Castle Crashers - Xbox 360 (Arcade) Review

by Andrew Sadowski at Sep 5, 2008 4:56am

Game: Castle Crashers
System: Xbox 360 (Arcade)
Publisher: The Behemoth
Developer: The Behemoth

Genre: Side Scroller RPG
Release Date: 8/27/2008
Price: 1200 Gamerpoints

Players: 1-4
Features: Multiplayer Versus, Co-op, Custom Soundtracks & Leaderboards.
HDTV: 720p/1080i/1080p

Castle Crashers is a side scrolling RPG developed by The Behemoth (Alien Hominid HD also for Xbox Live Arcade). Castle Crashers is arguably the best multiplayer Xbox Live Arcade game but it is also hampered with loads of glitches and bugs.

You start out picking 1 of 4 different colours knights. Each knight has their own special magic ability. Blue is ice, red is lightning, orange is fire and green is poison.

You advance through each level hacking and slashing your way through wave after wave of enemies with the occasional boss fights. There is a basic story of you trying to rescue 4 princesses that were captured by the enemies along with a stolen jewel but it isn’t anything to write home about.

The controls are simple and effective. Left stick to move, X and Y are light and strong sword hits, A is to jump, B is to use items while the right and left bumpers are to scroll through them. The left trigger is to block but it is almost never required except for certain situations like crossing a bridge with arrows headed your way. The right trigger is for magic. The right trigger with any of the face buttons (except for X) will perform magic. These work well but expect to use some items unintentionally.

At the beginning, each knight is equipped with a sword and a basic but unique magic spell. Overtime, you gain experience and level up your character. Once you level up, you are given points in which you can assign to 4 different categories. Strength and defense is self explanatory. The more points assigned, the stronger you get. Magic is the third skill and is divided up into 4 sections.

Each time you gain a section (5 points), you also gain a new magical ability like a high jump or a projectile. Agility, the fourth skill, is mostly useless. Agility will increase your run speed and increase your strength in weapons like the bow and arrow but how fast you run isn’t useful. Gaining experience is the most important aspect of this game but unfortunately it does not work well in Castle Crashers. You gain experience for the amount of hits not the amount of damage dealt. Meaning, pulling off one massive 3 hit combo will not net you as much experience as tapping the X button 10 times.

Animal orbs and swords also affect your skills. Animal orbs are cute tiny animals that follow you around give you special abilities from increasing your strength to helping you find hidden items. There are 26 hidden animals in all. There are also 40 unique and quirky swords to collect from the lightsaber to a slab of meat all the way to a fish. Each sword will also increase or decrease your stats. Through out the game, you can also gain and buy items like a shovel, potions, and a boomerang. Some of are for fighting, some are for solving puzzles and some are just plain useless.

The Behemoth brings their distinctive art style to Castle Crashers. Each level is completely different but has quirkiness to it. The only problem is in some of the levels, pillars tend to get in the way to see what you’re fighting. Another problem that arises in this game’s level design is that sometimes, your perception of where you and your enemies are does happen. Sometimes going in for an attack may lead you to miss them. The music in this game is also brilliant. Castle Crashers also has some of the best music of any arcade game as well. Each level design and music is great.

Single player in Castle Crashers is fun but it is clear this game was developed for more than 1 person. Multiplayer is what really shines in Castle Crashers. 4 player online and local co-op is the strongest highlight of this game. The entire story is playable and completing the game while trading swords is very fun.

Also, all your stats will carry over into multiplayer as well. There are two other multiplayer modes called Arena and All You Can Quaff. Both are nothing special. Arena is just fighting with your friends but it is pointless because the highest levelled guy will always win while All You Can Quaff is just tapping the X and Y button as fast as you can. The online is great but there are too many online disconnection issues.

One controversial aspect of this game is the saves. Every save is stored on The Behemoth’s server. This means if you play the entire game online then decide to play disconnected to Live for a bit, none of your stats or swords will carry over. This game is also comes with tons of glitches from a boss being in a constant throw (meaning you stand still while the boss just sits their and dies) or game saves being corrupted (meaning you lose everything).

The game only takes a few hours to beat but expect to go through it multiple times to unlock tons of new characters (each with their own sword and magic) and to collect all the swords and animals orbs. But again, buy this game if you plan to play with friends otherwise, don’t.

This game has a ton of problems but the co-op far outshines it. A patch is scheduled to fix the glitches and the connection issues but the release window has not been set.

Graphics	Sound	Presentation	Replay Value	Enjoyment
8.5	9.5	8	9	9.0

Upside
• Sound & Design Is Great
• 4 Player CO-OP

Downside
• Too Many Glitches (connection issues, losing experience)
• Gaining Experience

Overall: 8.5 (out of 10) Very Good