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Castle Crashers scares up a skeleton
Those Behemoth jerks just keep teasing us with more content for Castle Crashers. Earlier this week, we were treated to a new ninja character and now we discover that there is also a skeleton. We don't know much about him (or her) apart from the fact that he wields a bone firing bow as his long range weapon. Since we know so little, we'll have to make something up. His name -- we have decided -- is Skelly. Now, someone please tell us when we can buy this game.
A ninja sneaks into Castle Crashers
Face it, everything is better with ninjas. It's like in that movie The Last Samurai when all the ninjas attacked. It was like, "Whoa, ninjas! This movie just got even awesomer!" Imagine that feeling, only applied to Castle Crashers. See, it feels awesome, righ?. The game was already cool and now it has a ninja and is even cooler (and by cool we mean totally sweet). If you thought it couldn't get any better than that, then get this: the ninja carries ... a mug. Not just any mug ... a Ninja Mug. We're not quite sure how it works, but according to the Castle Crashers website, its purpose is "defensive shielding."It's official now: the wait for Castle Crashers is killing us. Follow the source link for shots of ninja doing his thing.
Castle Crashers jumps through another hoop, gets rated 'Teen'
We love the Xbox Live Arcade Service (fanboy placation: we love the PlayStation Network and WiiWare too), but it's a well-known fact that there are a number of hurdles a finished game has to clear before it can find its way onto the imponderable internets. One of said hurdles, labeled "the rating process" is actually three-hundred feet tall, covered in flaming, poison-coated spikes, and surrounded by a moat filled with bull sharks in mating season. Metaphorically speaking, of course.Thankfully, in an act of incredible vaulting prowess, Behemoth's upcoming racist multiplayer beat-'em-up Castle Crashers recently cleared said hurdle, receiving a decisive "Teen" rating (the German judges, obviously confused and unimpressed, gave the effort a 7.5). There are a number of other hoops the adorable brawler must jump through before attaining that coveted XBLA certification, but we're hopeful that we'll be storming cartoon strongholds relatively soon.
X3F @ WonderCon: Castle Crashers Hands-on
Castle Crashers was by far the most fun we had at WonderCon. Everything (well, almost, we'll get to that later) about the experience was positive, interesting, and fun. The booth was hidden behind the Ubisoft one, and was encircled by folding tables covered in drawings. As with many artists who are convention exhibitors, the guys from The Behemoth passed the time by doodling, and (for the first time for these guys) allowing other people to doodle there too. Though the staff in the booth was constantly changing and there was a general commotion around where people were drawing, we were still able to get some good information and impressions. We were able to talk with one of the creators of Castle Crashers, as well as the original hit, Alien Hominid. We were able to play through the demo several times in a few different levels, and we got to see the reaction from the surrounding crowd, most of whom had never heard of the game before seeing it there. %Gallery-16793%
X3F @ WonderCon: Overview, Pictures
Given that X3F now has a presence in the city-by-the-bay, and that the comic-book and popular culture convention WonderCon was taking place there (right across the street, in fact, from where GDC was last week), we thought we'd bring you the video game goings-on from the convention floor. While not a strictly video game event, WonderCon did see the appearance of several large publishers and a small developer. The three main companies who were there were Ubisoft, who were showing off Lost: Via Domus and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2; Capcom who showed video of Street Fighter IV and had DMC4 playable (Capcom had more, but they were on other systems) and last but definitely not least were The Behemoth who had a playable demo of Castle Crashers. There'll be Hands-on Impressions of both Castle Crashers and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 later in the day. Till then hit the break and check the gallery to get the full story on the WonderCon video game scene.%Gallery-16791%
Castle Crashers still looks beautiful
With the race to complete photorealism continuing at full tilt, it's kind of nice to see a game like Castle Crashers that still looks so ... gamey. We know it makes us sound like a cranky 80-year-old, but Behemoth's latest project seems to have been transported to us from a time when games were games.Take a look at the above footage from the floor of Comic-Con and see if you don't agree that while you may swoon for the girls with the high-res faces, there will always be a place in your heart for a game that makes up for its lack of polygons with an abundance of panache.[Via X3F]
New PDA games available for Alien Hominid
When The Behemoth's crew isn't too busy making custom trophies, or working on Castle Crashers, they're obviously throwing together some PDA stages for Alien Hominid HD. The second pack of 100 PDA levels is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace for 150 Microsoft Points. If you're in a spending mood, you can also pick up some new gamer pictures, as there are two packs with 5 pics a piece, each for 100 MS Points. Do you play the PDA minigame in Alien Hominid? If so, do you play solo or multiplayer?
