Castle Crashers review

In response to JDW's post about VFH lacking throughout 2008, I would like to say that I am going to try my hardest to post up as many reviews as I can, and maybe I'll throw in a mystery post every once in awhile, you know, mix it up a little. Anyway, without further ado, I would like to give VFH's first post of 2009: the Castle Crashers review.

Story
Lulz, there is one, but it's on the most basic level: There's four princesses that have been stolen from the kingdom, save them. Honestly, that's about it. The adventure is fun fun fun though. The creators at The Behemoth have amazing humor, and no matter who you are, you have to laugh at least one moment in the game. And if you like bathroom humor, then your going to have a field day with this one. You also fight tons of crazy bosses, such as: A gigantic fuzz-human thing that spawns smaller fuzz-children from its fuzziness, a dragon that, for whatever reason, has a sock puppet on one of its arms, and lets not forget a crazy painter with a tool box for a head, who paints the most random shit you will ever see. But yea, cool bosses. Story, not so much.

Gameplay
Amazing. I don't even know where to start. This game has an unbelievable amount of content in it, honestly, the guys over at The Behemoth really outdid themselves this time. Castle Crashers is your basic, run-of-the-mill hack and slash. But there's also so many extra's that the game offers. It provides 22 unlockable characters, over 50 weapons to find, and an amazing number of pets to join you in your adventure. When you level up, you gain 2 skill point which you then use to level up the skill of your choice: power (increases weapon damage), magic (raises magic attack/allows different spell to be learned), defense (raises the amount of health you have), or agility (increases movement speed/how quickly arrows are shot). Each of which get equally awesome in there own individual ways.

The part of the game that really gets me is the co-op battle system. At first, you and your buddy are on the same team together, but it soon changes. Whenever you rescue on of the princesses, you and your allies fight each other. Why? To see who gets to kiss the princess of course! The first battle is somewhat boring, but by the time you rescue the last princess, you and your friend(s) are having full out, super amazing, awesome epic battles of epicness! Seriously, it's that cool. And you never get a better feeling then chopping off your friends head, and then kissing the girl of your dreams... NEVER!

Graphics
For being hand drawn, they're actually pretty good. They have this weird, psychotic child-like essence to them, but I like it. The backgrounds can get pretty out of hand, especially in the opening level when you see a wave of soldiers being crushed by a ram-shaped tank. Other then that, there's really not much to this game graphically, but I can say that Castle Crashers is far from an eye sore.

Sound
The walking sound and the swords clashing is about the only thing you really get. No voice overs, aside from the crazy painter dude described earlier. And, although you have to read it, the game has one of the greatest quotes ever "We only accept cold cash, lol."... I'm not going to go out of my way explaining it, but just trust me, with the situation that is implied, it will make you chuckle.

Overview
Good, very good, amazing, spectacular, unbelievable. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that Castle Crashers is a game that will keep you entertained for days. Although the game is only six hours or so long, you will play it over and over again trying to unlock all the characters, find all the weapons, and discover all the animals. If your not into hack and slash games, I would still suggest at least trying this one, who knows, maybe you'll like it. If you love hack and slashes, this game is a must have for you. If you have $15, an Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, what have you got to lose? NOTHING! Honestly, for the game's price, it can't be beaten.

Overall Score: 9.5/10