Over the last few years, many gamers have lamented the absence of the side scrolling beat ‘em up. While some satisfaction is provided with ports of classic beat ‘em ups such as Streets of Rage 2, Golden Axe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the thirst for new games in the genre never seems to be satisfied. The Behemoth, noted for their previous 2D revival Alien Hominid, has taken up the challenge.

Castle Crashers follows the classic four player beat ‘em up mould, but adds in The Behemoth’s own unique visual style and brand of crude humour, as well as a few modern luxuries like RPG-style level systems, mountains of unlockables and of course, online multiplayer. Yet just when it seems like The Behemoth has found the perfect formula, technical hitches trip them up.

As one of four magic-wielding, animal-tending, troll-killing bad ass armoured knights, your task is to find and beat the living daylights out of an evil sorcerer, who stole your kingdom’s rather awesome magical crystal and four princesses, and generally wrecked up the place. Along the way you will kill countless grunts and go toe-to-toe with some gigantic bosses.


Dan Paladin’s signature 2D art style forms the basis of Castle Crashers’ aesthetics. Characters are defined by thick, sharp lines, yet feature a rather cutesy demeanour. Sprites are clean with smooth animation, but it’s the expression of the characters that really makes the game stand out. One such moment comes early in the game in a forest level, where animals get so scared upon seeing the rather large boss creature chasing you that they release the contents of their bowels. The backgrounds are just as beautiful, if not a little bizarre at times. The game does have occasional frame rate hiccups when the screen gets too busy, but it’s not usually too much of an issue.

Castle Crashers’ structure is relatively simple; beat the snot out of everything in sight, growing stronger in the process. You’ve got access to a quick attack and heavy attack, which can be mixed and matched to produce deadly combos. Alongside the basic attacks, your character also has a range attack (usually a bow) and a magic attack, which is tied to the colour of your particular knight. Experience points are gained with the defeat of each enemy, gradually resulting in increased character levels. With each level up, you gain points (two up to level 20, one thereafter) to allocate to strength, magic, defence and distance attacks, as well as new combos and the ability to wield stronger weapons. The levelling system makes Castle Crashers seem a lot like Capcom’s Knights of the Round, but hidden weapons and animal buddies set it apart. Weapons can influence your statistics, adding points to some at the expense of others, while animal buddies will enhance specific abilities or lend assistance in battle.


Quality set pieces and boss fights take Castle Crashers beyond the standard scrolling fighter of old. One sequence is a bit of a throwback to Battletoads (but better executed), where you ride deer over fallen logs and through narrow passages while being chased by a gigantic cat. Boss fights are tremendously fun; they’re huge, wonderfully designed and, most importantly, challenging. At first a boss can seem pretty intimidating, but their patterns can be determined without too much hassle (or you can just hack away at them with brute force). The defeat of a boss is a wondrous occasion, resulting in a showering of experience points, treasure and, if you rescue one, a kiss from the princess. Be prepared to fight for it though; if more than one player is alive at the end of a boss battle, you have to go head to head for the princess’ affections, not unlike the classic fight at the end of Double Dragon.

Outside of the main quest, you’ve got some arena matches, where you can take on a continuous supply of grunts or a few of your friends in fights to the death, or you can participate in the “All you can Quaff” button-mashing eating contest. Castle Crashers has a variety of achievements, mostly requiring skill (getting through the deer riding bit without being hit) and endurance (getting kisses from all four princesses in one game), with the usual selection of “win x number ranked of y type matches”.


As great as the initial Castle Crashers experience is, its shortcomings are revealed quite quickly. The game’s online implementation is nothing short of tragic at the moment, with four player matches either extremely difficult to connect to, or impossible to maintain for any meaningful amount of time. The game also has a tendency to lag from time to time. The game also seems pretty unbalanced – the prospect of playing some sections alone is completely unrealistic, and the levelling system is particularly lightweight and flimsy. It’s a very realistic possibility that some of these factors could be fixed by patches and downloadable content in the near future, but at the moment, some important aspects of the game are somewhat broken.

These annoyances aside, Castle Crashers is a phenomenally enjoyable little brawler. A fantastic art style, ludicrous humour and satisfying combat all tie together into a neat package. While Castle Crashers signifies the end of the Summer/Winter of Xbox Live Arcade, it helps to make the future of the service look all the more promising. It’s two from two for The Behemoth, so we’ll be watching their career with great interest.