Sacred Citadel lands April 17, new character revealed
Sacred Citadel, the intense arcade brawler from Deep Silver and Southend Interactive, drops this Wednesday. For 1200 MSP, players will be able to team up with friends as a …
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XBLA Sales Analysis: March 2013
Gamasutra has published its XBLA sales analysis for the month of March, which notes some interesting movement that has shaken up recent trends. Storming onto the charts with a …
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BattleBlock Theater review (XBLA)
BattleBlock Theater was developed by The Behemoth and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released April 3, 2013 for 1200 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost five years since the release of Castle Crashers, the side-scrolling brawler brainchild of The Behemoth that grew up to be an XBLA darling that still sits atop sales charts today. Needless to say, the next game made by The Behemoth would have big shoes to fill. Instead of playing it safe, The Behemoth dared to be unique with BattleBlock Theater. Not only did they dare to take on a whole new side-scrolling genre, they also dared to create one of the craziest premise in the history of gaming.
BattleBlock Theater puts you in the shoes of one of the hundreds of prisoners who, after a terrible boat crash, washed up on a mysterious island and were taken captive by giant cats. These cats love their theater, so they force their prisoners into deadly plays. The story mode revolves around platforming and puzzle solving, navigating death traps and fighting crazy animals. When you’re tired of exploring the theater, you can dive into a host of multiplayer modes. BattleBlock Theater is a wonderful platformer not meant to be taken seriously, and made even better when you play with friends.
BattleBlock Theater debuts launch trailer
Finally, the long-awaited return of The Behemoth to Xbox Live Arcade is here! BattleBlock Theater released this past Wednesday for 1200 MSP, and has been generating quite a bit …
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BattleBlock Theater is finally out — What took so long?
It’s out now. For 1200 MSP, you can buy it and start playing it right away if you’d like. Funny thing about that, though — that should be old news. And it would be if The Behemoth had followed through with its plan to release BattleBlock Theater on XBLA back in 2010. Obviously, things didn’t quite work out that way, with the beat-em-up platformer having only just released yesterday. What happened? How could the developer have been so confident about 2010 that it was ready to tell the world that was the year and then ultimately be unable to finish BattleBlock Theater until three more calendar years passed it by?
Level Designer Ryan Horn has an explanation: the game wasn’t as fun as the team thought it was going to be. “I think we were hopeful about where the game was gonna be when we [planned] to release it,” he tells XBLAFans while sitting down for an interview at last month’s PAX East. “And then in between the time when we announced [the release window] and when we planned to release it at the time, we saw the game going in a direction that was fun, but we realized that we could take it in a slightly different direction that was going to be a lot more fun.”
With Horn having said his piece, studio President and co-founder John Baez expounds upon why The Behemoth felt its game could reach a state in 2010 that was up to The Behemoth’s considerably high standards of fun. Instead of going back to 2010, though, he looks a little deeper into his past. “The other component of [the delay] is that in our previous experience — I mean, Alien Hominid? Fifteen months, two consoles. Done out the door with an Xbox [version] following three months after that,” he begins. “And then Castle, it’s like, ‘OK, bigger game, three years.’” The prevailing feeling around The Behemoth’s San Diego office during the earlier development phase of Game #3, as BattleBlock was codenamed back then, was that it would not be as an ambitious of an undertaking as Castle Crashers.
Massive XBLA sale includes Dust: An Elysian Tale and Mark of the Ninja
If you scroll to the Games page on your dashboard, you can find a panel for “Microsoft Studios Sale” that includes a plethora of big XBLA Games. Some of our favorites like Dust: An Elysian Tale and Mark of the Ninja can both be picked up 600 MSP (50% off). You might also want to jump on the Trials bandwagon, because both the original Trials HD and Trials: Evolution can be picked up for 400 MSP and 800 MSP respectively.
The sale will be available until April 8th Here is the complete list of games, including a few extras that you won’t find in the dashboard (like Retro City Rampage). Here is the full list of what’s on sale: Read More
Indies need someone they can trust for usability and QA testing — How about The Behemoth?
