Castle Crashers

Castle Crashers features four player gameplay and a unique cartoon art style.

Castle Crashers is a side-scrolling hack-and-slash that incorporates a small number of role-playing video game elements. After selecting a character, the player then selects a starting stage through an overworld map.[6] After completing a stage, the player has the choice to revisit it or to move to another stage. The map also displays shops where the player character can buy items and weapons using coins gained from defeated foes, bosses, and chests. Arena stages can be unlocked where the player character can take on challenges to unlock additional characters such as the villager.[6]

Castle Crashers supports cooperative gameplay for up to four players, either locally or online. The game progression in terms of what stages are unlocked is defined by the player who is furthest along, although some levels require all players to have unlocked them before proceeding to them; however, each player character will gain experience points and acquire wealth, weapons, and animal orbs independently as they progress with the rest of the party.[6] In each stage, the player can use melee and combination attacks. There is a technique called Juggling in which a player jumps on top of an enemy and does certain combos to it, such as the lightweight juggle that is used by pressing XXYY on the Xbox controller (or square, square, triangle, triangle on the PlayStation) repeatedly in a relatively fast manner. Each character has a unique magical ability in order to defeat foes and a health meter that, if drained from enemy attacks, will cause the character to fall in battle. In single player mode, this ends the stage; however, in cooperative multiplayer other players may attempt to revive the downed character.[6]

Characters gain experience points by damaging foes which allow the character to level up. Level 99 is the highest level. Each level gained allows the player to allocate points towards the character's four basic combat attributes. Certain level advances also grant new combination attacks. Progress is tracked for each of the playable characters separately.[6] The character'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. The player can find animal companions for their character that may assist in battle, improve the character's attributes, or provide another special ability such as fruits from defeated foes. There is also sandwich, which turns player for 10 seconds into a beefy powerhouse, increasing attack and opening certain doors. Beating the game unlocks insane mode, where enemies and bosses are ten times stronger and insane store, where player can buy powerful but expensive weapons and animal orbs, the price tags were lowered in remastered.[6]

Each version of the game features two minigames. In Arena, the first minigame, player characters attempt to survive through several waves of enemies, or fight each other. This minigame is available on all versions. The Xbox 360, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows versions feature a minigame called "All You Can Quaff," a button-mashing contest to attempt to eat as much food as possible.[6] The PlayStation 3 version, however, features a Volleyball minigame for up to four players and four AI characters.[7]

Castle Crashers is set in a fictional medieval universe. It begins with four knights attending a party in a king's castle. During the party, a dark wizard arrives, stealing a mystical gem and capturing four princesses. The king sends the knights to retrieve the gem, rescue his daughters, and bring the wizard to justice.[6] The knights encounter several enemies along the way, including other knights, multiple encounters with a cyclops and a knight who might be cyclops' son, thieves, a giant "catfish", fencers and industrial prince, ninja pirates, demons, a necromancer, dragon, medusa from greek myth, frost king, and alien invaders. As the knights progress they succeed in rescuing the princesses, and ultimately the journey culminates in a final showdown with the evil wizard. The knights emerge victorious from the confrontation, having defeated the dark wizard, rescuing all of the king's daughters, and recovering the mystical gem.[6] The knights then ride the reclaimed gem through several empty battlefields on their trip back to the castle. At the castle the king brings one of his daughters for one of the knights to kiss, her face veiled throughout the entire game. As with previous levels, the players fight to the death to claim a kiss from the princess. However, when the winner tries to do so this time, the princess is revealed to be a clown (possibly based on Tricky the Clown from Madness Combat) that blankets the screen in the ending animation with penguins, weasels, kitties, hearts and rainbow beams.[6]

Castle Crashers has a variety of characters, like most games of its type. Castle Crashers Remastered, which includes all the official characters that have been released up to now, includes 31 playable characters in total:

- Green Knight, one of the 4 available at the start, uses poison magic.

