Castle Crashers (360 Arcade) review

[Xalgar]

Castle Crashers, that game that everyone tells you to get if it's your first XBLA game. Well, I got it, played it, beaten it 100%, and am now bored of it. Here is my review.

Gameplay: 6/10

Although it is a standard beat-em-up game, the game is just too simple and unbalanced.

Too simple in the fact that the game feels like Double Dragon at times, although this classic gameplay may be looked at as a positive thing for some people, I disagree. Especially since you'll be using the same combo, over and over and over again. The bosses are a bit easy too, the only way you can seriously loose is if your a full magic character and they have a heavy resistance to it.

Unbalanced in that Magic > All. Magic is the main source of damage, melee is sub-par, and bow use is absurd. This is especially annoying when your playing over Xbox Live and you have 4 little dudes spamming magic that fills your whole screen and you have no idea what's going on.

The gameplay seems a bit more attuned to the "My first beat-em-up" and "Classic fighter fan" people.

Sound: 10/10

Definitely the strong point in this game, I LOVE the music in Castle Crashers, especially the outskirts of the bandit forest. The sound effects, although give me a sense I've heard them before, all fit into the game perfectly. If the creators released an OST, I'd get it in a heartbeat.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tUBK0zUpSs
I mean really, how can you not love this?

Graphics: 9/10

I like the art style in this game, makes you feel like your playing a game on Newgrounds, yet with a next-gen coating to it. The animations are very cartoony and I love it.



Story: N/A

This game is definitely not for the story, because there isn't one. Your a knight and an evil wizard takes some magic crystal and 4 princesses and it's your job to get the crystal and get a kiss from each princess for your heroic deeds. Classic style story.

Conclusion:

The gameplay definitely did not meet up to my standards, however, if you are a fan of classic NES/SNES/Genesis Beat-em-up games, you'll love it. If your new to the genre too, this is a great start. The multiplayer is extremely annoying and it's almost impossible to get a game going. But I can't help loving the style and music in this game

7/10

[davethezombie]

I do agree on some points. As a beat up game, it does get a little monotonous at times, yet there's some charm about it when you first play it. Like, instead of having to memorize a bunch of combos to pull off magic tricks or fighting moves, it's simple with just a couple of buttons to keep the player entertained yet not frustrated. One the picks I have with this game is that I feel the need to grind at times, especially when I'm at bosses that take a couple tries to beat. And of course, the connections. Even with the patch, I've had difficulty connecting to some players and it's caused me much frustration to even try to get a game going. I do love this game, despite its faults. It just needs a little variety. Maybe as a 15 dollar game, it seems to fall short of its expectations, but it grows on you, at least, it did for me.