Go grab it here! So awesome that those guys put it up free for everyone.
Listening to those tracks makes me want to play Castle Crashers some more. Still waiting for that patch though…
Someone asked me the other day about what games I was playing lately. I rattled off a list, but I completely forgot about Spore.
Spore. The game that many gamers (including myself) have been looking forward to for years. I remember watching the 2005 GDC video that came out which was the first public view of Spore. Everyone was amazed. You could start as a cell and evolve all the way to a space faring civilization. Plus, you could customize just about every facet of your creature along the way. Pretty inspiring stuff.
More videos of Spore surfaced every year and every year the project was delayed. After watching a recent TV special on the Discovery channel, I learned that Maxis worked on Spore for five years. Many games I play that get 2-3 years of love are usually awesome, so imagine how excited I was when I learned they put five total years of work into Spore. Plus, Will Wright is at the top of the industry when it comes to game design. The guy who gave us SimCity and The Sims can do wrong (hell, I liked SimFarm and SimEarth as well).
A friend of mine who does contract art work for various studios sends me links to gametrailers.com every now and then. He’s big into old-school and arcade games and he was super excited about Castle Crashers (CC). I watched the video and wasn’t initially impressed; I thought it looked okay but there was so much stuff going on it seemed too chaotic to play. However, in the video they mentioned CC had four player co-op. I’m a sucker for co-op so I decided to give it a shot.
As it turns out, CC is pretty awesome. In fact, one question I get asked often is “which arcade game should I get, CC or Braid?” I always say CC just out of personal preference. I prefer action games over puzzle games. If I had to compare them, I’d say while CC isn’t terribly innovative, it blends a lot of “old school” mechanics into a really well done package. The overall experience was more fun and memorable for me than Braid.
Enough of the Braid comparisons, get both. CC is awesome for a whole slew of reasons. Four player co-op rocks. The art style is awesome. The scripting is incredible (the best I’ve seen in an XBLA game). The game play is addicting and rewarding. Leveling up characters and finding new items is always welcome. The music and sounds are great.