- Red Knight, one of the 4 available at the start, uses electricity.

- Blue Knight, one of the 4 available at the start, uses ice magic.

- Orange Knight, one of the 4 available at the start, uses fire magic.

- Gray Knight, playable version of the soldier that serves the King, unlocked by beating Barbarian Boss, uses arrows and bombs.

- Barbarian, first enemy encountered in the game, who kidnaps the princesses, unlocked by beating the King`s Arena, uses axes.

- Thief, bandit who, while is the main enemy in the forest section, they appear throughout the 1st half of the game stealing whatever goodies they can, notably, they can steal dropped money and food, unlocked by beating Thieves Arena, uses arrows and knives. Couple of them appear during ending, one of them trying to steal merchant`s backpack while the other one is shooting arrows at the target, guardian the hard to get weapon.

- Fencer, sword fighter who serves Industrial Prince, unlocked by beating the game with Industrialist, utilizes buzz saw blades, often considered to be the most overpowered character in the game.

- Killer Beekeeper, the rarest enemy alongside the Brute, only 2 of them are encountered in flowery fields alongside killer bees, which they use as their "magic" attack, unlocked by beating the game with Barbarian.

- Industrialist, futuristic knight who serves Industrial Prince, unlocked by beating the game with Blue Knight, utilizes buzz saw blades, often considered to be the most overpowered character in the game.

- Alien, based on character from Alien Hominid (game also made by Behemoth), main enemies of the alien ship, notably dies in one hit as an enemy, unlocked by completing Alien Ship level (pc/ps3/remastered) or, in xbox360, beating the 1st level from Alien Hominid HD, uses laser gun.

- King, monarch player serves, he assists player during the Catfish boss fight and rescuing green princess, unlocked by King Pack DLC (xbox360) or beating Pipistrello´s Cave on insane mode (pc/ps3/remastered), uses golden knives, golden arrows and magic cloud that can heal players.

- Brute, the most elusive enemy in the game with Killer Beekeeper, this green plated warrior is encountered only twice in the game, and both times are beefy, unlocked by beating the game with Iceskimo, uses acorns and thorny vines.

- Snakey, reptile themed warrior who are encountered in Marsh, unlocked by beating the game with a Thief, uses daggers and thorny vines.

- Saracen, middle eastern looking warrior who serves as the main enemy during Desert and Sand Castle, where they challenge player to a Volleyball Game, beating them player receives a map which is required to cross the desert to marsh, unlocked by beating the game with Royal Guard, uses sand, which they can convert into a tornado.

- Royal Guard, rajput warrior look alike who`s encountered during Desert section alongside Saracen, unlocked by beating the game with Green Knight, uses arrows and bombs.

- Stove Face, black knight who makes their presence during Full Moon level, unlocked by beating the game with Gray Knight, uses arrows and knives.

- Peasant, farmer who assists player during Marsh, some them are also appear at the start of the game in barracks where they play musical instruments, unlocked by beating Peasant`s Arena, uses arrows and daggers.

- Bear, white bear with bloody bear paw marking on its forehead and the main enemy of the Tall Grass Field where one of them is also miniboss, unlocked by beating the game with Skeleton, uses wind and tornado magic, with fish acting as an arrow.

- Necromancer, Evil Wizard`s right hand man and last of the 3 bosses in the Wizard`s Castle player must defeat before facing Evil Wizard, he resurrects the dead to slow down the player during the game, unlocked by either Necromantic DLC (xbox360) or beating Industrial Castle on insane mode (pc/ps3/remastered), uses kamikaze skeletons and skeletal hand that can knock enemies in to the air.

- Conehead, black knight with pointy helmet, whos encountered during Wedding Crash and Cyclops`s Fortress, unlocked by beating Volcano Arena, uses bombs and arrows. Notably, there`s unique Conehead in tuxedo named Groom, who`s arranged to marry the green princess, serving as boss of the Wedding Crash, where uses weaponized pipe organ. He returns for a rematch with Recyclops.

