4th Anniversary Post

It's Told You So Review's 4th Birthday!

I'm publishing this post in celebration of my blog's fourth, albeit belated anniversary! Since the day I created this blog, I've published 98 posts, received 19,326 pageviews, received 117 comments (my replies among them), and been followed by 11 people (my two Google accounts included)! This wasn't my greatest year, but I did add quite a few new features. Be sure to keep commenting and checking out my blog, and maybe become a follower! Thanks!

Minecraft: Xbox One Edition Micro Review

Minecraft: Xbox One Edition

Publisher: Microsoft Developer: Mojang / 4J Studios Platform: Microsoft Xbox One Release: 2014 Genre: Sandbox / Adventure Rating: 9.3 \ 10.0: Excellent

NOTICE: There are times when I'll own multiple editions of a game, but won't have enough to say to justify making another full review. It is for this reason that I've decided to write bite-sized micro reviews that are divided into to two segments: The first is a brief summary recalling the game's past, and the second is a small review that informs anyone that owns another version of the game whether it's worth purchasing again. I hope that you enjoy my first ever micro review!

Summary: Minecraft has come a long way since its full release in late 2011. The game has went on to sell millions of units across computers, mobile devices, and consoles, setting sales records on most of its platforms; the Xbox 360 Edition apparently turned a profit within two hours! Speaking of Minecraft on consoles, the game has since been ported to all current PlayStation systems and eight-generation consoles, including the Wii U! The is a huge deal considering that the Wii U Edition was released after developer Mojang was bought out by Microsoft, which goes to Nintendo fans that the folks at the major computer manufacturer are more flexible than they may seem; they're more than just the evil company that bought out Nintendo's beloved second-party Rareware and reduced them to developing Kinect titles. If you're like me and you must own Minecraft on every system possible, you may be wondering: "Should I get the eight-gen version of Minecraft if I already have it on my 360 or PS3?" Read on to find out! 

Review: There's no question that Minecraft is best enjoyed on a Mac or PC if replay value is important to you, but those seeking an accessible drop in-drop out cooperative experience have had the console editions to fall back on. Minecraft: Xbox One Edition is largely identical to its seventh-generation counterpart, but with several minor additions, the most prominent being "infinite" worlds (if you want to make a smaller world, you can disable this feature). The game now supports 1080p displays, but given the game's pixelated / voxelated visual style, this doesn't make much of a difference graphically. You will notice, however, that the load and save times have been dramatically decreased. Saving your game was once a half-minute long annoyance to those playing with you, but in the new-gen version of the game, the amount of time it takes to save your world ranges from a few seconds to the blink of an eye. If you already own Minecraft on a seventh-generation console, I recommend buying it again on the same system family. This way, you can upload your favorite worlds from your Xbox 360 or PS3 to your new system. You can also use any DLC you've purchased on both consoles. However, the PS and Xbox versions each have extra content based on the consoles' exclusive games respectively, so I'll leave the choice up to you. So...

Is it worth it?
If you love Minecraft as much as I do, you'll want it on every platform you can play it on. None of the fun or features present in the older version have been omitted, and $20 is little to ask for such a wonderful experience. If you still haven't played Minecraft, then now's a great time to start!

Also available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita

ESRB: E 10+ Content: Fantasy Violence Price: $19.99 (Retail / Download)

BattleBlock Theater Review

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)

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Review

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Sora / Namco Bandai Platform: Wii U Release: 2014 Players: 1-8 (Local), 1-4 (Online) Genre: 2D Fighting / 2D Platformer Rating: 9.6 / 10.0: Masterful


From the moment Nintendo 64 owners heard Xander Mobus bellow the words "Super... smaaaaash brotherrrrrsss!" upon booting up the game of the same name, they knew they were in for something great. A little over 15 years and a handful of spectacular sequels later, along has come what is arguably one of the greatest video games ever released. While Super Smash Bros.' 3DS iteration was one of the best reasons to own the handheld, but due to it's lack of features previously present in the series such as an animated intro, Tourney mode, Events, and a stage builder, it felt like a glimpse of what was to come with the upcoming Wii U release. The 3DS game kept Smash fanatics busy for the following month, but they all knew that this was the true game they were waiting for that was nearly seven years in the making. Was it all worth the wait? When I popped this disk into my Wii U and was treated to a beautiful opening cut scene, that question became rhetorical.

