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Teddy Troops are typical examples of that strain of kidult 'collectible' not-really-a-toy that they sell in those shops that also sell skateboarding clothes to people who don't own boards, and never will.
So Microsoft's Xbox 360 Summer of Arcade promotion has come and gone, a five-week blitz of the best that Xbox Live Arcade has to offer, all part of a commitment made by the company at E3 to shift their focus more towards quality rather than quantity. According to a media alert issued today by Microsoft, the push was a massive success, with a 58% increase in Xbox Live members purchasing games over the course of the month, shattering the monthly revenue high for XBLA by 67%.
Out of the games released, Castle Crashers is being heralded as a stand-out title for all of XBLA, while Braid wound up as the highest-rating XBLA title of all time, with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 and Bionic Commando: Rearmed also making the top 10. That leaves poor Galaga Legions. There there, little retro redux. We still love you...just not as much. Hit the jump for the full text of the press alert!
Here's a feel-good story for the day. Castle Crashers has now found its way into 250,000 homes, an incredible number considering the scope of the project and the fact it's still a litle broken. Just goes to show what fun times can do for a game. Now that the good news is out of the way, time to move on to the obligatory "when's it being patched" info. Lead artist Dan Paladin has told Gamasutra that while there's still no expected release date for an online patch, the team are working through Microsoft's certification process, and that they "really appreciate everyone's patience and support".
The Behemoth: Castle Crashers Hits 250k Players, Fixes Coming [Gamasutra]
Hot from the Not News Department of the Kotaku press room comes word that Castle Crashers is going mainstream. That is, if you consider being prominently displayed in endcap ads at crunchy grocery chain Trader Joe's mainstream. Reader Jose wrote in to say he spotted the stars of The Behemoth's XBLA hack and slasher shilling ridge-cut potato chips and Virgil's root beer. Clearly, this kind of endorsement speaks to the gaming/snacking crowd that shuns high fructose corn syrup.
Right now, The Behemoth are busy fixing the online problems plaguing the fantastic Castle Crashers. Once they're done with that, they'll move on. Move on to giving us all new stuff to play with! Writing on their company blog, they've revealed that at least two new playable characters - the King and the Necromancer - will be made available as DLC, as will at least one new weapon, the chainsaw.
Chainsaw massacre !!! [The Behemoth]
Castle Crashers is great. So much fun. Sadly that fun is often tempered by serious technical glitches in the game, from wonky online connectivity to stuff like erasing your entire game progress. It's annoying, yes, but The Behemoth promise (cross their hearts!) that a fix is on its way.
We just got off the phone with Microsoft and we had a great talk about updating Castle Crashers, YES!! Looks like we're on our way to getting this title update out and the bigger issues like saving and online connectivity resolved, in addition to other bugs that have been reported.
Unfortunately that's as precise as they get, saying they "don't have a specific time frame yet" for when we can expect the release, but it can't be too far off. Can it?
Title Update is Coming! [The Behemoth]
The Behemoth's last game - Alien Hominid - wasn't fun. Looked good, but wasn't fun. It was the gaming equivalent of taking your balls, resting them on a table, picking up a hammer then smashing them over and over and over until you sobbed yourself unconscious. The Behemoth's latest game - Castle Crashers - shares many of Alien Hominid's traits. It's lovingly drawn in 2D, it scrolls sideways, you have to kill everything in sight.
So, should you be reaching for the hammer again?
Alien Hominid came out aaaages ago on Xbox Live Arcade. Did OK for itself, but really, as good as it looked it was just way too hard. So it promptly faded away. But this week, it's back! With The Behemoth's Castle Crashers coasting into the top spot on the XBLA sales charts for last week (and deservedly so), Alien Hominid's been dragged along with it, slotting back into top ten in ninth spot. If you dig Castle Crashers, and have seen the "please buy our stuff it helps keep us alive" notices all over The Behemoth's site, you should be quite pleased with yourself.
Xbox Live Arcade Activity For Week Of August 25th [GamerBytes]
Castle Crashers is proving rather popular with the XBLA crowd, but it is fair to say that it has had a difficult first couple of days.
While the Japanese Xbox page might have correctly "estimated" the price of Braid, they were dead wrong about Castle Crashers. Behemoth has confirmed the official price of their highly anticipated Xbox Live Arcade game, which will be released at the more Braid-like price point of 1200 Microsoft points - or 15 real life US dollar points.
While that still leaves Castle Crashers at a price point higher than your average XBLA title, it's a great deal less than the original listing, which had the game going for 1800 points, or $US 22.50. Behemoth would also like to remind you that they'll be on hand at both PAX this month and the Tokyo Game Show in October, so stop by and give them hugs. The sweatier the better.
1200 Points, Behemoth Forums, PAX, and TGS [Castle Crashers Dev Blog]