- Civilian, head swap of a peasant, who also assists player during Marsh, some them also appear at the start of the game in barracks where they play musical instruments, unlocked by beating the game with Peasant, uses arrows and daggers.

- Open-faced Gray Knight, same as Gray Knight except visor lifted up, unlocked by King Pack DLC (xbox360) or defeating Catfish on insane mode (pc/ps3/remastered), uses arrows and daggers.

- Fire Demon, winged red devil, natives of Lava World, unlocked by beating the game with Orange Knight, uses fireballs.

- Skeleton, dead corpse reanimated by Necromancer, appears only in Lava World and Marsh, unlocked by beating the game with Red Knight, uses dark magic and bones as arrows. One of them also appears in the ending to celebrate players victory.

- Iceskimo, resembling stereotypical eskimo, akin to Ice climbers, Snow World natives who serve the Frost King, unlocked by beating Ice Arena, uses snowballs and icicles.

- Ninja, shinobi with skull and crossbone headband, clearly referencing comedic conflict about "Pirates vs. Ninjas", since they attack during Pirate Ship level, unlocked by beating the game with Fire Demon, uses shurikens, kunai as arrows and smoke screens.

- Cult Minion, Evil Wizard`s personal minions, essentially playable version of him, final regular enemies encountered in Wizard`s Castle, notably immune to elemental magic and arrow flinching, unlocked by Necromantic DLC (xbox360) or beating Ice Castle on insane mode (pc/ps3/remastered), uses dark magic and bones as arrows.

- Pink Knight, DLC character from Pink Knight Pack, made available at the start in remastered, uses stuffed animals, rainbow beams and rainbow arrows.

- Blacksmith, originally npc in the base game where he instructs player combat mechanics, he was made into a playable in Legend Of The Blacksmith Pack DLC, while remastered makes him available at the start, uses flaming hammers, metal arrows and frogglet Li-ceration, frog-like creature with deer-like antlers that acts as weapon storage in Blacksmith`s workshop, which also has golden compass, one of the 3 relics player requires in order to cross the sea.

- Hatty Hattington, guest character from Battleblock Theater (game also made by Behemoth), unlocked by obtaining one achievement in the Xbox Live Arcade game BattleBlock Theater on xbox360, Can't Stop Crying Pack DLC on ps3, own both Castle Crashers and BattleBlock Theater on the same Steam account on pc or buying from insane store in remastered, uses gems as both magic and arrows.

- War Machine, battering ram mounted tank with artillery cannons, 1st boss of the game, encountered during Barbarian War.

- Barbarian Boss, leader of the barbarians and the 1st major boss who guards the princesses (until the thieves snatches them, except the red princess), wields massive tower shield with extendable spikes alongside bottle of booze, which causes him to breath fire.

- Imp, rarely seen enemy that tries to steal dropped money bags during cave, forest and marsh levels.

- Trolls, black furred creatures that come in 3 variations: Mother Troll who spawns player sized regular Trolls to help her, serving as a miniboss in forest and marsh level. Then there`s the Giant Troll who gives a player a chase through abandoned mill & later as a miniboss in Wedding Crash, complete with eye beams. One of the smaller ones also appears during ending to celebrate players victory.

- Bat, small, irritating, nuisance that attacks in swarms during river and cave levels.

- Big fish, amphibious creature of the river level that favors ramming and lunging attacks.

- Catfish, literal one at that, boss of the river level, the player must protect the King's ship from its hairballs so that he can fire a cannonballs at it, stunning it temporarily, giving player a chance to damage it. Bears seem to worship it as the ending shows them mourning over its death.

- Slime, brown colored blob monster encountered only in caves that tries to facehug player to death.

- Pipistrello, giant bat that lives in cave named after it, upon being defeated, Pipistrello turns into a animal orb for player to use. Notably, Pipistrello`s tongue lick attack in insane mode can 1 hit kill the player.

