castle crashers review

 If you are looking for a good Xbox live arcade game worth your money, you ought to check out Castle Crashers, which is a fun 4-player Xbox Live game that was created by Newgrounds about a year ago.  This fun arcade game will bring back memories of games like Ninja Turtles, X-Men, Simpsons Arcade, and similar titles.  I have recently played through this game, and would love to share my thoughts about it.  This review is based solely on my own opinon and you are free to agree or disagree with me.  By the way, this review is based on the Xbox 360 version (I am aware that there is also a version for the Wii and PS 3, but I haven't played those two versions yet, but if you have played them and want to compare the 3 versions, feel free to share your thoughts).

Castle Crashers certainly brings back memories in the evolution of arcade games.  If you have enjoyed arcade classics, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the arcade game (this game also appeared on NES as TMNT 2 if you remember), Golden Axe, The Simpsons Arcade game, the X-Men arcade games, and other similar games, you will love what Castle Crashers has to offer.  This game was created in 2009 by a company called the Behemoth, which appears to be affiliated with the popular online gaming site, Newgrounds (which is a website similar to shockwave, real arcade, etc that offers a huge variety of flash animations, art, and games that people can submit and share with others who visit the site).  This game can either be played on single player mode, 2 to 4 player co-op mode, or via Xbox live and has plenty of characters you can play as (some are available from the beginning, while others are unlockable as you meet certain requirements, while playing through the game).  Basically, this is how the story goes in the game:

• The story takes place in the middle ages, and begins with a seemingly ordinary day in the king's court
• One day, the kingdom comes under attack by a rival kingdom, lead by an evil wizard, who also has plenty of minions under him, including a necromacer, a frost king (who has an ice castle and has the ability to freeze opponents), a conehead groom, Cyclops, as well as a wealthy industrialist who sides with the evil wizard, along many lesser cronies to do the wizard's dirty work. Subsequently, not only does the wizard steal a large crystal that contains lots of power, 4 of the king's princesses also get kidnapped (probably to use as hostages), and immediately the king deploys you and other people in his army to not only fight back, but also to recover the 4 princesses and to ulimately foil the Wizard's plan to take over the kingdom.
• You will go through many diffent colorful levels either solo or with up to 4 other players filled with interesting foes, huge bosses, power ups you can get, and get progressively harder as you play through the game.  There is a huge twist from similar games, though: as you play through each level, you gain experience as you defeat enemies and your character(s) can level up and gain extra skills, abilities, and defense throughout the game.  It appears that you can get up to level 99, but you will probably finish the game (even on single player) before you get up to level 40 at the latest. 
• If you beat the game the first time, they also have an "expert" mode where you can play through the game again, with each level a magnitude harder than they were in the first time through (though they are best played on co-op mode).

Here are the characters of interest in the game (note: this is not an exhaustive list of all of the characters in the game, but rather the main characters).  For an exhaustive list, you will have to visit their website (see resource box near the bottom of the page).

Heroes

The king (exact names are not known)- he is in charge of the kingdom and takes command of his army when the kingdom comes under attack. He is easily recognizable as he looks like an old man and has a crown and purple robes. He also appears to like to party. The king is an unlockable character and functions as a healer in the group, since instead of devestating magic attacks (like most of the knights do), he uses his magic to heal himself (and others if you are playing with others), which can be useful on tough levels, especially when you run out of potions.

the Red, Blue,Orange, green knights-  I am going to list all of these guys together as they have lots of similarities to each other.  These guys are the king's elite heroes that he elists to stop the evil wizard and resue the princesses.  Initially these 4 characters are the only characters you can play as, but when you meet certain requirements in the game (such as doing the arena missions), more characters will open up.  Anyways, these characters are knights with special abilities, which you can utlize to their full potiential by maxing out their magic stats when you level up and can manipulate the elements to their advantage against foes.  Unlike the king, they are not healers, and so you will need to make sure that you carry an extra set of potions, especially on tough levels.  However, their magic abilities can be very handy against tough foes.  The Red Knight as geared more towards close range attacks and can electorcute his enemies with his lightning attack and can even make quick work out of bosses (think of Count Dooku or Emperor Palpatine with their lightning attacks).  The Blue knight (currently playing as him) has the ability to summon large hailstones to freeze enemies (not as powerful as lightning, but can be very useful when surrounded by enemies as you can freeze them and beat them a bit while they are frozen) and some bosses (even buff foes can be frozen, making them easier to deal with).  As the orange knight, you can burn your foes, and the green knight can spew acid at his foes, which can also poison them). These characters are best as mages (though you can also max out other stats of theirs, such as defense and strength). 

