Castle Crashers

Hello! I'm back today and writing up another review, this time of Castle Crashers! I've specifically played the remastered version, but most of this info applies to the original as well.

So Castle Crashers: it's a beat-em-up made by The Behemoth starring four knights (plus like a million bonus characters) as they rescue four princesses (the fourth of which turns out to be Tricky the Clown from the Madness Combat series). It was originally called Ye Olde Side-Scroller, and I'm very glad that changed because dear god that name is terrible.

So the gameplay is pretty much just a normal beat-em-up (such as River City Ransom or Streets of Rage), but still somehow very fun! The best strategy in this game is to pick up the enemies and just kinda carry 'em around until they die. Apparently you can also "juggle," which involves picking enemies up, smacking them down, and picking them up again ad infinitum, but I suck at video games, so I'm bad at that technique.

The game's pacing is quite strange, with some levels like Lava World that go on for 2 years, and then some like Cyclops' Gate, which has no enemies and like 3 minor obstacles. But it does succeed in making nearly every area visually distinct and immediately recognizable.

Combat in the game is pretty great. It's hyper-satisfying with all the sound effects, and the bosses are cool too. They're all pretty different as well, so you never feel like you're doing the same thing twice.

In terms of replay value, the game is okay. Each character has different magic skills they can use to damage enemies. Some character's magic is amazing, like the Industrialist or Fencer, while some are godawful, like the Barbarian or Green Knight. Replaying the game is fun the first (somehow) 5 or so times, but it gets boring after.

So overall, would I recommend Castle Crashers? Definitely! It is amazing and I think everyone should play it sometime in their life! And come on, it's only $15. Just buy it.

When Castle Crashers was preferred to me by a friend of mine as an arcade game on Xbox Live, I was skeptical. the title seemed weird, and when people explained to me what you do in the game I thought it would be extremely disappointing (not including the fact that it's 2D). However, despite my skepticism I bought it anyway since my friends wanted me to and I must say it was the best arcade purchase I have ever made. It is HIGHLY addicting and absolutely genius. It is very funny in particular levels, and the knights you play are never-ending fun. What I also love about the game is that when you beat it with a character, the fun does not stop there. For most characters, when you beat the game, you unlock a new character with new powers; this makes the game ten times more fun because there is ALWAYS something to do. Also for those who want a challenge, they even have an Insane Mode selection that you could choose to make it more difficult. When you beat the game with a character, you get skull next to your name showing other players that you beat it with that character. If you beat the game on Insane Mode? Gold Skull :). Its not split screen when you play up to 4 people either, so you can see the whole screen. I highly recommend this game to anyone, it is well-worth the purchase. And warning; you will become addicted!

After playing this game, I enjoyed it very much, though nowadays there are some things that I wish were changed about the game. I would like to start off with the final princess, as I was completely dumbstruck that she was a clown after I went for the kiss after wrapping up the final level of the game. And in terms of the characters, there is a lot of diversity in that, as well as the animal companions and weapons featured throughout the game. I do think, however, there could be more than just 4 different colored knights serving the King, as I would like to see a yellow knight, a black knight, or maybe a gold, silver, or copper-colored one. Those would probably be interesting characters in the game, as well as more different enemies to combat. Another thing that I think I would change is the addition of aliens and UFOs, as I DO feel that they were unnecessary and didn't have any place in a game that takes place during medieval times. For the most part the game is really great, but in the final levels of the game I would like to go up against just the Necromancer and the Evil Wizard, as I feel that fighting the Necromancer 3 times before facing the Wizard would be more exciting, though it would be difficult. IF the game were to be rebooted, then I think that the campaign should stay the same, but with some new features to it, and if this were to happen, then I would like to hear characters, besides just the princesses, speak throughout the game, and I would like to see subtitles in the game with the reason being that anytime I play a video game where someone speaks a different language it annoys me when I can't understand what's being said. Another feature that I would like to see if there were to be a reboot of the game is being able to create my own knight to play as, plus being able to customize that character and their features, as well as their shield, magic abilities, weapons, horses, and animal companions, well as being able to ride horses into battle or during journeys. And I would like to be able to create my own faction for free play, such as team battles or other events, all of which I think would make a reboot all the more interesting. Should a Castle Crashers reboot ever come to fruition, then I hope that everything I stated will be taken into account for something such as that.