Ripten Review: Castle Crashers (PS3)

Before officially starting this review, let me get something out of the way: For $15, Castle Crashers on PSN is a steal! If you don’t already own it on Xbox Live…GET IT!  Ok, now let’s get started.

I never owned Castle Crashers on Xbox Live.  I was fortunate enough to have a friend and neighbor who purchased the game two years ago.  We often played co-op games together and both found Castle Crashers an instant favorite.  I took the Red Knight as he took the Green Knight and we began our adventure to save the princesses.

What’s striking about this game is what it accomplishes without cutting edge graphics, a complex story, or deep gameplay mechanics.  Castle Crashers keeps things simple and that’s a big part of it’s charm.  Immediately, I found myself reminded of two console classics: Castle Crashers may very well be the love child of Sega’s Golden Axe and Technos’ River City Ransom.

Castle Crashers begins with the abduction of the Kingdom’s four ethnically diverse princesses.  As one of the four Champions, you are tasked with the job of getting them back and that’s the extent of the story.  It’s no easy task as you’ll fight through rivers, caves, castles, ice planes, lava fields, mountains and even a UFO.  The lack of a complex story does not detract from the epic feel and enjoyable experience as you’ll be won over almost immediately.

Through this adventure characters gain experience and level up while finding treasure, melee weapons and leveling new spells.  Animal sidekicks will also aid our heroes (whilst looking adorable), but often their usefulness is limited.  Some help find health, others give extra XP, and a few even join in on the combat. (Rammy knocks down enemies!) Castle Crashers is definitely a retro RPG.

Controls are simple and intuitive.  The four face buttons are assigned to jump, item, and Heavy/ Light attacks.  Magic involves R2 in combination with the face buttons while L2 is tasked for blocking.  These controls work very well and as your journey continues, new combinations will be unlocked.  Have no doubt, this game is a sweet button masher.

Gameplay is solid and varied.  The monotony of the hack and slash style gameplay is often improved by constantly changing scenery and a few gameplay surprises.  In one segment you’ll be riding deer to escape a giant hairy monster.  Bosses are huge and varied.  Each boss has distinct attacks and requires strategy.  Among the more inventive is a giant ear of corn that inevitably changes to popcorn with each strike.

If I have one complaint about this game it’s that your attacks and your basic enemies never really change.  Sure, you may find a bow and arrow, a bomb, and learn new magic, but you’ll still be pounding away on those same two attack buttons against mainly slightly different variations of the same two enemy types.  It’s a small complaint actually and it just adds to the nostalgic retro feel.

Castle Crashers is enjoyable as a one player adventure but truly shines with four player co-op.  Multiplayer can be played locally or via PSN.  Co-op does include competition between players.  Players will compete for treasure and two additional competitive modes are included.

One is an arena mode where competitors fight waves of enemy combatants.  While fun, it’s not different enough nor as exciting as tackling different stages together.  The other marks the only major difference from the Xbox Live version…Volleyball.  Volleyball is fun but it’s no game changer.  While clearly superior to the eating challenge (all you can quaff) in the earlier release, it’s somewhat limited.  With up to four players per team it can be enjoyable, but players in the back row often find themselves off screen and unable to adjust to incoming balls.

Here’s The Rundown:

+ Excellent and addicting retro style Gameplay
+ Four Player Co-op Action
- Gameplay can get tedious
- Regular enemies need more variety

DON’T FORGET THAT RIPTEN IS HAVING A

SWAGTASTIC CASTLE CRASHERS GIVEAWAY

ALL WEEK!!