CASTLE CRASHERS Posted by Dan Pearson on Sep 8, 2008 14:07 (Sep 8, 2008 14:07) |
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The final game of the Xbox Live summer of arcade releases has arrived and it’s the one most of us have been looking forward to. We have been hearing about Castle Crashers for quite a while now, but now that its here, was it worth the wait? Castle Crashers has you control one of four knights, Red, Blue, Orange and Green. They are all happily rocking out at a ye olde festival when terror strikes and an evil magician kidnaps four princesses and a huge jewel. The knights, obviously miffed by this turn of events, set out to take down whoever has carried out these dirty deeds and save the damsels in distress.
Castle Crashers is a very clever mix of side scrolling beat-em up of days gone (think Golden Axe) with a sprinkle of RPG collection and stats based fun. You play through many levels on the huge map, during this time you will level up and obtain new and improved combos to deal death and also points to level up your own knights stats, like defence, strength and magic. After every few levels you will have to take out a boss, these guys vary in size from a small dark knight to a huge catfish that will punch you in the face if you get too close. There are also arenas to fight through, here you will have to take out wave after wave of enemy men to get a prize, these challenges are really tough and it is always best to level up a bit before taking these on.
The animation and graphics are straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, however the violence and adult/child humour has been ramped up quite a bit, decapitating enemies and watching deer propel themselves with the power of their poo will get a few giggles in the room. In one part an owl poops himself off a tree, if you find that funny this game is definitely for you.
Humour, violence and graphics aside, there is also a really good game hidden behind it all. The levelling up is regular enough to keep the monotony of hitting things at bay. The amount of combos you can open up plus new weapons to find will also keep interest. Through the game you can also find hidden animals that will assist you in your battle. Some you can purchase, others are found after defeating a certain enemy. These will give you a little help like collecting hidden health, ramming enemies or increasing your defence. Online is a bit of a let down, there are 3 modes, Arena where you battle it out against each other, the All You Can Quaff eating contest is where you bash the buttons as quick as possible and the main quest. The main draw of this game is having 4 knights taking on the evil hordes, but there has been a lot of internet chatter about problems logging on (at least it’s not just me having this issue then). There have been promises that the game will be fixed, so if you want it just for this mode wait until the bug is repaired to avoid disappointment. However if the local multiplay mode is anything to go by this will be worth waiting for. In the end Castle Crashers offers you a classic scrolling beat-em up but with loads of gameplay additions to make sure the old problem of getting bored is kept at bay. A great final game from a top summer of gaming. Can’t wait for next year.
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