- Cyclops, one eyed goliath who arrives after Groom is killed, mourning over Groom`s death, takes the princess to his fortress in Lava World, where he becomes the 2nd major boss. He ends up accidentally killing himself by running into a lava pit. Necromancer resurrects him as a "Recyclops" with Groom and the duo becomes 2nd of the 3 bosses player battles in Wizard`s Castle before facing Evil Wizard himself. It is implied that Cyclops is Grooms`s father.

- Volcano, sentient one that`s immune to all attacks, except when player enters beefy mode, which requires sandwich, miniboss of the Lava World.

- Dragon and Sock Puppet, curly horned red dragon with sock puppet, main boss of the Lava World, who guards the golden steering wheel, one of the 3 relics player requires in order to cross the ocean to the second half of the game. Dragon`s skeleton can be seen during Recyclops fight.

- Industrial Prince, cowardly noble who works for the Evil Wizard & bribes the thieves to handover orange princess. He engages player in Industrial Castle by utilizing large mech. Upon defeat, Evil Wizard takes the orange princess, betrays the prince, leaving his fate to the player. He also has golden telescope, one of the 3 relics player requires in order to get to the 2nd half of the game.

- Antlion, poisonous bubbles spitting bug in middle of a sand vortex, that tries to eat player during the desert region. One of them also appears ending to celebrate players victory.

- Scorpion, man sized arachnids player encounters in swarms during desert, thankfully they only attack if player gets in their way and die in one hit.

- Scarab, desert only enemy, large beetle that "swims" in the sand and know some form of martial arts. They sunk into sand upon defeat while holding white flag.

- Alien Ship, 2 of them are fought in row as minibosses right before player is abducted by an alien mothership, they spawn endlessly Aliens and drop debris on the player.

- Corn Boss, aggressive corn and the main boss of the Marsh, player needs to defeat it in order for the Peasant to retrieve the horn required to open the Flooded Temple. Notably, every time Corn gets hit, it drops popcorn that heals the player.

- Fish Man, spear wielding enemies of the Flooded Temple that spit bubbles. Upon defeat, they turn into a fish fillet.

- Medusa, iconic gorgon monster from Greek mythology and the main of boss of the Flooded Temple, she turns player into stone with her stare and spawns baby snakes from her hair which player can knock back at her, damaging her. Snakeys and Fish Men are implied to worship her, despite the fact she has turn some of them to stone.

- Frost King, ruler of the Snow World and 3rd major boss who holds the blue princess as a hostage in Ice Castle. His entire tactic involves teleporting, summoning ice waves and dropping icicles.

- Painter, toolbox headed, overall wearing painter who talks with a text-to-speech voice called "Boing", which is only accessible on Mac OS X computers and the 1st of the 3 bosses player faces off in Wizard`s Castle before taking on Evil Wizard. He attacks by painting minions, less-refined, non-shaded style similar to many early 2000's animations, which are concept sketches by Tom Fulp. The paintings in his room seem to imply that the orange princess was killed.

- Evil Wizard, the main antagonist and final boss of the game fought in his castle, who kickstarts the game by stealing magical crystal from the King. His entire 6 phase battle puts player`s skills to the test, from barrier that makes him immune to certain attacks to a giant spider form that spawns Cult Minions. Upon defeat, he drops powerful demon sword, which player only has a few seconds to grab before the platform gets destroyed under their feet.

Art for the game began with simplistic and crude drawings as reference for the game's lead artist, Dan Paladin.

