Castle Crashers "The OXM Report"

[BTKC124]

Posted on: Aug 27, 2008

Castle Crashers

WORDS BY: Cameron Lewis

 

Button-pounding hack-and-slash chivalry brings to mind the golden age of Golden Axe, but Castle Crashers isnât so much a sidescrolling stroll down memory lane as an ornately wrapped present for retro enthusiasts. A quartet of color-coded knights on a quest to rescue kidnapped princesses might sound like a recipe for flavorless gruel, but any cook will tell you: presentation is everything.

 

 

 

From the hordes of lightsaber-wielding black knights that surround your squad to the bizarre screen-filling boss creatures that turn online co-op into an endlessly replayable shared hallucination, every inch of the hand-drawn kingdom is brimming with endearing eccentricity. Whatâs more, the same indecipherable logic that makes the story irrelevant imbues your journey with wild unpredictability. One moment youâre charging through an obstacle course on incontinent deer, the next youâre battling a catfish the size of a trawler. Gobble down a sandwich to bust out of your armor like a medieval Incredible Hulk, dig for buried treasures, and turn more than 20 unlockable characters from level 1 zeroes to upgraded war machines.

 

 

 

If anything, thereâs perhaps too much going on at any given moment: between foreground objects that block your view for no good reason and the sheer chaos of four people bashing monsters, just finding your character on the screen can sometimes border on impossible. This is less of a problem on your own, but there you run into a wholly separate issue: poor difficulty balancing that leaves you to furiously and repetitively exploit patterns in enemy behavior just to survive the onslaught.

 

 

 

Whether you find the actual mechanics of combat as entrancing as the surreal visuals depends on your love (or tolerance) for the genre trappings of old-school brawlers. A variety of combination attacks and magical spells is just calling your name, and you can customize your knight with hidden and collectible weaponry and animal helpers.

 

 

 

But if the thought of grinding through endless waves of goons induces a yawn, even the vital social dynamics of four-player co-op and arena contests might prove insufficient. On the other hand, if you find yourself occasionally lamenting the bygone heyday of those arcade knuckle-dusters you played to death, youâll love every crazed minute of Castle Crashers.

 

On Xbox Live Arcade

8.5

Exciting four-player co-op in a beautifully funky world.

Loads of collectible characters, weapons, and animal orbs.

Repetitive waves of combat and poorly balanced solo difficulty.

Why does every animal in the game seem to be on laxatives?

[SmokiestGrunl]

It may be a fun game to play when you got nothing else to do.

 

I looked at some pictures and it didn't win me over.

[jrjonanddad1]

hey i've heard u can mod castle crashers to give u new weapons and stuff but its hard (( its my dad who told me this he is awesome when it comes to programming and stuff but he wont help me mod lol just tell me if its gonna be hard or not to mod the item(s) lol)) XD

[Holy Ownage]

Its stored in as a Live file as you download it off the marketplace, and we won't be able to resign them.

So unless they start selling them built in with the new HDD's, then no.

 

Also, I got it and have bought it twice for both GamerTags on both of my 360's.

Its $%#^%# epic, lts of laughs and throughout the game has a twisted sense of humor.

 

Would suggest to anybody with the Microsoft Points and is looking for something decent to pick up and play.

4-Player = Win.