BattleBlock Theater
Publisher: Microsoft Developer: The Behemoth Platform: Xbox 360 Release: 2013 Players: 1-2 (Story), 1-4 (Arena) Genre: 2D Platformer / Puzzle Rating: 8.8 / 10.0: Fantastic
Above are two players "working together".
I'm not a huge fan of brawler games, but Castle Crashers ended up becoming my favorite original title on Xbox Live Arcade. When I found out that The Behemoth, the indie developer behind that magnificent built-for-co-op adventure, had made a platformer, I was very excited. They had managed to make me love a game from a genre I didn't necessarily enjoy-- So what happens when they make my all-time favorite type of game? You get a platformer jam-packed with content and clever puzzles that is worthy of being considered the funniest game ever made.
You'll have a smile on your face from the second the opening cinematic begins, as nearly all of the cut-scenes are shown in stick-puppet style. It all begins with a group of friends onboard the S.S. Friend Ship. They are led by Hatty Hattington, cube-headed, top hat wearing best friend to one and all. A sudden storm shakes the ship, and causes it to crash into a mysterious island. This scene is made all the more hilarious by the hilarious exaggerated narration that includes poor mimicry and onomatopoeia. If you wish, the narrator will accompany your journey with his ridiculous commentary. I instantly went to the settings to crank him up to "Blabbermouth" so I could hear a wisecrack after whatever I did. His lines range from a dramatic exclamation of "Oh my goodness gracious!" to the condescending "That was ... something.", among many more. He's also a random riot during the cut scenes, with one of my all time favorite lines in gaming history being "... or will the sounds of your hilarious death screams be drowned out by the sounds of your own hilarious death screams?", though his over the top metaphors and cut-off profanities also steal the show. The writers of this game are as brilliantly stupid (and stupidly brilliant) as Paper Mario's US localization team, an impressive feat in my opinion.
After platforming your way through a few bloodstained, feline-infested rooms of a run-down building, you come across Hatty, who is having a top hat forced onto his head by cats. This classy headwear appears to possess Hatty, who proceeds to imprison you and the rest of your pals. As it turns out, this place is a prison / theater run by cats, where the captives are forced to complete deadly obstacle courses devised by Hatty for the amusement of the fiendish felines.
Now to get onto the gameplay; BattleBlock Theater borrows many elements from the PDA Games minigame from Alien Hominid, the developer's Metal Slug-inspired debut. Both are puzzle-platformers that require you to collect gems to open the stage exits, and also both have multi-jumping and crouching. The PDA Games theme will occasionally play in the background as a pleasant nod to the minigame. In order to unlock the exit to a stage, you must collect at least three of the handful of gems hidden in each stage. Once you've won, you'll receive a grade based on the number of gems you collected, how many times you died, and your time. If you wish to receive an A++ grade and a hilarious comment from the announcer, you must collect five to seven of the gems (this varies by level), the hidden golden ball of yarn, get an excellent time, and die as little as possible. Doing this earns you an extra two gems, and pulling off a perfect ranking is a huge challenge later in the game. The stage design is wonderfully clever, sprinkling clever death traps, light puzzles, and hidden passages everywhere.
Gems and yearn can be redeemed at the gift shop located in each chapter. The gems are used to free prisoners from vending machines (hence why the game refers to the prisoners as "souvenirs") allowing you to play as them. The characters all play the same, but their heads are all quite unique, and you're likely to find a head you like. You can exchange five balls of yarn for a new weapon at the black market on the top floor of the gift shop. Near this shop are a pair of trading posts where you and your fellow players can exchange heads, gems, and yarn. If you're feeling generous, you can allow the other player to give up nothing in return for your offer. Your customizable prisoner has a diverse moveset-- you can double-jump, press B to use your weapon or punch when at close range, press X while running to perform a slide that can knock back objects like balls and grenades, and many other tactics. Once you get the hang of things, this game has an incredibly smooth flow. It's hard to explain, the platforming just feels so natural when you're performing well. Completing the last few chapters of the game will require mastery of these skills (especially double-jumping and wall-jumping) and a solid understanding of how how the many different blocks that make up the levels function, hence the title.
