Castle Crashers is a multiplayer, roleplay and action-adventure video game developed by The Behemoth. It’s a 2D game that was released in 2008, originally on Xbox 360. Later on, it’s available to play on the Xbox One, Ps4, and the Nintendo Switch. It has 31 playable characters and over 40 weapons to unlock. I feel that Castle Crashers is a good intro game for people who haven’t played many video games before. It’s a good multiplayer game and it helps to build a good relationship with your teammates throughout your journey. 

In the game, you can choose between four main knight characters to play as: Blue Knight, Red Knight, Green Knight, and Orange Knight. You can also play as some side characters such as Pink Knight. Each character has a different attack and elemental power. Blue Knight’s element is ice, Red Knight’s is electricity, Green’s is poison and Orange Knight’s is fire. Pink Knight doesn’t have an element but he has the power to shoot rainbows and throw gummy bears at his opponents. 

Throughout the game, you come across smaller opponents called minions. There’s a wide variety of them, and whichever one you fight against will depend on the map you’re playing on. Like most role-playing games (RPG), you have a final boss at the end of each level you play.. Often times when you’re going against the boss, your teammate may go unconscious due to hits from the bosses minions or the boss itself. You can also carry around potions to replenish your character’s health.

In the game, you can acquire things called animal orbs. Each animal has different talents that can help you on your quest. For example, one will collect food for you which can replenish your health, another will help you jump higher. There are 29 to find and choose from. The animal orbs that you’ve unlocked stay in a barn that’s located at the beginning of the map so you can go to the barn and pick which one you want to accompany you.

I asked two people to give their opinions on the game. Senior Josh Pesmen said, “I first got the game in 2017, my friend had recommended it to me.” Pesmen loves Castle Crashers and thinks that this game is applicable for all ages because of its cute art style but also a decent amount of violence. Josh’s favorite character is the Blacksmith, who is another side character you can play as. He wears a purple helmet with antlers on the top. He doesn’t have an elemental magic power besides his magic projectile, “Flaming Hammer” which is the only move that has an elemental power, fire. Josh would highly recommend this game to anyone who hasn’t played. 

The second person I asked was Zander Christoff, a former student at Boulder High. He said he found out about Castle Crashers through the Xbox Live market in 2010. “I enjoyed it because the art style was cute, the animation was mesmerizing, the writing and humor was exactly my style at the time and it was just straight-up fun to beat up bad guys as a magic knight with my friends.” Zander thinks that Castle Crashers is targeted towards children, pre-teens and internet savvy teenagers from 2008. “It has a lot of toilet humor and goofy stuff that kids could definitely enjoy and it’s easy enough for a 10-year-old to pick up and fall in love with.” Zanders’ favorite character is the Pink Knight because he shoots rainbows and is, “straight up a cutie.” “I would absolutely recommend this game, it’s one of the most charming arcade-style games to just lose yourself in with your friends out there.”

Castle Crashers is a game that could be a hit or miss with some people, it is targeted more towards younger boys, but overall it is a fun game for anyone who’s interested in playing.