Something you will notice fairly quickly is that pretty much everything the 3DS edition lacked from previous SSB games has returned, upping the replay value by a fair amount. If you were disappointed by the missing modes in the handheld game (if you played it), than you can rejoice at the return of most aforementioned exclusions. Also, nametags. Don't tell me giving yourself an immature name that results in groans from your pals isn't fun. While these are meaningful features, you'll be spending most of your time with the chaotic local brawls. While the 3DS version had stages based more on handheld titles, the battlegrounds here are console game-oriented, or replace stages based on the same series. Rather than Reset Bomb Fortress (Kid Icarus), there's Palutena's Temple. Instead of Saffron City (Pokémon), there's Kalos Pokémon League.

If you owned the 3DS game, you will notice fairly quickly that there is no Smash Run mode. While this was a fun and addictive addition, it has been substituted here by Smash Tour. This is a Mario Party-style game in which you travel roll a dice (sort of) and travel around the board of your choice as your Mii, collecting stat boosts, items, and fighters as you go. When two players collide, a battle is initiated. Here, you'll use the fighters you've acquired, making this mode a great way to hone your skills with a character without doing training mode. The winner of the fight receives a generous reward. When there are no turns left, a stock battle occurs in which the last person with fighters remaining is the victor.

As you play through the single player modes, you'll earn tickets. These can be used to play the Crazy Orders and Special Orders modes. In these games, you're given a time limit to face fighters and earn coins, custom moves, stat badges, Mii Fighter clothing, and other goodies. When you think you're ready or when time is up, you can face either Master Hand or Crazy Hand (this depends on which variant of the mode you are playing) to make the loot yours-- if you win, of course.

SSB Wii U is the flagship title for Nintendo's new Amiibo figurines, the company's take on toys-come-to-life gaming popularized by Skylanders and Disney Infinity games. When you place a new Nintendo character toy onto the Wii U Gamepad, you will be asked the customize it. Choose its outfit's color scheme, give it a name, then ... feed it equipment. These aren't limited to three stat badges like normal custom fighters-- instead, they gobble up (off screen) any number of badges. You could just go ahead and stuff your Amiibo with all your equipment, or balance out its stats until you are satisfied. You can then proceed to place to level up your FP (Figure Player) by battling it, all the way 'till it gets to level 50. The higher its level, the more skilled it becomes. The figure can go from being destroyed by you to become the destroyer in just a few hours of dedicated training . It can even adapt to your moveset and develop its own habits. It's always fun to play a one-on-one match teaching your Amiibo a specific tactic. Amiibo support has since been added to the  3DS entry, but the figurines are compatible only with the New 3DS mode unless you purchase an adapter. Additionally, DLC has been added to Smash for the first time. Extra fighters, stages, and Mii Fighter outfits are available, and Nintendo is listening to the fans. There are online ballots for potential DLC characters (they must be video game characters, so sorry, Dragonball fans, but it will be over 9,000 years before Nintendo listens to your cries of "Goku for Smash!"), and I was pleasantly surprised to see stage ideas from the magazine Game Informer make their way into game. However, I am annoyed by how overpowered some of the DLC characters are -- Ryu and Mewtoo specifically. I guess you can say Smash, in away, has become a pay-to-win game (I'm joking of course).

While the series' previous console iterartion had tons of controller options, this game has even more! You can use a sideways Wii Remote, a Wii Remote and Nunchuck combo (my personal favorite), the Wii U GamePad, a Wii Classic Controller, a Wii U Pro Controller and diehard fans of Melee can now get their hands on the GameCube controller adapter! I haven't yet mentioned the marvels that are this game's graphics and soundtrack. While Super Smash Bros. Brawl (which it is your duty as a gamer to play) opted for a dark and gritty visual style, SSB4 return to Melee's vibrant and colorful aesthetic, making this a treat for the eyes. Additionally, I was blown away by the size of this game's 490 track musical score, a number that may increase. This dwarfs Brawl's already astounding 267 songs as well the 3DS version's still-impressive 127. However, I can't notice a few tweaks to the soundtrack from the other addition involving a few of my favorite songs. I don't really mind that the beautiful guitar remix of the Gerudo Valley theme was replaced by the original composition. I do mind that the awesome horn and electric guitar version of the Punch Out! Circuit theme from the series' Wii reboot was substituted by a generic rearrangement that can't even hold a candle to the original chiptune. My final complaint is that the issues with online play in the handheld game have not been addressed. There's just as much lag and games that are forcibly ended, possibly more so than in the other version. Overall, most of the issues I faced were only nitpicks and I still didn't have many of those. If you own a Wii U, than you absolutely must own this game. This is a masterpiece that any fan of Nintendo must play.

