Post by The Chupster on Sept 3, 2008 17:31:39 GMT -5
Can't believe I forgot to do a write up on this one, I could've sworn I had. Ah well.
Castle Crashers is pretty much your basic side scrolling beat 'em up. Pretty generic when it comes right down to it, but it does have some points that really make it stand out. (Hell, I bought it, so it can't suck too badly, lol)
1. The art style. This is done in a very similar style to Alien Hominid, and is in fact made by the same company, the Behemoth, though I'm pretty sure it has a different artist. The graphics are clear and crisp in HD and just look hilarious.
2. The bosses. Boss fights are old school- find a weakness and exploit it while avoiding death. Bosses are designed most awesomely, and I'd list the ones I've seen but I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone. Oh yeah, and those Alien Hominids pop up for a brief-yet-fun cameo, too.
3. The RPG elements. You level up as you play, and with each level comes stat points that you can assign to one of four different categories: Strength, Magic, Defense and Agility. Strength and Agility make the related attacks more powerful, Defense decreases damage you take, and Agility makes weapons like your bow and arrow fly further and give more damage. Basic, but effective, and you won't be maxing out your character anytime soon, TRUST me.
4. The weapons. There are tons of different weapons to find and use, some of which just look cool and some of which grant you stat bonuses (or handicaps, or a combo of the two), and some of which give you special abilities- for example, there are a couple of weapons that give you a random chance at a critical hit with each swing, which does massive damage. Oh yeah, and the weapons are stored inside of a giant frog that the blacksmith keeps tied (by his tongue) to his anvil. Shweet.
5. The animal helpers. You collect different animal helpers as you go, which will float behind you as you go until you find a new one. Each has different abilities- the ram, for instance, will float around and knock people down during combat, while the bat will chew on their heads, the cardinal will find secret items throughout the levels as you travel (though all I've seen so far is the shitty boomerang he got me on one of the first levels), and the lizard will help you swim through water faster. There are tons more, and they sit in a building as you collect them, where you can learn about their abilities and choose which one you want to take with you, if any.
6. The insane design. Seriously, this game does a little bit of everything- you'll run from giant forest monsters, invade castles, fight robots, get captured by and escape from the Alien Hominids, roam through the desert, fight through difficult-as-all-hell lava worlds- this game might be a little on the generic side in game mechanics, but there's a lot of difficult ground to cover!
7. Multiplayer. I've only played with one other player so far, but I can see where having 4 people playing would be infinitely beneficial, especially around the lava world and beyond, where the game gets REALLY hard.
These and the game's inherent kooky charm and cutesy cartoony style (and bloody violence) just merge to form one of the best old school games I've ever played. It's just fun.
Combat works from button press combos that the game grants you as you level up, and teaches you how to use them. You also have 2 magic attacks, performed by holding the right shoulder button and a corresponding button. Controls change a little here and there- when you ride animals, you can't use magic, and your hard attack will become their animal attack, for instance. Simple, but fun.
My one and only complaint about the game is the liberal use of effects. Sometimes when you're fighting a mob and using a lot of spell attacks, the graphic effects from the spells will sort of muddy up the screen for a bit, and you won't know someone's tossed a bomb or jumped up beside you until you've been hit. You have to keep a close eye in those cases, and I can imagine that multiplayer with 3 other folks would only make that worse, but it's so much fun (and you can get around it by just looking carefully for signs of movement in the smoke and effects) that it's really a piddling complaint.
Of course, there are also characters to unlock that you can play as. So far they've been sort of the peons in the game- one regular soldier that looks similar to the four main characters, and I've unlocked 2 bad guys, which are basically a generic soldier and a generic thief character- but it just gives you that much more to play with.
If you like offbeat humor, blood and wacky stupidity, this game's for you! Totally worth the price, as I've played the thing for at least a good 15 hours so far and haven't finished it.
Castle Crashers is pretty much your basic side scrolling beat 'em up. Pretty generic when it comes right down to it, but it does have some points that really make it stand out. (Hell, I bought it, so it can't suck too badly, lol)
1. The art style. This is done in a very similar style to Alien Hominid, and is in fact made by the same company, the Behemoth, though I'm pretty sure it has a different artist. The graphics are clear and crisp in HD and just look hilarious.
2. The bosses. Boss fights are old school- find a weakness and exploit it while avoiding death. Bosses are designed most awesomely, and I'd list the ones I've seen but I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone. Oh yeah, and those Alien Hominids pop up for a brief-yet-fun cameo, too.
3. The RPG elements. You level up as you play, and with each level comes stat points that you can assign to one of four different categories: Strength, Magic, Defense and Agility. Strength and Agility make the related attacks more powerful, Defense decreases damage you take, and Agility makes weapons like your bow and arrow fly further and give more damage. Basic, but effective, and you won't be maxing out your character anytime soon, TRUST me.
4. The weapons. There are tons of different weapons to find and use, some of which just look cool and some of which grant you stat bonuses (or handicaps, or a combo of the two), and some of which give you special abilities- for example, there are a couple of weapons that give you a random chance at a critical hit with each swing, which does massive damage. Oh yeah, and the weapons are stored inside of a giant frog that the blacksmith keeps tied (by his tongue) to his anvil. Shweet.
5. The animal helpers. You collect different animal helpers as you go, which will float behind you as you go until you find a new one. Each has different abilities- the ram, for instance, will float around and knock people down during combat, while the bat will chew on their heads, the cardinal will find secret items throughout the levels as you travel (though all I've seen so far is the shitty boomerang he got me on one of the first levels), and the lizard will help you swim through water faster. There are tons more, and they sit in a building as you collect them, where you can learn about their abilities and choose which one you want to take with you, if any.
6. The insane design. Seriously, this game does a little bit of everything- you'll run from giant forest monsters, invade castles, fight robots, get captured by and escape from the Alien Hominids, roam through the desert, fight through difficult-as-all-hell lava worlds- this game might be a little on the generic side in game mechanics, but there's a lot of difficult ground to cover!
7. Multiplayer. I've only played with one other player so far, but I can see where having 4 people playing would be infinitely beneficial, especially around the lava world and beyond, where the game gets REALLY hard.
These and the game's inherent kooky charm and cutesy cartoony style (and bloody violence) just merge to form one of the best old school games I've ever played. It's just fun.
Combat works from button press combos that the game grants you as you level up, and teaches you how to use them. You also have 2 magic attacks, performed by holding the right shoulder button and a corresponding button. Controls change a little here and there- when you ride animals, you can't use magic, and your hard attack will become their animal attack, for instance. Simple, but fun.
My one and only complaint about the game is the liberal use of effects. Sometimes when you're fighting a mob and using a lot of spell attacks, the graphic effects from the spells will sort of muddy up the screen for a bit, and you won't know someone's tossed a bomb or jumped up beside you until you've been hit. You have to keep a close eye in those cases, and I can imagine that multiplayer with 3 other folks would only make that worse, but it's so much fun (and you can get around it by just looking carefully for signs of movement in the smoke and effects) that it's really a piddling complaint.
Of course, there are also characters to unlock that you can play as. So far they've been sort of the peons in the game- one regular soldier that looks similar to the four main characters, and I've unlocked 2 bad guys, which are basically a generic soldier and a generic thief character- but it just gives you that much more to play with.
If you like offbeat humor, blood and wacky stupidity, this game's for you! Totally worth the price, as I've played the thing for at least a good 15 hours so far and haven't finished it.
