Castle Crashers Remastered

Editor's Notes

Digital Xbox One version reviewed.

Introduction

'Castle Crashers' was one of the darlings of the Xbox LIVE Arcade program during its heyday. The combination of furious Flash art and a deep take on the beat 'em up genre took hold with online and local co-op being the star. It was much played and much loved upon its release in 2008, and was eventually ported to the PS3, Windows, and OS X. The remaster has been in the works for about a year, and was announced by Microsoft at this year’s E3.

The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take

'Castle Crashers Remastered' is a beat 'em up; a side-scrolling arcade-style brawler in the mold of classics like 'Battletoads' or even 'X-Men'. Colorful little cartoon knights jump and dive around the screen, slashing and bashing barbarians and thieves in their quest to defeat an evil sorcerer and free the king’s kidnapped daughters. There is an RPG element as well - the knights earn experience by defeating enemies, which can be used to purchase upgrades in offense, defense, agility, and magic power. There are many knights, each with different abilities.

Characters can be further customized by the choice of weapon, from standard swords to maces to giant lollipops. Weapons can change stats, as do the floating animal orbs that can be found in the levels. Little elephants, giraffes, cats, and more follow the player and add passive buffs. Magical powers start out rather weak, but with every 6 or so points that went into the magic stat, I gained more applications of the power. I prefer the orange knight, who has a fireball attack. 'Castle Crashers Remastered' contains most of the DLC from the original, so there are double the number of starting knights, and many more can be unlocked via gameplay instead of real life money purchasing.

As characters grow more powerful, they can use increasingly complicated combos. Mashing the X button for a line of weak attacks is not particularly effective, but string together some lights, heavies, jumping, and bow attacks, maybe a little magic, and you’ve got a stew going. More items and animals can be purchased with money picked up from fallen enemies. In between each stage, I was able to duck out to a store, blacksmith, and my very own animal ark to swap out equipment and companions as desired.

Developer The Behemoth has a distinctive storytelling style, and 'Castle Crashers' is not unlike 'Alien Hominid' or 'BattleBlock Theater' in that regard (although 'BattleBlock' is somewhat narrated). It’s cutesy and campy and includes copious toilet humor, all used to great effect. The story is very light and is mostly relegated to the background, where the kidnapped princesses can be seen being carried away by brigands while the heroic knights are waylaid by gobs of baddies. Huge bosses pop up periodically, each with massive health bars and lots of added enemies swarming around at their feet, harrying me as I attempted to kill their leader. The game can be challenging when played alone as there are so many enemies at one time. Playing with partners makes the fighting more manageable, and knights can resuscitate each other when necessary.