Ups
Years of replay value
8-Player Smash
Massive roster
Amiibo training is great fun
Missing features return
Online character ballot
Tons of controller options

Downs
Overpowered DLC characters
Smash Run substituted
Online connectivity as bad as ever

ESRB: E 10+ Content: Cartoon Mischief, Cartoon Violence, and Mild Suggestive Themes Price: $59.99 (Retail / Download)

Masterpiece Collection

MASTERPIECE COLLECTION

There are good games, then there are great games, then there are games that you have no excuse but a tight budget not to own. Here is a list of links to every review with a score of 9.5 or higher. If I ever play a game of such quality, I will almost certainly review it.

New Super Mario Bros. - An amazing reboot of Mario side-scrollers that reminds us why we still love the portly plumber - http://toldyousovideogamereviews.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-super-mario-bros-ds-review.html\

Super Mario Galaxy - A beautiful, innovative, and straight up magnificent platformer deserving of its astounding 97.64% average score and number one spot overall on GameRankings - http://toldyousovideogamereviews.blogspot.com/2012/02/super-mario-galaxy-review.html

Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Argue about the  SSB's right to be considered a fighter, but you can't deny that it's a loving tribute to Nintendo's history that's packed with months worth of content that's perfect for having loads of multiplayer fun at the expense of your friendships - http://toldyousovideogamereviews.blogspot.com/2012/03/super-smash-bros-brawl-review.html

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Despite having an inferior plot, this game is superior to its already amazing predecessor in nearly every way, and it's my favorite game of all time - http://toldyousovideogamereviews.blogspot.com/2012/03/super-mario-galaxy-2-review.html



Super Scribblenauts - A brilliant and challenging puzzle game that allows you to create anything (even with adjectives!) and solve everything - http://toldyousovideogamereviews.blogspot.com/2012/03/superscribblenauts-publisher-warner.html

Super Mario 3D Land - A wonderful blend of nostalgia, innovation, and the signature charm of the gaming's biggest franchise - http://toldyousovideogamereviews.blogspot.com/2012/03/super-mario-3d-land-review.html

New Super Mario Bros. Wii - A marvelous 2D platformer that's a blast whether you play alone or engage in chaotic co-op with up to three friends - http://toldyousovideogamereviews.blogspot.com/2012/05/new-super-mario-bros-wii-review.html

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga - An incredibly fun and loyal brick-ification of the beloved sci-fi film franchise that's sprinkled with silliness and has loads of replay value - http://toldyousovideogamereviews.blogspot.com/2012/06/lego-star-wars-complete-saga-review.html

Minecraft - A sandbox sensation which allows you to assemble whatever structure you please or survive in a massive land of pixelated cubes -  http://toldyousovideogamereviews.blogspot.com/2013/01/minecraft-review.html

Super Mario 3D World - Bring some buddies along and play through beautiful and bursting with fun high-def levels with some fun new power ups - http://toldyousovideogamereviews.blogspot.com/2013/12/super-mario-3d-world-review.html

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - The dozens of new additions, both tiny and, major, make the long wait for this sequel entirely worth it. This will be a go-to party game for years to come - http://toldyousovideogamereviews.blogspot.com/2015/10/super-smash-bros-for-wii-u-review.html

Told You So Scoring System

Told So Scoring System

I already made a list like this on my site's sidebar, but here is a much more descriptive version of my review system.

I rate the games I review on a scale of 0.1 to 10.0. Each score range has a corresponding rank. Here is a list of the scores and their ranks, along with a description to go along with them.

SCORE -- RANK
0.1-0.9 --- Beyond Bad

This game is so bad, it is literally worse than bad. Nothing is good about this game, nor is there anything promising about it. A game of such poor quality is likely near-unplayable due to countless bugs and a frustrating control scheme.

1.0-3.9 --- Awful

Just horrible. The game may have potential, but it is impossible to overlook how unpleasant it is to play.

4.0-4.9 --- Bad

This game may have a couple fun moments, but that's where the good things end. It's just too bland and unenjoyable.