The Behemoth gives Major Trophy
Showing what an awesome development team they are, The Behemoth gave Major Nelson a custom, hand made FBI Agent trophy. This was in thanks for his support of their first title for Xbox Live Arcade, Alien Hominid HD, back in late February. Now, some of you may remember that The Behemoth was going to give away trophies for those at the top of the leaderboards of the game. Major, being an MS employee was not eligible to win, no matter how mad his skillz, so they hooked him up with this absolutely badass trophy, and he's posted pics on his flickr page of the gift and the thank you letter included in the package. Hopefully, The Behemoth will remember X3F and our GDC interview when Castle Crashers lands on Arcade, right guys?
Alien Hominid content invades XBLA
Those of us lost in the Egyptian ball busting action found in Luxor 2 may have missed the new content available for Alien Hominid HD. The new content adds 100 new levels to the PDA mini-game found in Alien Hominid HD. The new levels can be had for the pittance of 150 Microsoft Points. In addition to the new levels, 2 new Alien Hominid picture packs are available for 100 points each. Sure, it's not as exciting as, say, Castle Crashers, but it might be a worthy purchase if you've got some spare points in your account, which you probably do if you bought Luxor 2. Funny how that works out, isn't it?
Castle Crashers still 50 megs
We ran a story on Friday stating that Castle Crashers will release in 2008 because of the recent size limit increase on Xbox Live Arcade games. This info was apparently communicated to Joystiq during GDC. Since running the story, The Behemoth's Tom Fulp contacted us to let us know that The Behemoth is busy cramming as much as they can into Castle Crashers, but are still adhering to the 50 MB limit. In fact, Fulp noted that The Behemoth enjoys the challenge of meeting the size restriction. It seems the size limit increase is decided on a case by case basis, and The Behemoth has not requested a size increase at this time.Size increase or not, we wouldn't expect the game to hit anytime soon.
GDC 07: Castle Crashers hands on
We heard the rumblings. We smelled the awesome. We knew that Castle Crashers was somewhere at GDC. It was just a matter of finding it. After what seemed like days of searching, we found the title in the Independent Games Festival pit, loaded up on an HD screen with some pumping speakers, Castle Crashers was ready and raring to go.
New Castle Crashers trailer(!)
It's been a long time coming, but we finally have new Castle Crashers media to share. The last time we had a new Castle Crashers video was in July, and that's just too long. Granted, we know what a beast the Xbox Live Arcade certification process can be, so we're not getting our hopes up that we'll actually be able to play Castle Crashers anytime soon. For now, all we can do is watch this video and dream of co-op hack & slash action with some seriously large bosses. Watch the video, and enjoy.For more intrepid readers, you can even download an HD version, stream it to your Xbox 360, and pretend you're actually playing Castle Crashers!
Alien Hominid invades next week? (no online co-op)
According to a post on an Xbox Live Arcade rumor thread over at jerkface central 360 Arcadians, an Alien Hominid page was briefly available on the Xbox.com Xbox Live Arcade section. Unfortunately, it was later pulled from the directory page. However, through a little trial and error, we were able to discover the URL to the Alien Hominid HD page itself. Which of course, is even better. Since Xbox.com isn't in the habit of posting pages for games that aren't yet available on Xbox Live Arcade, this is a fairly good indication that we'll be seeing Alien Hominid HD in the near future. With any luck at all, we might even see it next week. Hit the "read" link to see the page for yourself, at least until someone at MS decides to take it down.One quick note, according to the page, campaign co-op is only available for two players on the same console. Up to 4 players can play mini-games over Xbox Live, but it mentions nothing about Live campaign co-op.