Battleblock Theater is a blast solo, but I adore this game's co-op mode. I had as much fun with one friend than I did with three in Castle Crashers. When a buddy tags along, the level layouts are modified to make teamwork necessary. You'll be tossing your partner across pits of spikes and boosting them up to high ledges, hoping they won't leave you for dead rather holding RT to pull you up. If the former occurs, than you can use your weapon to get even when you respawn at your last checkpoint. Believe me when I say that even the best of friends will likely kill each other at least a few times out of spite and dozens of times by accident. You even receive an achievement worth five Gamerscore for killing your partner 50 times!
There's far more to this game than the already fun story mode; Castle Crasher's Arena mode was a blast to play with buddies, but there wasn't much variety. There are tons of multiplayer modes to enjoy in this title's Arena. My favorite of these include Muckle, a 2D deathmatch without the firearms; Capture the Horse, a take on CTF in which you must ride the opposing team's cube with legs that is apparently a horse to your side for map; and Color the World, a mode that has you running around to paint as much of the area as possible with your team's color (It feels a lot like a 2D version of Splatoon's Turf War mode. Given that this game was released first, I can only assume that someone at Nintendo has been playing their share of indie platformers...). This game also has one of my favorite level design modes of all time. As the announcer says in the hysterical trailer, "If you don't like our stuff, shut, up, do better!" The game really means this, as you are given tons of customization options for your stages. You can select the dimensions and color scheme, and you're not even limited to making standard levels. You can make your own multiplayer maps for any of the modes. I usually choose to go with the original collect-the-gems format (or in this case, strawberries). Your levels can be sorted into playlists, so you can put all your stages of a certain theme together. You are also able to upload your levels to Furbottom's Features, where you can play and rate tons of other user-generated stages and playlists that can also be enjoyed with a partner. As for the main adventure, I strongly recommend bringing a friend.
One quibble I have is that some of the songs in the game's randomized soundtrack can get annoying and dull after repetition, while most are catchy.T his game's main issue is how frustrating many levels are, especially when under the pressure of a time limit; my controller managed to emerge unscathed several times the game's final act caused me to channel my rage towards it, but others may not have been so lucky. Additionally c ompletionists will have as much difficulty getting an A++ grade on every stage as getting every gem in the first Crash Bandicoot -- anyone how has attempted the latter will be turned off by this. There are many instances where you must take you time, but doing so will prevent you from earning the time stamp on your report card, as well as your perfect score. To complicate things further, you'll technically need to perfect the game both alone and cooperatively on Normal mode and Insane mode. This brings me to my final complaint: There's no endgame bonus. In Castle Crashers, those who slayed the evil wizard were rewarded with Insane mode. Since both difficulties are unlocked from the start in this game, your only motivation for finishing this difficult quest, aside from satisfaction, is to see the both depressing and hilarious conclusion. Overall, there's little reason not to play BattleBlock Theater if you enjoyed The Behemoth's previous works. The company's signature charming art style, mixture of dark and crude humor, and co-op fun are all present. There's much to enjoy whether you're solo or not, but prepare to throw your controller a few times if no friend is present.
This game is also available on Xbox One and PC (via Steam)
The System Difference: While I haven't played the Steam edition of Battleblock Theater, its incredibly funny trailers imply that its console counterpart is inferior. PC users are able to switch between two weapons and fight the new cat guard enemies, but for those who don't have a computer that can handle "1,000,000,00p resolution, "super texture technolgy that the human eye can't even see", and "framerates of up 21,000 frames per millisecond" (according to the trailer), the 360 version is just fine. Unfortunately for PS3 owners, BBT has not had an improved rerelease on the PlayStation Network store as Castle Crashers did.
ESRB: T Content: Blood, Crude Humor, and Violence Price: $14.99 (Download)
