Castle Crashers

"It Won't Crash Your Party"

Nothing will ever beat arcade games, and nothing will ever beat being able to play fun, cooperative arcade games. Castle Crashers is just that a fun multiplayer game that delivers as a great way to spend some time with your friends. There is only one way to get the most out of Castle Crashers and that way is to play with two to four players on the same Xbox 360. Playing Castle Crashers online would almost work but as this game will stretch into the wee hours of the morning you will run into people wanting to take a break or you may yourself may need to take a break. Playing by yourself will be hardly any fun at all as you have to deal with the same amount of enemies whether you are playing by yourself or with four people.

Now unlike the popular games of Xbox Live Arcade, Castle Crashers is not an original arcade game but was definitely inspired and put together by the great minds at Newgrounds. It is the perfect match between mindless beat 'em up games and adventure games in which you will fight to gain experience levels and unlock weapons that add skills to your character. The guys you play as look like knights or something and you will have to fight your way through monsters and baddies that are hell bent on stealing your women. Once you have rescued one of the many princesses there to rescue, manly egos will show and you will have to battle your friends to compete for the fair maiden's love. All other times you will work with your friends to whack and smack your way throughout a neat world in which you will have to backtrack on more than one occasion to load up on weapons and health potions.

Your attacks range from using magic to ground and jump attacks with the ability to upgrade to using arrows and bombs and having certain animals follow you around or allow you to ride out of danger. The game is very comical with plenty of situations in which flatulance saves the day but what makes this game really nice are the graphics and guitar tracks that make Castle Crashers stand out as a great Xbox arcade game.

I highly recommend Castle Crashers as a great party game. It lasts a good three to four hours and even longer if you are playing by yourself or are having a hard time finding a good online game. The achievements are out of the way to get so you will have to look at them ahead of time to get them but you can always go back and replay any spot that you passed during the game. Think Super Mario World.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/25/09

Game Release: Castle Crashers (US, 08/27/08)