Castle Crashers: an RPG For Everyone

I've become quite well known in my groups of friends for finding games that everyone likes. I actually go out of my way to find local mulitplayer games that my gamer friends and non-gamer friends alike can enjoy. I've often resorted to the Wii for these games. Things like World of Goo, New Super Mario Bros, Tetris Party, Dr. Mario, Boom Blox, Mario Kart, Geometry Wars, and NBA Jam. I search out the games that fit that transcend that metaphysical barrier between the "casual" and "hardcore"(I try to not use those terms, but it fits). One particular XBox 360 game seems to have taken the cake.

I've had Castle Crashers for a couple of years at this point, but I stumbled upon a sub-group of my friends that likes RPG's, so this was just perfect. I decided I could easily use one of my stronger characters and act as a buffer to keep them alive as they work through the game and we could have a good amount of fun. 2 weeks later I have a total of 12 people playing Castle Crashers at various times. It seems that I've found the perfect game. My wife plays, my friends' wives play, a Final Fantasy Veteran plays, a FPS fanatic plays, a PC gamer, a nanny, a photographer, everyone it seems will play this game and love it.

Well it got old being the strongest character while all these different groups are playing through the beginning levels. Then I realized the true genius of the simplicity of the leveling mechanic of Castle Crashers: it can be played so many different ways with so many different characters who all have different magics and characteristics. While at the same time, it is a simple 4 player brawler with a great sense of humor. I just want to keep playing... I want to level up every available character just for the heck of it. I now have 3 characters who are my main investment characters and they were all leveled up differently, one with all magic, one with all speed and one perfectly balanced between all stats.

It was just quite refreshing to rediscover this little gem. Thanks Behemoth, couldn't have done it without you...