The Grey knight- he is a basic knight and specializes in archery attacks.  He can be useful if you want to make an archer.

Enemy turncoats and other unlockable characters- besides the initial characters you get, there are also plenty of characters that you can unlock and each have their own special abilities and weaknesses (such as the King, alien hommid, etc).  Also, sometimes you can unlock enemies as playable characters (usually when you successfully complete the arena missions).  BTW, there appears to be an expansion pack for the game that allows you to play as both the necromacer and the wizard.  Another character that you might like is alien homid (which is from another game submitted by the newgrounds crew) and makes an appearance as an enemy in the desert missions (particularly in the section where you have to deal with a UFO that tries to abduct you).  Note: he only becomes playable if you have the game, Alien Homid either for PS3 or Xbox live.

The princesses- ah, this is another borrowed content from other games: innocent women getting kidnapped by an evil genius or crony (you also see this concept in the Super Mario bros saga with Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach, Amy Rose getting kidnapped by Dr Robotnik in both Sonic CD and Sonic Adventure 1, Richter's girlfriend along with his sister getting kidnapped by Dracula in Caslevania Dracula X, etc).  Unlike the above games, instead of having one or two women to rescue, you have 4 to rescue, each with their own personalities, traits, etc.  One princess gets kidnapped by Barbarians, another almost gets wed against her will, one gets held hostage by the frost king, and one gets kidnapped by the evil Wizard himself.  By the way, there are 2 twists to the princesses in the game.  One of the princesses has her identity cloaked (you will not know her true identity until you beat the game), and the other twist is that if more than 1 characters are playing when rescuing the princes, they will have a duel against each other (street fighter style), and the winner gets to rescue and kiss the princess.

Villians

The Wizard- he is the evil genius in the game and starts a coup de' tat in the kingdom and launches an evil scheme to steal a huge crystal that contains lots of power, dethrone the existing king, use 4 princesses as hostages, and set up an evil dictatorship in the kingdom. He wears a grey and red costume, with his eyes concealed and is very powerful mage, with the ability to transform into a huge spider. He also wields a demon sword that is capable of dealing a payload of damage to the king's army. The wizard also commands an army of his own, full of interesting cronies, including cone heads, bandits, barbarians, strange creatures (such as a huge catfish creature), etc

The Necromacer- If you have been a gamer for a while, you would probably know that in most game series where there is an evil genius (such as, Doctor Wily, Bowser, Sigma, Doctor Robotnik, Count Dracula, etc), there is also usually (if not always) a close associate or two that poses as the main villian's right hand man and is almost as evil as the evil genius him/herself.  Examples you are probably familar with includes: Bass from Mega Man 7 and 8, Darth Vader in the Star Wars Saga (if you have seen both trillogies, you would know that Darth Vader is actually a close associate of Emperor Palpatine after falling to the dark side in episode 3. carrying otu the emperor's dirty work after his rise to power, starting with the destruction of the jedi), Krang in Ninja Turtles, Death the Grim Reaper in the Castlevania series, Bower's kids in the Super Mario saga, etc (this list goes on, but you probably get the picture by now).  Anyways, Castle Crashers is no different as the Necromacer is the close asociate of the evil Wizard (probably more so than the Wizard's other close associates).  The necromacer is a formidable foe that has the ability to cause the dead to become undead and use them against the heroes.  BTW, as you will see in the game, he also has the ability to resurrect dead bosses that you defeat (which does happen at least once in the game), as well as conjuring up dead opponents to aid him, when you fight him, making him one of the hardest bosses in the game (and yes you will face him at least once before the game is over).  Despite his formidable magic abilities, he does seem to be weak against magic (for example, if you play as the blue knight, you will learn the is one of the few bosses that you can actually freeze with the Blue Knight's freezing ability).  

