Castle Crashers
 |
| Castle Crashers | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | The Behemoth |
| Publisher(s) | The Behemoth/Microsoft |
| Designer(s) | Dan Paladin, Tom Fulp |
| Platform(s) | Xbox Live Arcade |
| Release | August 27, 2008 |
| Genre(s) | RPG, Action[1] |
| Mode(s) | 1-4 Player |
Castle Crashers is a console video game independently developed by The Behemoth. Announced by The Behemoth during Comic-Con 2006, the game is available for download with the Xbox Live Arcade service, released August 27, 2008, at a price of 1200 Microsoft Points (15USD).
Story
Castle Crashers' story is based on the adventures of four knights as they attempt to chase down a wizard and his army of barbarians after they stole a large magic crystal and four princesses from the palace. Each of the four princesses are sold off to different villains: the first is held by the barbarians themselves, one is sold to a rich industrialist in purple clothing, and is later taken from him by the wizard himself after he is chased down by the knights, and is the last to be rescued, one is given to a cyclops warrior who tries to marry her to an enemy who is strongly implied to be his son, and the other princess is given to an ice wizard who keeps her in his ice castle in a far away "Ice World". The knights, at times assisted by the King and his own troops, make their way across several terrains of the kingdom, and are able to rescue the kidnapped princesses one by one. Along the way, they are antagonized by a Necromancer knight working for the wizard, who summons undead Zombie skeleton enemies to hinder their progress, and also revives the cyclops after he is defeated. After thoroughly defeating the wizard's forces and rescuing three of the princesses they finally reach his castle, where he personally holds the final princess. Inside, they must defeat a strange purple painter with a lunchbox for a head who brings his creations to life to attack them, the undead cyclops and his son, the necromancer, who summons one of every enemy in the game to swarm the knights at once, and finally the evil wizard himself, who fights in several forms. The knights ride home on the magic crystal with the final princess in tow, and return home for a celebration with several other characters from the game. However, when attempting to make out with the final princess, it is revealed that she is actually Tricky the clown from the Newgrounds animation "xkittyfroggymeowmeow".
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.
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 in a limited amount of time. 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 113,681 exp points. Furthermore, certain level advances also grant new combination attacks as well. 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.
The game supports up to four players working co-operatively, 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 mini-games 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.
Downloadable Content
Four characters, the King, the Necromancer, the Wizard's Minions and a Grey Knight with an Open Visor as well as a chainsaw weapon and Lollipop Weapon, seen in the game and as playable through videos and pictures from various gaming publications, have yet to be added to the game but will be added at some point in the future as downloadable content. Also, two more pets will be available when the downloadable content comes out.[2] The 2 animal orbs (clubby the seal & the head of the dragon part of the sockpuppet dragon)were found on a sprite sheet. They are presumed to go along with the other DLC.
Development history
An early version of the title was first shown at Comic-Con 2005 under the name of Ye Olde Side-Scroller in Slamdance Film Festival's Slamdance Guerilla Games Competition, but was pulled in response to Super Columbine Massacre RPG! being dropped from the competition after it was accepted as a finalist.[3] The Behemoth was not the only developer to remove their game. [4]
The final soundtrack contains user created music submitted to Newgrounds' Audio Portal.[5]
On May 16, 2008, The Behemoth announced that development was finished on the game.[6]
Reception
IGN has given the game 9.0 and an Editor's Choice award, praising its addictive nature and replayability.[7] 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. GameTrailers gave it a 7.9. GameSpot awarded the game an 8.5 out of 10 and OverTheTopGamer.com gave it an 8.4 out of 10.
Launch problems and Patch
All users experienced problems finding available online games, as well as their Xbox 360 freezing whenever attempting to join an Xbox Live game. The official website was down not long after launch, with the developer blog being gone completely, due to flooding of Behemoth's server. [citation needed] In addition to multiplayer problems, the game can also occasionally suffer from corrupted save files, causing players to lose character progress. A temporary fix for the disappearing saves that works about 90% of the time is to sign out and sign back in once the game has started.
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.[8]
"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."
See also
References
- ^ "Castle Crashers Page". GamePro. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
- ^ Emil. "Chainsaw massacre !!!". Castle Crashers Development Blog.
- ^ NG BBS — Slamdance Update
- ^ Water Cooler Games - Updates on Slamdance Controversy
- ^ "Mac7 - June". NG BBS.
- ^ Dan Paladin. "Castle Crashers is completely completed". Castle Crashers Development Blog of Love.
- ^ http://uk.xboxlive.ign.com/articles/903/903047p1.html
- ^ http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/31/pax-2008-the-behemoth-talks-castle-crashers-pricing-patches-an/
External links
- Castle Crashers Official Website
- 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.