Castle Crashers
Brought to you by The Behemoth development crew, Castle Crashers is a four-player hack ‘n’ slash three-dimensional side-scrolling title that rivals and is reminiscent of Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara…well, if it held a different tone. Castle Crashers retains a resonance with the cast of the game, featuring the likes of Dan Paladin, Will Stamper, and several others, and mashes comedy into the classic ‘your princess is in another castle’ story arch. This title features four base knights-green, blue, red, and orange-with varying powers, and adds Hatty Hattington to the roster if you own BattleBlock Theater for Steam; there are also twenty other unlockable characters as well as two purchasable knights, but I will speak further on the said two in a later section.
Here are a few things that I find interesting about Castle Crashers:
Leveling System - Players have to put in some work to level up, as experience is granted based more-so on enemies routed and hits connected than overall damage done. What I love about this take on level-ups is that it blends well with the player-versus-player elements, and allows the more tenacious ‘crashers’ to gain levels more frequently than those attempting to preserve health; the player-versus-player aspect will be explained in further detail next. As an individual knight gains a level, he has the opportunity to allot a gen number of points into four different traits: Strength, to determine the power of the knight’s attacks; Magic, which improves the knight’s magic attack maneuvers, spell effectiveness, and how much energy a spell utilizes on cast based on the total amount of energy; Defense, which dictates the knight’s health point total; and Speed, which determines how much damage the Bow item deals with each strike and, obviously enough, the individual knight’s movement. Combined with varying statistic-altering weapons, items, and pets, this leveling system permits players to create their own form of strategy.
Forced Player-Versus-Player - Castle Crashers is a cooperative experience, so what could it possibly mean to ‘force’ players to combat against each other? At the end of each stage resulting in the liberation of a princess, only one knight may earn the kiss of valiance from the fair maiden. To effectively decide who is chosen, the players duke it out with all of their acquired abilities and equipment. Unlike most things in this title, a princess’ kiss does not grant any boons, bonuses, or additional equipment; however, it is very satisfying viewing the ‘saltiness’ on friends’ faces when you have stolen the embrace from their colored princess.
Minigames - With various landscapes and degrees of difficulty between the stages, the campaign offers an abundance of cooperative play. But minigames are available to sweeten the deal. I must admit that I have not played too many of them, but the few that I have experienced-like beach volleyball-were so much fun to play with friends and online, win or lose.
Humor - Simply put, from its theme to its plot twists and cutscenes, Castle Crashers is a title that will provoke, at the very least, a snicker. I feel as though I should refrain from revealing too much from this engaging title’s comedy approach as it is very well written. It can also be humorous when played with friends even at points when it is not necessarily meant to be; this is enhanced through splitscreen play.
TL:DR - Castle Crashers is highly enjoyable, especially for fanatics of hack ‘n’ slash and cooperative titles, character leveling and building, and of The Behemoth’s previous title, BattleBlock Theater; speaking of, I also recommend-if you do not already own both games-the purchase of the bundle featuring Castle Crashers and BattleBlock Theater. I would also recommend the purchase of the Pink Knight and the Blacksmith downloadable content since proceeds are given to various charities. Whether solo or in cooperative play, with BattleBlock Theater and the downloadable content or not, Castle Crashers is a laughably good time. I had wanted to mention other notable features in this title such as its outstanding level design and themes, gameplay, and specific items but I feel as though I would be continuing on for days if I started. On a side note, I would like to mention that I will gladly play with anyone that owns this title or others. Simply add me on Steam and post the reason why you plan to add me on my profile. Thanks for reading.
Do you feel this review helped in any way? Feel free to visit my Curator Page at Spearpoint Reviews.
Originally posted September 3, 2015. Last edited May 1, 2018.
Here are a few things that I find interesting about Castle Crashers:
Leveling System - Players have to put in some work to level up, as experience is granted based more-so on enemies routed and hits connected than overall damage done. What I love about this take on level-ups is that it blends well with the player-versus-player elements, and allows the more tenacious ‘crashers’ to gain levels more frequently than those attempting to preserve health; the player-versus-player aspect will be explained in further detail next. As an individual knight gains a level, he has the opportunity to allot a gen number of points into four different traits: Strength, to determine the power of the knight’s attacks; Magic, which improves the knight’s magic attack maneuvers, spell effectiveness, and how much energy a spell utilizes on cast based on the total amount of energy; Defense, which dictates the knight’s health point total; and Speed, which determines how much damage the Bow item deals with each strike and, obviously enough, the individual knight’s movement. Combined with varying statistic-altering weapons, items, and pets, this leveling system permits players to create their own form of strategy.
Forced Player-Versus-Player - Castle Crashers is a cooperative experience, so what could it possibly mean to ‘force’ players to combat against each other? At the end of each stage resulting in the liberation of a princess, only one knight may earn the kiss of valiance from the fair maiden. To effectively decide who is chosen, the players duke it out with all of their acquired abilities and equipment. Unlike most things in this title, a princess’ kiss does not grant any boons, bonuses, or additional equipment; however, it is very satisfying viewing the ‘saltiness’ on friends’ faces when you have stolen the embrace from their colored princess.
Minigames - With various landscapes and degrees of difficulty between the stages, the campaign offers an abundance of cooperative play. But minigames are available to sweeten the deal. I must admit that I have not played too many of them, but the few that I have experienced-like beach volleyball-were so much fun to play with friends and online, win or lose.
Humor - Simply put, from its theme to its plot twists and cutscenes, Castle Crashers is a title that will provoke, at the very least, a snicker. I feel as though I should refrain from revealing too much from this engaging title’s comedy approach as it is very well written. It can also be humorous when played with friends even at points when it is not necessarily meant to be; this is enhanced through splitscreen play.
TL:DR - Castle Crashers is highly enjoyable, especially for fanatics of hack ‘n’ slash and cooperative titles, character leveling and building, and of The Behemoth’s previous title, BattleBlock Theater; speaking of, I also recommend-if you do not already own both games-the purchase of the bundle featuring Castle Crashers and BattleBlock Theater. I would also recommend the purchase of the Pink Knight and the Blacksmith downloadable content since proceeds are given to various charities. Whether solo or in cooperative play, with BattleBlock Theater and the downloadable content or not, Castle Crashers is a laughably good time. I had wanted to mention other notable features in this title such as its outstanding level design and themes, gameplay, and specific items but I feel as though I would be continuing on for days if I started. On a side note, I would like to mention that I will gladly play with anyone that owns this title or others. Simply add me on Steam and post the reason why you plan to add me on my profile. Thanks for reading.
Do you feel this review helped in any way? Feel free to visit my Curator Page at Spearpoint Reviews.
Originally posted September 3, 2015. Last edited May 1, 2018.
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