The Cone Head groom - after the princesses kidnap the princesses, an evil conehead (who is a crony of the evil Wizard) tries to marry one of them against her will, and it is up to the castle crashers team to crash the sham wedding before it is too late.  Of course, he does happen to be the first official difficult boss to beat in the game as he is very good when it comes to duels, and also has a special piano that causes bombs to shoot at his opponents.  BTW, he does have close ties to another crony of the Wizard, named Cyclops (who is also a part of the kidnapping scheme). 

Cyclops - this is the one-eyed brute that is a close friend to the Cone Head Groom and appears when you have defeated his friend.  Naturally, he gets pissed when he finds his friend dead and after taking off with the princess that the Cone Head Groom tries to marry against her will, he eventually challenges the hero in a duel to avenge the death of his friend.  He has a home in a lava cave, so beware of lava when in his domain. 

The Wealthy Industrialist- he is an aristocrat that aligns himself with the evil Wizard and takes part in the kidnappings of the princesses.  In addition, he places a bounty on the heroes (which probably explains the hordes of cronies to beat prior to the level, such as bandits).  One strength of him is that he does have a huge fortress that you will have to fight through if you plan to get to him, and is very good with technology has a potientially deadly suprise for the heroes, when you get to him.

The Frost King- he is probably the second closest associate to the evil Wizard (next to the Necromacer) and kidnaps the blonde princess, and like the Wealthy Industrialist, he also has a fortress of his own that you will have to fight through in order to face him, though you will have to fight through hordes of thugs of his going through a huge desert (which is full of quicksand aimed to gobble up the heroes as well as other suprises), swamplands, as well as arctic lands in order to reach him.  Like the Blue Knight, his a master with cold (think of Mr. Freeze from the movie, "Batman and Robin") and will try to freeze his opponents.  One tip though: if you get animal friends that are scattered throughout the game (those are the animals that tag along with you each having special abilities), there is one animal friend hidden in the artic lands that allows you to be impervious to the Frost King's ice attacks, making the boss fight against him alot easier.  BTW, if you are familiar with the Castlevania series, you will find that he takes after Dracula in the boss fight as he likes to teleport around the room alot, doing hit and run attacks in between.

So, there you have it.  For a more exhaustive list of characters, enemies, etc., you will have to visit the castle crashers' website for more info (see resource box).

• if you loved similar arcade games (i.e., Ninja Turtles arcade game, the Simpsons arcade game, X-Men arcade, etc) you will love castle crashers (feels almost like the ones you would play in the arcade, minus having to spend all of your quarters trying to beat the game)
• The game is fun on both single player and multiplayer mode.  Note: if you plan to do "expert" mode after beating the game on regular mode, it is recommended that you do multiplayer as it will be a magnitude harder than it is on regular mode.
• cool storyline
• The fact that you can play as multiple different characters, each with their own unique abilities, as well as the multiple modes of gameplay will have you wanting to play through the game multiple times.
• You do get the classic Newgrounds feel to it (with the humor and all).
• I thought that the graphics were very good and have a good arcade feel to it.

•  the game is relatively short, and it is possible to beat the game within 2-3 hours if you rush.  Of course, you could stretch out the game by doing one level per play (some levels are longer than other by the way).
• regular mode may seem a little too easy for veteran gamers (even though it does get progressively harder as you play through the game).  Of course, if the game is not hard enough for you, they do have an "expert" mode that opens up after you play through the game the first time and is much more challenging the former.  Even seemingly easy missions (such as Barbarian War) will seem harder than normal.
• I thought that the ending was a little cheesy and does have a surprise that you did not expect surrounding one of the princesses.