The Behemoth tweeted about it late last night, directing people to this countdown site.

The pack will include two new characters – the Necomancer and the Cult Minion. There will also be a new Animal Orb – the Dragonhead, and two weapons: the NG Skull Mace and the long-awaited chainsaw.

The Behemoth Presents – The Necromantic Pack [Castle Crashers.com, thanks lockerhaxor]

The pack includes two new characters—the Necomancer (natch) and the Cult Minion. There will also be a new Animal Orb—the Dragonhead, and two weapons: the NG Skull Mace and the chainsaw.

“Yes, … the damn Chainsaw,” writes Kelly for The Behemoth.

“We will post the date as soon as we find out!” Kelly adds. That goes for the price, too. “Once again, this is completely up to Microsoft. But I can leave you with a tantalising … SOON.”

Necromantic Pack DLC [The Behemoth, via Joystiq]

But the game was playable on the Comic-Con show floor, split into three parts, each game type a multiplayer affair for up to four players. Is that the maximum number of players? Behemoth folks at the show wouldn’t say. It’s another thing that’s “TBA.”

Game 3 is, as far as we can tell from our hands on time with the game, a series of competitive and team-based multiplayer platformer games with a Behemoth flair. You’ll customise the look of your adorably animated character, drawn in the Dan Paladin style, then enter a hub world full of doors, each leading to various game types.

There’s “Grab the Gold,” which features a floating gold whale that defecates gold bricks. Pick up those bricks and transport them to a floating winged safe to deposit your winnings. Whoever has the most gold when the timer runs out wins the round.

“Soul Snatcher” is a game of keep away. Players will lose their souls if they’re knocked out, have their heads stomped upon, or burn to death. Grab the floating, frowning soul and play keep away. The longer one holds onto an opponent’s soul, the higher their score. Big scores beat small scores. Obviously.

Game 3 also features a slightly less violent competitive mode, “Paint the World.” Run your character over the grey and white blocks the level is built from to paint them the colour of your team. The more tiles you own, the more points you score. The catch is that tiles your character touches don’t instantly take on your team’s colour, meaning an opponent could swoop in and make it his own. The level will also “de-colorise” some tiles during a broadly sweeping desaturation event, forcing you to revisit some tiles.

All of these game types get a little more interesting, thanks to the combat items one chooses for their character. These include, but are not limited to, weapons like an exploding Frisbee, a mortar that launches blocks of ice, a fireball and an electric fan. That fan is one of the defensive options, pushing back opponents and the projectiles they’ll send your way. A bouncing ball, described to me as the best item in the game, certainly didn’t seem that way, based on my use of the thing.

At close range, players can melee with their fists. That’s called “punching” someone.

The Comic-Con demo was enjoyable, if limited, and definitely promising. Game 3 is cute, customisable and combines familiar game modes into a package that’s in line with The Behemoth’s previous work on Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers. The flyer for the game indicates that there will be a single player component. It also promises unlockables, depth and replayability, features and [can't make this word out] and the reas… that word gets cut off too. Look, it’s gonna have stuff in it.

While there are no details on when the game is coming, how much it’ll cost or whether the Sony version will include any exclusive content, we do know the game is real, and that it will be out sometime in the future. In the meantime, check out the below vid to see the PS3 port in action.

Castle Crashers First Look [GameSpot]

For a game released by such a small team, that’s a tremendous achievement. Course, when you factor in people who bought the game but never logged a score, (hey, it happens, for whatever reason), it’ll look even better.

I’d normally now ask politely for a direct sequel, but am thinking Castle Crashers: Natal instead. Give me a real workout, fitness games be damned.

Thanks A Million [The Behemoth]

That’s what the developer is asking fans in the latest blog posting over at The Behemoth Blog, where they’ve been keeping an eye on the number of players showing up on the Castle Crashers leaderboards. With 900,000 players crashing in the eight months following the game’s release, they’re asking players to post their guesses as to when they’ll reach the big one million. The closest guess in their forums come the big day will win… something.

I’m not sure yet what the prize will be for this… but rest assured. it will be awesome, nay… SPECTACULAR! if there are lots of close entries, we will award lots of cool prizes.

It’s not every day you get a chance to win something vaguely spectacular! Check out the blog posting at the link below to find out how this spectacular thing can be yours.

900,000 strong [The Behemoth via VideoGamer.com]

Microsoft has announced the winners of the 2008 Xbox Live Arcade Awards, with The Behemoth’s Castle Crashers walking away with Game of the Year.

Castle Crashers actually won three categories in the Xbox Live Arcade Awards, the annual awards voted on by the players themselves. Along with Game of the Year, it was also awarded Best Co-op Mode and Best Original Game. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix was the other big winner, taking home three awards for Best Remake, Best Versus Mode, and Best Graphics. The final three categories were one-offs, with A Kingdom for Keflings winning Best Family Game, Braid taking Best Innovation, and Portal: Still Alive winning Best Single Player.

So how do those results look to you guys? Fair? Completely off? Too Street Fighter-y? Discuss.

The Behemoth will be unveiling their new game on March 18, the developers said today.

The developers behind Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid also said they will be showing a very early version of the game off at the Tokyo Anime Fair on March 20 and 21.

Until then they’ve posted this single shot from the game which offers little insight into game play, but at least gives us a sense of the art style.

Tokyo Anime Fair and Game #3 stuffs!

Jerry Frissen’s Lucha Libre comic series is already a line of collector’s toys by Muttpop; but toymaker Bob Silva says it was almost a multiplayer game made by The Behemoth.

In his blog, the Muttpop president waxes on the development process behind the Luchadores Five figures. Apparently, some of the early sketches were so inspirational to Silva and Frissen, they “decided we could e-mail bomb our favourite toy companies and a videogame company called Behemoth.”

Behemoth had just released ALIEN HOMINID for the Gamecube and Xbox. I really felt like the spirit of that game had something in common with what we were doing. I heard that the Behemoth guys were thinking of doing a multiplayer game so I was trying to convince them to do one with the Luchadores Five and Tequila. Both Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin got back to me via email. They really loved the designs I sent them (I sent the 2 ‘pitch’ jpegs below and a few final pencils images of some of the other characters from Luchadores Five) and were going to talk to their investors about the possibility of collaboration.

Obviously, it didn’t work out. But I think I can see some similarities between the green Crasher and the Tequila sketch. Could it be the green luchadore mask?

Muttpop Lucha Libre Beginnings [Muttpop Blog via Offworld]

The creators of Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers have not given up on the video game development business. In fact, they’re already prototyping a new title! Way to soldier on, The Behemoth.

Artist Dan Paladin writes on the Behemoth’s Development Blog of Development that the studio is “off to a very strong and solid start,” but is understandably cagey on details. (We anticipate something animated that displays graphics on screen.)

“The game has proven to be a lot of fun for the people that we’ve shown!” Paladin writes. “Perhaps we can start posting imagery later on and begin a guessing game about the game. It’s like two games in one! Maybe we’ll just flat out tell you, though, and ruin the guessing game.”

And that’s about all we know. Considering how long development on Castle Crashers took — not to mention the title update to fix the little bugger — we’ll switch into Patience Mode while we slowly anticipate the Behemoth’s next.

Dan Paladin; Best Blogger of 2009 [The Behemoth Development Blog]