If you're a semi-aged gamer, or a gamer who was brought up on the old school stuff, hack 'n slash and beat'em ups are more than likely in your list of games played vigorously. After the gaming community was dragged out of the arcade era of console games, these genres faded out almost entirely. That stayed the case until Xbox Live Arcade and the other similar services of this generation were unleashed on the public. Now all the old school genres are coming back with a charge as smaller developers flood the marketplace with them. It's safe to say that a large majority of the releases turn out to be a little less than satisfactory, and a little more than a hack job emulation. The world screamed with fury as useless generic title after useless generic title was released. Begging for a hero, the people eventually got what they hoped for -- an original take on an old genre. Enter Castle Crashers in dramatic fashion.

Castle Crashers is basically, at its core, a side scrolling, button mashing fest -- but wait, that's not the whole thing. Behemoth took that side scrolling, button mashing fest and built it up with lots of extra goodies both on the gameplay and unlockables sides, effectively making the most entertaining game of its kind to be released in years.

The game starts up with you (or a group of you depending on how many friends you brought along) rocking out in the castle with the lute hero player in the background when some poor soldier comes rolling down the stairs, an arrow in his side. After flashing away as all good dead sprites do in beat'em ups, you take control of your crasher and get to the crashing. The controls are simple enough with a button for a fast attack, a button for heavy attacks, a button for items, and a button for your magic. Normally you'd figure that'd be it, but as you progress and level your character you unlock new combinations for flashy attacks. This variety, however seemingly unnoticeable, actually keeps the battles fresh and entertaining. As you level, you also get to buff your character's strength, defense, magic, and agility, RPG styIe. Different magic spells also become unlocked as you stack the skill, allowing you to unleash your inner wizard in more ways than one. Along with your melee and magic you will also acquire a bow and arrow which is used as an item and so uses the same button. Items can be scrolled through with the shoulder buttons, making it easy to take out the bow (which you can use the entire time if you so wish as boosting agility buffs your archery skills) or pound back a potion if need be. On top of all that, there are animal orbs. Animal orbs look just as they sound, and follow you around. Each animal orb provides a different buff, which adds a little bit of strategy to battles and gameplay choices. In short, the game controls very well and never feels tedious or boring because of all the little additons the game offers, which is quite a feat for its genre.

If you played or remember Behemoth's other XBLA release, Alian Hominid, you have a general idea of what the graphical styIe is. It's more of the same bright and colorful environments and characters that all have that brand of comedy Behemoth injects in to all its games. The animations are all over the top, wich matches the character design perfectly. Eyes will pop out in surprise when you take a hit, death animations are unique and humorous for all the different enemies, and litle environmental animations in the background help make things seem a bit less static outside of the battle. It's not the most mind blowing graphical achievement since Gears of War, but that doesn't matter because what it does provide serves it's purpose perfectly, and manages to look really kick ass at the same time.

Try and think of the last time you played a game, more specifically a beat'em up, where the music didn't all kind of sound the same and eventually made you want to mute everything to save your ears. Castle Crashers pulls out a big stop with it's audio -- the music especially -- and truly is one of its strongest features. The music is different in every area you travel to, with very few exceptions if any at all. Sure there have been games that provided the same thing, but Castle Crasher's music is different. Why? Because every track is totally unique and totally awesome. There isn't one track that will grind at your soul, and you will love the odd quirky techno beats thrown in here and there too. The sound effects are also very well done and fit the world nicely, providing another check mark to the "Genre inherent monotony crusher" column.

If you sit down and really play at it, Castle Crashers can be beaten in roughly 3-5 hours the first time through which is a fairly hefty length for the genre. Of course, that would be if you didn't go and unlock all the characters, animal orbs, and weapons. There are (but I may be off a bit) 22 characters, 40 weapons, and 26 animal orbs. These add a lot of replay value to the game to be sure, but then there is also the extra game mode. Yes, if you beat the game, you have the option of playing through it in a different mode labled "Insane." This is basically as it sounds, and lets you play through the game with the difficulty cranked past crazy, and jacked to insane. There are also two mini games to enjoy. All you can Quaff is a fight of the munchables as you face off against three other characters in a race to eat the most the fastest. Arena is also available and lets you square off in different arenas across the game world that all have their quirks to work around.

The main game, along with the two mini games, are available with multiplayer both online and off. It goes without saying that the more people you have the more fun there is to be had in Castle Crashers, and it is definitely a game to enjoy with friends, although you can enjoy it all the same by yourself. Unfortunately, as of the date of this review, Castle Crashers has some crushing issues with its online component. Dropping out can happen frequently without reason, but that's the minor issue. The major issue is the game's ability to wipe your progress completely. There doesn't seem to be any specific triggers, but some players have experienced losing all their gear and levels. This of course can be a huge let down and doesn't make getting into the game very easy to be sure. Luckily, Behemoth has said that there is a fix on the way. Until that fix comes, whether you risk it online is up to you. In general, playing it safe and playing it offline is the best idea at the moment. This isn't a huge deal because in reality, playing with your friends on the couch next to you is the real way to enjoy what Castle Crashers has to offer.