Somewhere in San Diego there exists a couple of buildings. They’re buildings with glass windows and a soft feeling, or so I’ve been told. They’re buildings that are “not too intimidating” when compared to other species in their particular building genus. At least, that’s how The Behemoth President John Baez described them to me at the tail end of a roughly 32-minute interview that took place in Boston last weekend during PAX East. Baez and Level Designer Ryan Horn shared their thoughts on several topics: BattleBlock Theater, what the studio would like to see from the next-gen version of Xbox Live Arcade and the developer’s thoughts on working with Microsoft.
Yes, we managed to cover a lot of ground. This despite the fact that we were sitting comfortably in folding chairs set up in a largely unoccupied space behind the booth over which hung a large arrow bearing a single word: “Behold.” What precisely the attention of PAX attendees was being called to may not have been initially palpable to the first-timers among them, but then again, nor was it to the XBLAFans crew when Horn and Baez — the latter fielding an increasing percentage of the questions we asked the two men — began talking about video game prototypes.
Our attention, as it turned out, was being directed towards those two buildings. Or rather, what goes on inside their walls.
They’re not buildings in which the developer makes games, mind you. They are buildings in which the developer tests games to see if they work. Interestingly, one of the games that has been analyzed there isn’t property of The Behemoth — it’s property of fellow successful indie studio Supergiant Games. And at some point this summer, the iOS version of Bastion will lose the distinction of being the only game from another developer to be put through its paces by The Behemoth. The studio will begin using its pair of non-development buildings to investigate whether or not all manner of foreign games work in the manner that their designers intended them to, and whether or not that’s the way they should work.
The Behemoth will task those working inside the friendlier-than-most-of-their-kind buildings with providing quality assurance (QA) and usability lab services to fellow independent game developers. One indie should help another indie. This type of help, however, will come with a price tag — and not a discounted one.
Battleblock Theater XBLA beta code giveaway (Final Day)
We have a winner! Congratulations to reader “KnuX86”! We’ll be in contact with you soon to explain how to claim your prize! The correct answer was “Antlion” from Castle Crashers (check the original image after the jump). Thanks for entering, everyone!
Welcome to the final day of our Battleblock Theater XBLA multiplayer beta code giveaway contest! At some point in February or March (the exact date has yet to be sorted out), The Behemoth’s Battleblock Theater will begin a closed beta, with 10,000 XBLA gamers getting access.
Sound like fun? Want in? Then all you have to do is guess which Behemoth game character (or other noun) is pictured in the above distorted image. Post your best guess in the comments below, and remember, if you don’t win today, be sure to keep coming back, because we’ll be picking a winner every day for an entire week. Good luck!
Battleblock Theater XBLA beta code giveaway (Day 6)
We have a winner! Congratulations to: littlenekochan – We’ll be in contact with the winner soon to explain how to claim his/her prize! The correct answer was the “Iceskimo” from Castle Crashers (check the original image after the jump). Thanks for entering, everyone, and don’t forget to try again tomorrow!
Welcome to day six of our seven-day Battleblock Theater XBLA multiplayer beta code giveaway contest! At some point in February or March (the exact date has yet to be sorted out), The Behemoth’s Battleblock Theater will begin a closed beta, with 10,000 XBLA gamers getting access.
Sound like fun? Want in? Then all you have to do is guess which Behemoth game character (or other noun) is pictured in the above distorted image. Post your best guess in the comments below, and remember, if you don’t win today, be sure to keep coming back, because we’ll be picking a winner every day for an entire week. Good luck!
Battleblock Theater XBLA beta code giveaway (Day 5)
We have a winner! Congratulations to reader “Matthew Donovan.” We’ll be in contact with the winner soon to explain how to claim his/her prize! The correct answer was “boss chest” from Castle Crashers (check the original image after the jump). Thanks for entering, everyone, and don’t forget to try again tomorrow!
Welcome to day five of our seven-day Battleblock Theater XBLA multiplayer beta code giveaway contest! At some point in February or March (the exact date has yet to be sorted out), The Behemoth’s Battleblock Theater will begin a closed beta, with 10,000 XBLA gamers getting access.
Sound like fun? Want in? Then all you have to do is guess which Behemoth game character (or other noun) is pictured in the above distorted image. Post your best guess in the comments below, and remember, if you don’t win today, be sure to keep coming back, because we’ll be picking a winner every day for an entire week. Good luck!