So much epic, so little a price.
These two games both had multiplayer features, but unlike the realms of online, you could only play them locally, on the same sofa, on the same console. If you had more than four friends, then you had loser out rules. But one thing remained true. It never got boring. EVER! Literally from the moment you get the remote to the moment you've blown up your mate for the 90 baziliionth and 3/4 time and seen that same look of frustrated agony on their face, you had fun.
Then along came the online realm and is it just me or has this four player world been left behind? Most people have been saying because of the graphics quality dip or the frame rate getting too low, but that can't be right as the N64 pulled the same trick and it never stopped being so intensley fun. In fact most people would want more screen to dominate the screen. However, as I see it, out of laziness publishers now refuse to put in 4 player one screen games, instead favouring the world of LAN play with multiple tvs and modem connections and do you see why gaming has become quite berdy now? Literraly, the number of adjustments you have to make to play gears of war with 4 people in the same room is ridiculous. You have to get a big plug extender, you have to get the WEP key for your modem, so you can get the 360 to wirelessly connect to the net and then, you have to sync the two consoles and only then can you finally get going. You need to know more than an MI5 security agent in order just to turn a console on these days.
Is it just me or does anyone else miss the times when four people could sit on a couch and just play? Well aparantly The Behomoth does, as they have bestowed unto the world castle crashers. This 4 player romp, whilst having the option of being played over the internet, is best played in one mode, 4 buttocks in same room mode. And there are no whinges from the people who say OOH GRAPHICS MAKES A GAME or as I like to call them technical masturbation crowd, as castle crashers graphics are toony to begin with, violent to continue with and clear all the way through, even when 4 controllers are in full swing.
SO with that hicup out the way, what is castle crashers? Essentially it's a side scrolling slice 'em up, which has hordes of enemies running at all angles toward your sorry ass self. The combat, though it can get crowded from numbers, is always fun and requires alot of team work in the latter levels (or epic mode). The 4 player part stems from the jokes you'll witness and moments this game beautifully provides and you will talk about, about how you struggled with this boss, overcame that challenge, beat that guy, saved your mate there. Every series of levels has this in it. You never once leave a commrade behind and after an intense day of playing you are satisfied to and incredible boss fight to the death and when finally overcome, the four of you cheer and do it all again next weekend. The game also features 4 princesses which gives way to four duel modes, where the 4 of you fight to the death at the end of a level for the right to stick your manly tounge down her effeminate throat. And this is no less epic than any part of the game.
As a four player game then, this captures the times of old. The times when you would work as a team to take down the allmighty winner of mario kart. The times when you would fight to the death, for that one moment of victory and to see that frustration on ones face, the physical that microphones and the internet remove. But what about as a one player game?
Well it can be described as a very challenging and at times impossible feat to complete. You need at least a level 40 character to stand a chance against the last boss. And it loses some of it's charm from the 4 player madness I just orgasmed over. Essentially, it's good, but it's far from brilliant, nothing like Call of Duty 4 say. This game as one player only for challenge.
So what does all this mean? Put simply, this game is made for those couch moments we have lost. The moments I talked about at the beginning of this. It is made so to have fun with a group and that is it's core gameplay mechanic. I've had alot of fun with this, but as a single player, there is no point. And online? Well I'd avoid it. If you have the man power and time, get this game.
Who knows? Maybe one day we can remember the laughs we had, the fun and the smiles. Or we could just keep to the mic.