Castle Crashers was first revealed on July 14, 2005 at the San Diego Comic-Con International under the working title Ye Olde Side-Scroller;[8][9] however, the game did not receive its title until 2006 Comic-Con, when it was announced for Xbox Live Arcade.[10] Though the original Comic-Con 2005 demo was shown running on a Nintendo GameCube, no mention has been made of a release on a Nintendo-based platform.[8] It was released for the Xbox 360 on August 27, 2008.[1] On July 23, 2009 The Behemoth announced that Castle Crashers would be coming to the PlayStation Network.[11][12] The game was released on the PlayStation 3 in North America on August 31, 2010, and in Europe on November 3, 2010.[1] A Microsoft Windows version exclusive to Steam was announced on August 16, 2012.[2]

The game's art style was developed by The Behemoth's Lead Artist Dan Paladin. As the team created new locales and characters, placeholder art was used as a template for look, size and scale of the final art. Paladin drew multiple partial renditions of a game asset, then selected one for finalization.[13] Although Paladin was the primary source for much of the art, programmer Tom Fulp assisted with the game's art, creating some of the minion creatures for boss characters.[14] Paladin cited River City Ransom as his primary inspiration for the game's art style, noting the character's expressions when damaged as a particular point of influence.[14] Fulp added that several beat 'em ups from the 1980s and 90s influenced the game, such as Guardian Heroes, Final Fight, Golden Axe and Double Dragon.[15] Much of the music for the game was created by Newgrounds users, with The Behemoth contracting over twenty individuals for their tracks.[14] Paladin himself scored two of the tracks in the game.[14] The soundtrack was made available for free on September 1, 2008 via the Newgrounds website.[16]

Castle Crashers was well received on each platform. Metacritic reports aggregate scores of 82/100 on the Xbox 360 and 85/100 for the PlayStation 3.[25][24] It has been a commercial success, with the Xbox 360 version selling over two million copies on the Xbox 360 alone as of year-end 2010.[33] 2011's totals were over 2.6 million on Xbox Live Arcade alone.[34] The PlayStation 3 version has also done well, moving over 181,000 in 2010.[35] IGN editor Cam Shea ranked it third on his top 10 list of Xbox Live Arcade games. He praised it for being both a call-back to a much-loved genre and a great piece of game design.[36] Additionally in a September 2010 ranking, IGN listed Castle Crashers fifth in their top twenty-five Xbox Live Arcade titles of all time.[37] It was voted 2008 Best Game of the Year at the Xbox Live Arcade Awards.[38] Castle Crashers was also Xbox Live Arcade's best-selling title of 2008.[39] Gaming Target's staff named the game as one of their "40 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2008."[40] By August 2019, ahead of release of the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch version, the Behemoth reported that Castle Crashers had sold more than 20 million copies.[41]

Reviewers universally praised the unique art style of Castle Crashers. GameSpot's Don Francis noted that the "crisp art design really makes the game shine."[30] 1UP.com's Andrew Hayward noted that the game's hand-drawn characters, effects, and scenery make the game "shine."[28] Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer stated the game's art was more detailed and polished than The Behemoth's previous title, Alien Hominid.[29] The game's humor was generally lauded by reviewers. Writing for Gaming Target, Troy Matsumiya stated the game was "bigger and funnier" than Alien Hominid.[42] Francis and IGN's Hilary Goldstein also praised the game's humor.[30][32] The gameplay also received high marks from reviewers. GameTrailers' staff stated that the game has "a deceptive simplicity that sucks you right in."[31] Goldstein praised the simplistic gameplay, and said the game was a modern throwback to classic beat 'em ups. He additionally noted the high replay value, and cited the game's four player multiplayer and number of unlockables as reasons to continually play the game.[32]

Several reviewers expressed early frustration in regards to multiplayer connection issues, however these issues were resolved in a later title update to the game.[30] Francis stated that the connection issues "handicap the multiplayer experience."[30] "Despite trying all day and night on launch day, we were only able to get a couple of two-player games going for a couple of levels before the connections were lost" stated Whitehead.[29] Hayward also reported slight connectivity issues in the PlayStation 3 version.[43] The PlayStation 3 version of the game also received criticism from GameSpot's Carolyn Petit for its additional Volleyball game mode, who described it simply as "lousy."[44]

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