- Logan Hosoda
Castle Crashers is a modern take on the “beat em’ up” genre with added RPG elements, where you play as a set of knights that must rescue the 4 princesses from the evil dark wizard. The game features 4-player local and online co-op, a large variety of characters (most unlockable), various weapons, fighting styles, a leveling system with stats, etc. Castle Crashers was developed by The Behemoth, and originally released of the Xbox 360 in 2008, later to be released for Playstation platforms in 2010, and also released for Steam in 2012.
Perhaps the best part of the game is the amazing combat that it features. The gameplay is very fluid, every action feels smooth, and enjoyable. While yes, it is a beat em’ up, and we all know beat em’ ups get redundant, I think that Castle Crashers has enough varied gameplay to really keep the players interested, especially if you manage to gather 4 people! You can choose between using a melee weapon, your bow, magic, or all three! The best part is that each character has different spells, which makes it fun to unlock them all, and test them all out, which in my opinion creates a very re-playable game. As you level up, you’ll gain new magic abilities if you choose to invest in magic, and you’ll find new weapons as you explore the world. But unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot that’s very special about the bow.
The way you progress in Castle Crashers is similar to a Mario game, where you get to select the level from an overworld view, and then you jump in and work on completing it so that you can unlock the next levels, and move forward from there. It progresses in a linear pattern for the most part, but there’s a couple of points in the game where you can choose between multiple paths. This system is nice, because it allows you to go back and farm money, level up, or search previous levels for secrets, such as pets (cool little creatures that give you a passive bonus), or sweet weapons that can be dropped, or possibly hidden. There’s a plethora of hidden stuff to be found in the game, so if something looks suspicious, definitely check it out!
One of the best parts about Castle Crashers is the amount of humor that they packed into one game. While there really isn’t any dialogue (at least I don’t remember any), there’s loads of hilarious shenanigans happening throughout the game. You need to play the game to understand, but I remember laughing almost all the way through during my first couple of playthroughs. So long as you have childish humor and a love for unnecessary violence and fart jokes (like me), then you’ll enjoy it guaranteed!
The game is overall pretty short, and can be completed casually in around 7-10 hours or so. If for any reason the game isn’t difficult enough for you, then unlock the hard mode, and try that bad boy out, because it will make you cry. To this day, I still have yet to complete that horrendous mode, because it’s too flipping hard. Even with max level, the best weapon, best pet, etc. I still can’t beat it. It makes Dark Souls look like a lovely frolic through the flowers to put things into perspective. So give it a whirl if you’re so daring!
Castle Crashers is an incredible game, and one of the earlier indie games that really sparked the rise of indie developers back in the day. If you haven’t played it yet, or if you’re looking for an action-packed game to play with some buddies, then Castle Crashers is the perfect choice. So go on out there, and save your princesses, and then fight your friends to the death for her kiss!
