Castle Crashers

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Castle Crashers
Developer(s)	The Behemoth
Publisher(s)	The Behemoth Microsoft (Xbox 360) Sony Computer Entertainment (PlayStation 3)
Designer(s)	Dan Paladin Tom Fulp
Platform(s)	Xbox 360 (XBLA), PlayStation 3 (PSN)
Release date(s)	Xbox 360 August 27, 2008 PlayStation 3 2010[1]
Genre(s)	RPG, Action[2]
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: T PEGI: 16+
Media	Download
Input methods	Gamepad

Castle Crashers is a console video game independently developed by The Behemoth, featuring music created by members of Newgrounds. In 2006, Behemoth announced the game as available for download via the Xbox Live Arcade service. It was released as part of Microsoft's Summer of Arcade campaign, and became Arcade's best-selling title of 2008.^[3] It was voted 2008 Best Game of the Year at the XBLA Awards.^[4] A PlayStation 3 version of Castle Crashers was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2009^[5] and is set to be released in 2010.^[1]

Gameplay

Castle Crashers is a side-scrolling, beat-em-up which incorporates a small number of role-playing game elements. - After selecting a character, the player then selects a starting level (beginning with the wizard's attack on the castle) through a graph-like world map; once the player completes a level, they may then opt to start or revisit that level any time. Other levels include shops where the player can buy items for healing, attacking, or defense using coins gained from defeated foes, and arena levels where the player can take on challenges to unlock additional characters, although in co-op the arena turns into a player vs player match. This goes for the same as when the players defeat the boss, freeing the princess, and if there are two or more than two, the battle starts to see who gets the princess' kiss. - In each level, the player can use a number of melee attacks and combination attacks in addition to a unique magical ability each character has in order to defeat foes. The player has a health meter that, if drained from enemy attacks, will cause the character to fall in battle; if the player is playing alone, this ends the level and the player will have to start it over; otherwise, any of the other players may attempt to revive the downed character. The player's magic level is also tracked by a meter and regenerates over time. Numerous weapons can be found in the game, each that have various effects to the character's attributes when equipped. There are also animal orbs that can be found that may help out in battle, improve the character's attributes, or provide another special ability such as gaining more treasure from defeated foes. After a player damages an enemy, they gain experience points, eventually gaining the player a new level. Each level gained allows the player to allocate points towards four basic attributes to improve that character in combat. One character can "level up" to level 99 which is accomplished by amassing exactly 113,680 exp points. Certain level advances also grant new combination attacks. Progress in experience and game completion is tracked for each of the playable characters separately. New playable characters can be earned by completing the game with a new character, or through downloadable characters from Xbox Live Marketplace. For example, Alien Hominid from the game Alien Hominid. -

The game supports up to four player co-op, either locally or through Xbox Live. The game progression in terms of what levels are unlocked is defined by the hosting player; however, each player can continue to gain levels and acquire wealth, weapons, and animal orbs as they progress with the rest of the party. - Two minigames are also present: an Arena mode similar to the arenas in the main game where the player attempts to survive through several waves of enemies, and "All You Can Quaff", a button-mashing contest between all players to attempt to eat as much food as possible.

Reception

IGN has given the game 9.0 and an Editor's Choice award, praising its addictive nature and replayability.^[6] Gaming Target also enjoyed the downloadable title, handing it a 9.0 out of 10 for its "outstanding artwork" and being "bigger and funnier" than Alien Hominid. The site would later select the game as one of their "40 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2008."^[7] GameTrailers gave it a 7.9.^[8] GameSpot awarded the game an 8.5 out of 10^[9] and OverTheTopGamer.com gave it an 8.4 out of 10.^[10] IGN editor Cam Shea ranked it third on his top 10 list of Xbox Live Arcade games. He praised it for being both a call-back to a much-loved genre and a great piece of game design.^[11] Castle Crashers continues to receive positive mentions after its release. 3xGamer currently gave it 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "the action dungeon crawler delivers everything you want with a dash of an RPG element."^[12]

Received XBLA Game of the Year from the Xbox Live community casting votes on their Xbox 360s voting in 2009.

As of June 22, 2009, 1,000,000 players have downloaded Castle Crashers.

The Newgrounds community has also made a slew of animated movies to celebrate the success of Castle Crashers. These movies include The Lonely Castle Crasher, Castle Crashers - RTP! and Castle Crashers Halloween.

Launch problems and patches

Some users experienced problems finding available online games, as well as their Xbox 360 sometimes freezing when attempting to join an Xbox Live game, or while already in a game.^{[citation needed]} The official website was down not long after launch, with the developer blog being gone completely, due to flooding of Behemoth's server.^[13] In addition to multiplayer problems, the game could also occasionally suffer from corrupted save files, causing players to lose character progress.

In an interview with Joystiq, Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin of the Behemoth stated that they were working with Microsoft to get a patch released as soon as possible in order to fix the issues.^[14]

"There are certain network settings," said Paladin, "where, if you're in a very specific network environment, it won't work with another person's connection and that's what's happening. But that's something we're already addressing by working with Microsoft to get a patch out as fast as possible."^[15]

A patch for the game was released on December 24,^[16] fixing glitches and exploits as well as resolving some of the frequent networking issues that were experienced at the game's launch, although some users are still unable to participate in online multiplayer games.^[17]

Downloadable content

On January 14, 2009, the King Pack downloadable content was released unlocking two more characters (the King and the Gray Knight with an open visor), a seal animal orb and three new weapons (the NG Lollipop, NG Golden Sword and the King's Mace). But does not include any additional levels. This can currently be bought for 160 Microsoft Points.

On August 26, 2009, the Necromantic Pack downloadable content was released unlocking two additional characters (the Necromancer and the Cult Minion), the Dragonhead pet orb and two new weapons (the chainsaw and the NG Skull Mace). As with the previous downloadable content, there are no new levels but unlike the previous King Pack a Picture Pack will be included. The Necromancer Pack (again, as with the King Pack) is 160 Microsoft Points. This pack completes The Behemoth's promised two DLC packs for Castle Crashers.

See also

• Kira Buckland, Medusa and Princess voice acting

References

External links

• Castle Crashers Official Website
• Official Castle Crashers Wiki (supported by The Behemoth)
• Castle Crashers Official Development Blog
• Official Castle Crashers Xbox.com page
• Newgrounds' Castle Crashers Collection featuring music from the game as well as tributes and parodies.
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