I played Castle Crashers · 10:25pm Dec 5th, 2020
Castle Crashers takes the rescue the princess trope, putts it in a side scrolling beat 'em up, and runs with it.
As for the story, an evil ruler kidnaps several princesses and it's up to you to rescue them. Fighting your way through hordes of minions, bosses, and running from a giant cat.
You don't save the princesses for nothing, for each one you save they give you a kiss. Unless there's more than one of you. Only one can get the reward so you fight your friend for the pleasure.
As far as story, it's told environmentally and in the actions of enemies. And so much of it is told in jokes too. This game does not take itself seriously and that's greatly to it's benefit. Jokes and memes of all kinds find their way into this game. Inevitably one will get some amusement from you.
The graphics are lively, cartoonish, and fit perfectly for the energy of the game. They actually remind me of Egoraptors animations, but a little more focused. The particular style of animation used allows for more creative designs that fit in and flow with the game play instead of standing out. Now this is generally the case in all games, but style goes a long way as to what works in said style. What can be horrifying in one style comes across as shocking and slightly amusing in another.
Game play itself is clean. It feels satisfying when you attack and hit something. I never experienced any problems with hit-boxes or the character moving in a floaty fashion.
Items and assist animal are incredibly useful. Items can give you an edge in a pinch with healing or clearing the way with a bomb, or keeping an enemy at a distance with a bow and arrow. And there's such a menagerie of assist animals that each do different things that you may find yourself switching between levels just to try them out.
There isn't a ton of variety in attacks. Strong, weak, and magic. Each is tailored to the character, and effected by what weapon you're using. Don't be afraid to experiment with each character and item to find your fit.
Actually, using the different characters (of which there are a lot) is important as they level up independently of each other. And with assigning stat points characters get very different quickly.
One thing that didn't bother me in this game that gets me with some other games was level grinding. I could throw myself at enemies and forget that I'm actually trying to level up instead of hunting down the most effective place to gain levels.
The soundtrack has a very distinct feel to it and is good ad helping match your mood to the level. The shops and non combative areas have a laid back kind of goofy tune, but when it gets down to business you're ready to fight.
Playing this game single is a lot of fun, but it really is at it's best as a multiplayer game. You and a friend can have fun running through the battle field, mowing down everything in your way, and occasionally each other. Especially each other when it's time to kiss the princess. They made a good system to have the co-operative mode be both cooperative and versus. It's really just for the score and bragging rights, but those rights will be mine. (Actually no, my friend is much better than I am so I lost every time. Still tons of fun though.)
I loved castle crashers. I just wish there was more and varied content for it. I would have played it much more if I had more to do and someone to do it with. What character did you start with and/or put the most time into? I started with the Green Knight, who was pretty bad, and later switched to the Orange Knight as my main character, who was much better.
The soundtrack does deserve special mention. . My favorite track is easily Winterbliss, from the snow world level. I love this track
I started with the red knight. Which works out well for me as I tend to play the more physical fighters and don't often use magic. (Or items)
The sound track was indeed great, each tailored for where it worked best and fit the energy of the level. As for favorite ... That's actually a hard one for me to pick out.