Alien Hominid HD reviewed
Our buddies at XBLArcade report that the latest issue of the Official Xbox Magazine contains a review for Alien Hominid HD for Xbox Live Arcade. The review cites the games unique visuals, excellent co-op, and nonstop action as the game's good points. The review also notes that the game is finished too quickly and that the minigames aren't really worth much playtime. Overall, the game receives a 7.5 out of 10. Not too shabby. Unfortunately, the review doesn't state how much the game will cost with it hits the Arcade. We're hoping the game will debut for 800 points or less.So there you go, Alien Hominid HD is pretty good. Now all we need is a release date.
Castle Crashers, most racist game of 2006?
We love Castle Crashers. That's no secret. It sits at the top of our XBLA wish list, right next to Small Arms. We could think of many words to describe it. Awesome, sweet, phat, dope, cool, all of these words leap to mind. But racist? That was the thought of one concerned mother upon seeing the trailer on GameTrailers.com. First of all, what mom is cruising GameTrailers? That's awesome. Second, racist? Apparently, she thinks the multicolored knights are actually white supremacists. We'll just let you absorb that for a minute ... and there we go. Listen to her bewildered phone call after the break.[Via Xboxic]
Castle Crashers: an XBLA original from The Behemoth
After seeing this video it was clear that The Behemoth's new XBLA offering Castle Crashers needed more than just a one line nod at the bottom of an Alien Hominid post. We've been doing the retro arcade thing long enough; now it's time to bring the multiplayer fun of arcade side-scrollers to Xbox Live Arcade. Forget about porting Golden Axe (though we'd take that too), Castle Crashers promises high-def resolutions with their old-school, beat 'em up action. Let's review, from 1UP: "What [an XBLA release] means for players is a much cheaper price, as well as overhauled visuals that -- when combined with the game's widescreen capability -- allow a lot more to take place on the screen at once. With any four-player game where all the characters are on the screen at the same time, there's a risk of too much going on and players getting confused, so the visual overhaul makes the game much easier to follow than it was in the version we saw last year."This is the sort of mindless arcade fun we need! Now if these guys would go ahead and secure the rights to Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006 we'd die happy. Very happy, indeed. [Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
Crashing castles on Xbox Live Arcade
Behemoth has announced that they are bringing Alien Hominid and a new original title to Xbox Live Arcade. The new title, Castle Crashers, is sure to remind many of old school beat 'em ups like Golden Axe and Guardian Heroes. The game features lots of enemies, 4 player co-op, and some serious action. Bonus points to Behemoth for making the characters look like the Black Knight (who, as you know, always triumphs). After you watch the gameplay video above, be sure and check out the official trailer on Xboxyde.I'm just going to abandon all journalistic objectivity here and say Castle Crashers looks like it's going to kick ass.[Via Joystiq]
Alien Hominid to crash land on XBLA this year [update 1]
There's two ways you could look at this, depending on how cynical and jaded you are. You could jump up and down knowing that Alien Hominid, one of the most successful and interesting indie games ever made, is coming to Microsoft's popular Xbox Live Arcade service this winter ... or you could grind your teeth knowing that your perfectly suitable Xbox copy isn't backwards compatible (yet?) so, if you want that side scrolling action, you'll be shelling out for the same game again. Granted, it was only $20 to begin with, and a $10 XBLA price would still keep the total well below your average AAA title, but it's the principle dammit! This is a slippery slope for Microsoft to be on. Cynical (and/or cheap) gamers have foretold the day when Microsoft would use future profits to determine the fate of backwards compatibility on a particular title. Conspiracy theorists will point to Alien Hominid's relatively spartan and humble graphics as proof positive that Redmond isn't playing fair. Of course, these accusations will be premature since there are certain to be more backcompat updates before the Fall console launches, but they'll be made regardless. Game Informer reports that Alien Hominid developer The Behemoth is also bringing their in development title Castle Crashers to XBLA in early 2007. For more indie-dev goodies, check out the excellent Gamasutra podcast this week for an interview with The Behemoth's John Baez. [Thanks, Shizzle] [Update 1: 1UP previewed the game at the Comic-Con expo that began today. They confirm the obligatory 360 upgrades like high-def and widescreen support, but also note that "the developers are looking into adding a few bonuses here and there to give the Live Arcade version something extra for players who are familiar with the original" but add "we don't have any details on that front at this point."]
