Itās been a long time since Castle Crashers became one of the mandatory games every time someone came home to play. It appeared for Xbox 360 in August 2008 and managed to come out for PS3 in the summer of 2010 (In Europe it was delayed a little longer, until November).
Castle Crashers is the second game from The Behemot company (the first being the magnificent Alien Hominid). It is joined by the brilliant artist Dan Paladin and Tom Fulp, creator of the well-known flash game page Newgrounds. Its price is 1200 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360 and $15 / ā¬13.99 on PS3.
The game has sold 2 million copies between Xbox 360 and PS3, but what makes it so fun?
Story Mode
At the beginning we are allowed to choose a knight from several options, each one has its own magic, for example the red knight throws electricity, while the blue knight can freeze his enemies, the orange one can throw fire and the green one can poison.
In addition to these 4 main knights, we can unlock many extra characters, from the Alien Hominid character, the king himself, or even some enemies. In total 28 characters** that will be unlocked as we finish the game with different characters. In the case of PS3, the downloadable Xbox characters are included for free, but you will have to complete certain stages on the highest difficulty to unlock them.
At the beginning of the game, we find ourselves at a party in the castle, everything seems to be going perfectly until an evil wizard kidnaps the kingās 4 daughters and steals a magic stone from the castle. From that moment we embark on an adventure lasting about 4 hours, in which we will walk through all types of environments, trying to rescue the kingās daughters to, finally, face the magician in a final battle. To achieve this we will have to defeat many minions and kill several very varied bosses.
The game consists of advancing horizontally like many mythical 2D games such as Double Dragon or Golden Axe while enemies appear in waves and block our progress. In order to continue we will have to kill all the enemies on the screen which, sometimes, is not an easy task.
To eliminate enemies we have a weak and a strong attack, as well as two magic, one area and one individual. The system allows us to enjoy tearing off heads, just by mashing the buttons, but it also allows us to enjoy a quite successful combo system, which we will unlock as we level up.
Speaking of leveling up, every time we finish a phase or die, if we have leveled up, we are offered the possibility of improving our combat, defense, magic and agility skills. Which allows each one to specialize in the game mode that they like the most.
To improve our combat we will also find different weapons throughout the story, which will improve some statistics and worsen others, so we will have to choose appropriately depending on our combat style, or perhaps depending on which one looks prettier, that is up to you.
As companions throughout the story are some little animals that also have certain properties that improve our chances of defeating the enemy, some of the cutest and others of the most monstrous, for all tastes.
Furthermore, throughout the story we can go to stores to spend our money on different items that will help us defeat enemies, from sandwiches that make us more powerful, to potions that restore our life. We can also buy new weapons and pets.
There are three options, play it alone, play it in cooperative mode with up to 4 friends at home, or play it in online cooperative mode. In general, cooperative mode is much easier. In 1-player mode many times we will get stuck on a mission and we will have to repeat it until we get high enough to be able to pass it.
However, in cooperative mode, the possibility of reviving companions makes the task much easier. In addition, we are offered the possibility of fighting among ourselves for the love of the princesses every time we rescue one, which usually leads to very funny fights between the players who have joined the adventure, in which only one can survive.
The playable experience with 4 people in the same room is perhaps somewhat chaotic. At times, if we do not choose very different gentlemen, we will not even know where we are on the screen, and we will be hitting like crazy. Although that is, in part, the beauty of the cooperative of this game.
Mini games
Although they are just an addition, the truth is that they are very entertaining. The modes consist of an arena in which to face other players, a contest to see who eats the most, and also a mini volleyball game in the case of PS3.
The sand is very good and will help us test our knight against other peopleās. I assure you that with the customization options available there are many different possibilities, some better and some worse, for combat between humans.
The other two, not that they are very complete modes, but they fulfill their purpose of entertaining. It is appreciated that companies try to add as much as possible to their products. Although perhaps the volleyball mode is a bit green.
Note
- Presentation: Its setting, and the number of jokes (especially scatological) in the game allow the player to have a laugh throughout the story. 8.5
- Graphics: The graphics are simple and very colorful, Dan Paladin has done an excellent job designing the different characters in the game, and above all the final bosses will surprise you. 8
- Duration and Engagement: The story mode lasts about 4 hours, for an arcade game it is a normal duration. But the main advantage of the game is playing it multiple times to try out the different characters. Which will take us many hours. 8.5
- Final Note: In my opinion it is one of the most fun games in the arcade catalogue. Whenever friends come over it is one of the favorite games, you donāt even need to know how to play the console, you can mash buttons and have a blast.8.5