5.0-5.9 --- Mediocre

This is a subpar game. It definitely has some promise, but there's about an equal level of entertainment and buggy blandness. You'll have some fun, but be will be disappointed.

6.0-6.9 --- Okay

There's definitely some fun to be had here, but there are also a good deal of flaws. This game is enjoyable, but you'll need to ignore the issues to truly like it.

7.0-7.4 --- Good

This is a game that is fun most of the time, but has its share of flaws. It may not captivate you for very long due to the issues that are present, but it will be fun while it lasts.

7.5-7.9 --- Satisfactory

There are some issues, a couple of which may be major, but there's enough entertainment to make you want to come back.

8.0-8.4 --- Great

Although very entertaining, there will definitely be some problems you have with this title. It's unlikely that there's more than one issue that could be considered major, and you'll still have a lot of fun with this game.

8.5-8.9 --- Fantastic

Tons of fun with a few flaws that can be overlooked. This game may not be perfect, but it's pretty darn good even though there's a handful of small issues.

9.0-9.4 --- Excellent

An amazing title. There are some issues, some of which are noticeable. There's far more good than bad, though, and this is a game that can very easily be enjoyed.

9.5-9.9 --- Masterful

A masterpiece of a game more than worthy of your time. Any issues are very small do incredibly little to deduct from the experience.

10.0 ------- Perfect

Simply perfect. A game worthy to be considered one of the greatest ever made. If there are any flaws, they are so hard to notice that you won't care one bit.

The score of the games I review is based on several factors.

Visuals

Essentially how good a game looks. If a modern game has pixelated or hand-drawn visuals, this factor's power is based on the level of charm. I base the graphical appeal of old games off of how good the games looked at the time of their release. This aspect of the game is less effective if there are blurry textures or pop-up.

Audio

How do the music and sound effects hold up? I base the effectiveness of this factor off of how realistic or fun to hear the sound effects are and how memorable the music is, if there is any.

Playability

Is the control scheme easy to understand, and how long does it take the learn the basics of the game? Games with steep learning curves can still far well, but you won't enjoy them if you have a fairly short attention span.

Replay Value

Will this game keep you coming back for more, and how long does it take to complete? A game needs entertaining distractions from the main attraction for this factor to fare well.

Fun Factor

This important thing of all is the overall entertainment. How fun a game is to play matters more than everything else on this list. It takes more than beautiful visuals and amazing music to make a great video game. What's the point of playing if you're not having a good time?

Castle Crashers Review

Castle Crashers

Publisher: Microsoft Developer: The Behemoth Platform: Xbox 360 Release: 2008 Players: 1-4 Genre: Brawler / RPG Rating: 8.7 / 10.0: Fantastic

Above is a group of players battling barbarians.

Back in 2008, indie games had only recently been rising to popularity, and Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade housed some fantastic individually-developed titles. Microsoft decided to publish The Behemoth's second game, Castle Crashers, the hilarious, hand-drawn hack-and-slash adventure that has since become the eleventh most downloaded title on the Xbox 360. The story begins when the knight of your choice is partying in a castle. Suddenly, an evil wizard and his army of goblins steal a magic crystal and kidnap four princesses. Due to the main characters never speaking, this cannot be explained. That's even more vague than a Mario game's story, but this is entirely overshadowed by the incredibly fun gameplay and abundant humor.

This may be a beat-'em-up game, but the combat doesn't feel repetitive, as there are tons of combos to learn and weapons to acquire. In addition to your primary and sub-weapons, you will also eventually a acquire an Animal Orb. These adorable floating pets all have a unique ability. Scratchpaw the tiger, for example, increases your strength and agility, and Bitey Bat occasionally nibbles on the noggins of your foes. Adding to the depth of the battles are the magic attacks. These attacks vary based on the element your character wields-- red knight uses lightning, orange uses fire, green uses poison, and blue uses ice. As you upgrade your magic statistic, you unlock new moves.  You can use your magical move set by holding the right trigger. You can't just use an endless stream of poison bursts or fireballs-- your magic use is limited by a meter that slowly refills after being used, much like in the Zelda series. Every time you level up, you are given skill points to assign to statistics once you return to the map. You can upgrade your strength, magic, defense, and agility. You make a magic-oriented fire knight like my brother, or a balanced lightning knight like me. Each stat can be upgraded up to 24 times, so it will take you awhile to max out your stats. If you think you made the wrong character choice or have maxed out, you are able to restart from square one as any other knight or secret character.

