Castle Crashers

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Castle Crashers
Developer(s)	The Behemoth
Publisher(s)	The Behemoth Microsoft
Designer(s)	Dan Paladin Tom Fulp
Platform(s)	Xbox 360 (XBLA)
Release date(s)	August 27, 2008
Genre(s)	RPG, Action[1]
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: T PEGI: 16+
Media	Download
Input methods	Gamepad

Castle Crashers is a console video game independently developed by The Behemoth, featuring music created by members of Newgrounds. In 2006, Behemoth announced the game as available for download via the Xbox Live Arcade service. It was released as part of Microsoft's Summer of Arcade campaign, and became Arcade's best-selling title of 2008.^[2] It was voted 2008 Best Game of the Year at the XBLA Awards.^[3]

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Reception 3 Launch problems and patches 4 Downloadable Content 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] 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, although in co-op the arena turns into a player vs player match.

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. 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 113,680 exp points. Certain level advances also grant new combination attacks. 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 player co-op, 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 minigames 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.

[edit] Reception

IGN has given the game 9.0 and an Editor's Choice award, praising its addictive nature and replayability.^[4] 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. The site would later select the game as one of their "40 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2008."^[5] GameTrailers gave it a 7.9.^[6] GameSpot awarded the game an 8.5 out of 10^[7] and OverTheTopGamer.com gave it an 8.4 out of 10.^[8]

Received XBLA Game of the Year from the Xbox Live community casting votes on their Xbox 360s voting in 2009.

As of June 22, 2009, 1,000,000 players have downloaded Castle Crashers.

[edit] Launch problems and patches

Some users experienced problems finding available online games, as well as their Xbox 360 sometimes freezing when attempting to join an Xbox Live game, or while already in a game.^{[citation needed]} The official website was down not long after launch, with the developer blog being gone completely, due to flooding of Behemoth's server.^[9] In addition to multiplayer problems, the game could also occasionally suffer from corrupted save files, causing players to lose character progress.

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.^[10]

"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."^[11]

A patch for the game was released on December 24,^[12] fixing glitches and exploits as well as resolving some of the frequent networking issues that were experienced at the game's launch, although some users are still unable to participate in online multiplayer games.^[13]

[edit] Downloadable Content

On January 14, the King Pack downloadable content was released unlocking two more characters (the king and the gray knight with an open visor), a seal animal orb and three new weapons (a lollipop,The Kings Mace and a gold sword). This can currently be bought for 160 Microsoft Points. As stated on their website, The Behemoth says this is the first of two downloadable packs that will be released. Although no other characters have been confirmed, the second download pack has been rumored to include the Necromancer and the Evil Wizard's Henchman, known as the "Wizard Knight." It is also rumored to include a chainsaw weapon, golden skull mace weapon and a dragon pet orb. The creators of Castle Crashers had confirmed the Necromancer and the chainsaw to be in creation. The name of this download pack is rumored to be known as the "Necromancer Pack"^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• Kira Buckland, Medusa and Princess voice acting

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Castle Crashers Official Website
• Official Castle Crashers Wiki (supported by The Behemoth)
• 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.
• [1]