www.Multiplayergames.com – Multiplayer Games

For fans of the beat-em-up, it’s been a hard decade. The genre has all been dismantled, replaced by action RPGs and forgotten. Glimmers of hope, including remixes of River City Ransom on the Game Boy Advance along with Live Arcade releases of Double Dragon and Ninja Turtles, have helped alleviate the pain.

Enter Castle Crashers.

It’s not that Castle Crashers is just a relief from a drought. It’s more like this is the greatest thing to happen to the Arcade this year. Artsy fans will lean towards Braid, but the sheer fun of four-player co-op in a solid beat-em-up is a gaming experience unmatched by any shooter or intricate original platformer. Castle Crashers goes online with versus and co-op modes, and that should be all your need to know.

If you need more, this is done by the same crew who crafted the excellent (if absurdly hard) 2-D action game update Alien Hominid. The art style is zany and over-the-top, but that’s why it works. In fact, aside from the explosive diarrhea from some forest animals, this is a gorgeous game. The little touches make it special, including massive battle backgrounds, soldiers giving fallen comrades CPR, enemies washing clothes while they await their fate, or giving thumbs up as they drown in a pool of lava.

There’s a lot more than visual flare to Castle Crashers though. It’s the mechanics, key to any brawler, that set it apart. Collision is spot-on, registering every hit with effective feel, helped along again by the truly wonderful animation. New weapons gained can be held on to, ranging from a twig to a lightsaber. All of them lead to gruesome, bloody cartoon death complete with (but not limited to) lopped off heads.

This adventure will span a few hours in co-op, though OCD patients will want to level up all of the countless available – and unlockable – warriors. Solo Crashers will have a significantly tougher challenge, as the difficulty doesn’t scale. Prepare to grind a bit to push forward.

So yes, there are some action RPG elements here. However, they’re not deep, certainly acceptable to give the game a push towards the classic “just one more level” syndrome all gamers know of. Newly acquired weapons are stored, at the beginning of the overhead map and are easily accessible. Shops are everywhere as well to sell you all kinds of items, each of them offering specific pieces to help you out.

Four-player co-op brings more than just simple bashing. Downed allies need to be revived though CPR, a small mini-game that requires accurate button presses to revive them with more health. Miss a lot of them, and they only come back with minimal strength. More online items include a button mashing food eating mode that’s mostly forgettable, and an arena battle that brings players together in death.

Some may scoff at the growing price of Live Arcade games (Castle Crashers coming in at $15), but this is loaded with value. The art alone is worth the money, and when you add in the amount of fun you’ll have goofing around with friends online (or locally if you choose), then the money issue is irrelevant.

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