As I stated earlier, Castle Crashers is chock-full of humor. One moment, you'll be leaping over logs on a baby a deer that is endlessly streaming droppings behind it, and the next moment you'll be in a river battling a massive, hairball-spewing "catfish" with a cat's head while you're either riding a fish or dinosaur or standing atop a log, wheel, or dead bandit. I'm not joking when I say that, and every aspect of the game from the locales to the boss battles is laughter-inducing. My favorite touch is that if you rescue a princess while playing with other people, you all must fight to the death over who she kisses. The humor, as well as the abundant cartoonish gore stand out even more due to The Behemoth (as well as popular Flash content-based website Newgrounds) founder Dan Paladin's charming and vibrant hand-drawing art style that wouldn't be out of place in a wacky so-stupid-it's-funny cartoon. You will traverse a large map as you progress. You can not only access stages from here, but also visit shop, PvP arenas, or the blacksmith. This is a game that is fun no matter what, but it is pretty much meant to be played with friends. So far have I've hardly played without my brother or friends by my side. As a solo experience, the game is still fun, but extremely difficult, especially during the boss battles.

One of my favorite aspects of cooperative play is the revive system. If your pal goes down, you are able to use CPR to revive them. While performing this, a gauge will be displayed above your fallen comrade displaying a heart in the center and a moving white vertical line. In order to restore to most health possible, you must press Y when the line is in the center. There can be issues when trying to revive your buddy. For example, my brother was once killed by a spiked crusher in a factory stage, and my friend and I were unable to even ineffectively revive him before a spiky mass fell on our heads. We had to continue without him, and soon died as well. Additionally, your friends may force you to rush the revive so they can join in on battle, than once again die. The main problem I have with the story mode is that if you get stuck for a long time on one stage, you have no choice to resort to-- ugh-- grinding to be able to power through. Additionally, there are several minor bugs such as a character freezing or you being teleported into a foe's arms after interrupting a grab animation. Another small quibble is that no two players can select the same character. This usually isn't an issue, but it can be incredibly irritating when playing online with random people. Is it really fair that your only good character is a level 35 blue knight, but your friend picked his level 12 blue knight first? The main adventure is fantastic, but there's even more to the game. There are two other modes-- the Arena, and All You Can Quaff. In the Arena, you can face hordes of monsters independently. If you have friends with you, you can select your teams and partake in Melee. a battle to the death in which you are able to use all combos and magic attacks; Quickdraw, a bows-only battle in which you speed up as you collect flaming arrows; and Treasure. Here, you are given only a shovel to dig up gold and gems, which dishes out damage to your foes. You will eventually unlock Beefy, in which you can only attack your enemies only by snatching a Behemoth, the developer's surprisingly small chicken mascot, transforming you into a massive muscular murderer. All You Can Quaff is an eating competition in which you must rapidly mash the X and Y buttons to consume food faster than your pals and computer-controlled opponents. If you don't mind getting blisters, you won't mind playing consecutive rounds of this, but it's fun the first time around. I also adore the splendid soundtrack by a wide array of artists that blends orchestrated pieces with zany and intense techno tunes. All of these modes can be enjoyed via Xbox Live, though the aforementioned character restrictions are a more prominent issue. Castle Crashers is incredibly entertaining, but I recommend bringing along some friends to make the most out of this title. This is a game that strongly deserves a place in any Xbox 360 owner's digital library.

Ups
Varied combat
Very humorous
Charming hand-drawn visuals
Game can be replayed with all characters
Four player co-op
Revival system
Additional modes
Splendid soundtrack

Downs
Extremely vague story
Grinding sometimes necessary to improve
Reviving can sometimes be impossible
Only one player can use each character
Mildly buggy

This game is also available on Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PC (via Steam)

The System Difference: You can purchase both the original and remastered version of this game on Xbox One. The remaster runs at 60 FPS and replaces All You Can Quaff with the much more entertaining Back Off Barbarian mode in which you press the face buttons to move across a map while avoiding barbarians. The PC version also has this mode. I only briefly played the game on PS3, but I found the volleyball mode that replaced All You Can Quaff to be incredibly fun. On Xbox One, PS3, and PC, you can unlock characters that were DLC on 360 via Insane mode.

ESRB: T Content: Blood & Gore, Cartoon Violence, and Crude Humor (PARENTAL WARNING: This game contains large amounts of animated blood) Price: $14.99 (Download)