All told, Castle Crashers is a fantastic experience that will have you hooked in no time. Getting together with friends to mash buttons has never been so much fun, or so funny. There truley is a vast variety of gameplay to be had in this beat'em up, and even if you're new to the genre, you will have no issues getting right in to it and having a blast. Castle Crashers is definitely worth it's seemingly steep $15, 1200 point price tag, and will keep you entertained for a long time to come.

Thumbs Up/Down: http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/castlecrashers/player_review.html?id=604756

Overall: 9.0

Have a good one,

XR

There's been a stereotype for a long time about gamers: we're anti-social hermits. Since the end of the last generation of gaming though, games have become a lot more of a social get together through the introduction of online multiplayer. Although it's become a very big player in the eyes of developers, it certainly hasn't given them the idea to phase out single player games altogether. At least, until now.

Apparently, EA's Frank Gibeau figures that gamers don't pay much attention to single player experience anymore. In a recent Q&A with Gamespot, Gibeau is quoted saying:

Frank Gibeau: Well let me back up and say that core to the strategy of the company--and very specifically our label--is that we want to be online with everything we do.I'm no longer greenlighting games that are single-player only, even console products. They have to have deep online modes because that's where our fans are spending a lot of time and, frankly, that's where a lot of the value in the IPs we create can really take hold. [Emphasis added].

This definitely is true of sports games, of course, but what about all the other titles EA has control over? What about the newly acquired Bioware and their titles? Does this mean that he won't pass KOTOR or ME games without the addition of online play? I know that the next KOTOR title is set to be an MMO, but whether or not that was EA's idea or not I don't know, so I won't comment on that, but if it is for the same reason Gibeau stated then we could be in for a real cluster#$#@ of EA glory.

The single player experience is essential in gaming, this is for sure. People don't always want to sit down and play with a bunch of people they may or may not know online. Sure we will want to do so on some occassions, but sometimes, we as gamers enjoy our alone time where we can take in playing a campaign or story mode by ourselves. There is something to be said about having some alone time, which we all need now and then, and enjoy it while playing a game.

Tacking a multiplayer mode to games does not always mean it's going to be played, nor does it mean it will make the game better by any stretch of the word. I'm sure you can think of numerous examples in which developers slapped on a multiplayer mode because they thought it would be the cool thing to do, only to have it completely bomb and do nothing for the game itself. Of course in some cases if there was more time spent on the multiplayer component, it would probably be passable. On the same token, an equal amount of games are burned with those tacked on components. These could have been discarded for the betterment of the single player component, but since the new fad is multiplayer, they just had to do it, right?

There doesn't seem to be much of a logical thought process here on Gibeau's behalf. It sounds more like he looked at some numbers on paper, ignored the numbers on another, and then made a blind decision based on the previously mentioned numbers, because they made him feel happy inside. The fact of the matter is that there are some games that just do NOT work as a multiplayer game.

The thought that a company as large and influential as EA is even entertaining an idea as insane as phasing out games that supply a single player experience only, is a scary one at best. Multplayer is all well and good, and there is an entire market for games that are multiplayer only, but if you are so worried about it then focus on games that provide that. That doesn't mean you have to bash current series of games with such an idea.

At least, that's the way I feel. I don't and can't speak for all of you out there, but from my point of view the single player experience is the most important part of a game unless the game is multiplayer focused. I don't want to see titles with tacked on multiplayer because as I previously mentioned, all that comes out of it is a single player mode that isn't paid enough attention to.

How do you feel about all of this? What's your take on it? This is all just of my opinion of course, and so think of it what you will. I'm very interested in what you all think though, and look forward to reading your individual opinions!

Well if you remember a while back I had a series of blogs related to my purchasing a new gaming rig. Well, I just figured out that I have a bit of a larger budget than I once thought -- not THAT much of a larger budget, but enough to want to possibly up the GPU power.

Originally I was shooting for an EVGA 8800GT -- a very solid card to say the least. Now, though, I have an increased GPU budget of around $300. This is where once again, all you computer know-it-alls come in to play

I am not ruling out SLI or Crossfire set ups here, so long as after tax/refunds etc., it falls under or at the $300 mark.

This will also mean a PSU recommendation, and motherboard which I'm sure you'll have no problem figuring out. Let's keep in mind I'd like to have a cool running system that won't crash on me using only air flow via fans -- I don't have the money for aftermarket cooling solutions such as water and the like.

Currently after some research I've seen that 8800GT in SLI seems to pwn just about everything, the only real problem being power consumption and insane heat levels. Apparently, an ATI 4870 has similar performance and would run cooler and with less power but I'm not so big on AMD.

If you're up to a REAL challenge, you can pick the entire PC rig, minus a monitor, for my budget of $1300 CANADIAN DOLLARS lol. Whatever the best set up can be for that, which I'd hope would be decent at the very least, is up to you to find if you so wish. I already have my list of gear that you've seen a while ago now, but I'm sure one of you could figure out a better one.

In any case, I leave it up to all you smart folks out there to help me out yet again!

Thanks, and have a good one!

XR