2D design work by Paladin, which is obviously similar to Alien Hominid, and features some cutesy stuff mixed with a bit of potty humor and gore. Maybe it's not for everyone, but there are a lot of funny little visual gags thrown around. The soundtrack is also pretty stellar, with a variety of tracks spread out across not just the levels but the boss encounter as well. It all fits the world of Castle Crashers really well, and it's one of the best XBLA soundtracks out there.
So fans of old school beat 'em ups will definitely appreciate the style of fun Castle Crashers represents, and even the younger generation will be able to get behind the simple but addictive nature of the co-op mode. It truly feels like a throwback to classic arcade brawlers in both play and design, and Castle Crashers is a fantastic inclusion for anyone's XBLA library. Hopefully they get that online mode sorted out soon though, so everyone can get the most out of reliving a homage to a classic genre.
