Brawler Week: XBLAFans Writers Choose Their Favorites
Here at XBLAFans, the editors are just as crazy about their games as our readers. To celebrate Brawler Week, our staff chimes in on their favorite titles from Xbox Live Arcade. Since we have a wide variety of personalities and tastes, we decided to allow each writer to choose one of their favorite brawler, rather than doing a Top 10 list. Read on to see if your favorite was chosen.
Rewind Review: Castle Crashers (XBLA)
Castle Crashers was developed by The Behemoth and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on August 27th 2008 for 1200MS points.
The Behemoth have quickly become a developer to watch. After starting life with the flash game Alien Hominid on Newgrounds they expanded the game to consoles and eventually to XBLA with Alien Hominid HD. The game had a unique and striking art style created by artist Dan Paladin, and breathed new life into the almost forgotten side-scrolling shooter (complete with punishing difficulty).
After Alien Hominid The Behemoth moved onto a completely new game in Castle Crashers. This time they decided to have a go at another classic genre, the side-scrolling brawler. Dan Paladin’s unique art style remains, but Castle Crashers is a much bigger and more ambitious game than Alien Hominid. The Behemoth took the basic 2D brawler gameplay and added a few things on top, with an RPG-like (or lite?) leveling system and a little more depth to the brawling itself.
Castle Crashers Character Guide
This guide is geared towards helping players unlock all 28 playable characters in Castle Crashers. Unlocking these characters takes quite a bit of time, don’t think this will happen overnight. But if you are not phased by the dedication needed for unlocking these characters, then feel free to check out our Animal Orbs Guide for an extra challenge. Read More
Secret XBLA Sales: Toy Soldiers, Star Trek: D-A-C and more
Act now, sales may end soon.
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A World of Keflings Review (XBLA)
A World of Keflings was developed by NinjaBee and published by Xbox Live Arcade. It was released on XBLA on December 22nd.
With games like Cloning Clyde, Band of Bugs and Ancients of Ooga under their belt, NinjaBee has become one of the most beloved XBLA developers to date. In 2008, the release of A Kingdom for Keflings solidified their spot as an XBLA powerhouse. After the success of the first installment, A Kefling sequel was evident. As one of the most anticipated XBLA games of 2010, A World of Keflings generated high expectations from both the fans and the developers. With a ton of new additions and upgrades, the difference between A Kingdom for Keflings and A World of Keflings is clear. The game has improved in nearly every area. Read More
Harm’s Way/Doritos Crash Course Review (XBLA)
Harm’s Way was created by Justin Carpenter, developed by BongFish, and published Doritos/Microsoft Game Studios. Doritos Crash Course was developed by Wanako Studios, and published by Doritos/Microsoft Game Studios. They were released 12/8/10 on the XBLA Marketplace for $0.00
Every year we seem to get at least one free XBLA game. First it was Yaris, then Undertow, and then last year Doritos launched a game titled Dash of Destruction. It wasn’t the best game, but it was free and pretty fun. That was about a year ago, this year things have changed. Focusing on releasing quality games we get two titles for the Unlock Xbox contest, and both are definitely above the bar set by their predecessors.
Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess
Critically acclaimed Playstation Mini title “Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess” is now available for download on Xbox Live Indie Games Channel. Originally exclusive for only the PSP, Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess is an “upwards-scrolling platformer” where players take on the role of the awesome demon known as “The Duke” who must must face-off against enemies he’s fairly certain kidnapped the love of his life. [You can read more about the storyline on the game’s main website.]
The gameplay is fairly simple. Players must ninja-jump up a series of platforms chasing giant fleeing monsters and defeat them by crashing into them three times. As the players successfully bounce on platforms during their chase, they will rack up combos, which will increase The Duke’s speed and give him the ability to unleash overly-exaggerated finishing moves when he defeats the monsters.
Moving upwards is one of the main points in this game, but touching the same platform more than once will stop your combo. Lose your combo too many times, and you’ll never defeat the monster before it reaches the top platform.
Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess features a full story mode, 6 unique stages, colorful and animated cutscenes, artful background graphics, and a great soundtrack anyone can jam out to.
Mediatonic’s co-founder and creative director Paul Croft adds: “Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess was a huge hit for us, both with the media and as our debut on PSP Minis, so we’re proud to have launched its XNA version as our Xbox 360 debut.” He continues; “We’re hopeful Xbox 360 players will take the Duke’s plight to their hearts and will help him hammer those (probably) guilty monsters.”
Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess for Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Indie Games is available now, costing 240 MS Points.
Hit the jump for a cool picture and videos from the game: