Not only do I have nothing but good things to say about The Behemoth%26rsquo;s games so far, I can as go as far to say that if you don%26rsquo;t like Alien Hominid or Castle Crashers, I probably wouldn%26rsquo;t like you. Gamers my age have always looked forward to the day when we%26rsquo;d be able to play living cartoons, but never in my wildest dreams did I think they%26rsquo;d be as charming, fun and adorably violent as those aforementioned titles.
Not only was my co-op play session today (on an old-school arcade cabinet, no less!) filled with more impressive level design and elaborate visual detail, it kinda struck me as the culmination of twenty years%26rsquo; worth of 2D platforming. Sorry if that sounds like hyperbole, but it%26rsquo;s everything I want to do in that genre, with the look of a handdrawn cartoon. Everything you ever done, or wanted to do, in a traditional sidescroller is here, looks gorgeous, and is a goddamned blast to play through. Yes, even with total strangers on the Comic-Con showfloor.
To start, I loved the customizations you can pull off on every character before entering the game. Of course you can assign a rudimentary shape to your BattleBlock noggin, but you can also pick what weapon you bring with you (in addition to your cutesy punch, kick, wall-jump ninjitsu!) My partner chose bouncing grenades while I went with flinging discusses that land then give off a timed explosion.
So while last year%26rsquo;s mini-game challenges didn%26rsquo;t do anything for me, the co-op pretty much blew me away today, and in a way that New Super Mario Bros. Wii fell significantly short in, IMO. Unlike Nintendo%26rsquo;s admirable effort where players share a physical space, instead of getting in the way and sending plumber into pits they actually help each other out constantly as they work towards common goals and a billion other immensely satisfying mid-level milestones.
Imagine that, instead of stomping another player on the head and send him to his doom, you actually had a button to rescue fellow players on the brink of pit death. Plus, instead of jumps interfering with one another, you can jump %26ndash; and double-jump %26ndash; off of your buddies to reach the unreachable. Throw one another, explode one another, open doors for one another %26ndash; BattleBlock theater may be a little %26ldquo;old school,%26rdquo; yet it%26rsquo;s the furthest thing from a mere left-to-right experience.
It%26rsquo;s difficult to describe the levels themselves, because my partner and I didn%26rsquo;t even come close to exploring all the options in the level. There%26rsquo;s a letter grade at the end, so you%26rsquo;re given ample reason to explode every block, open ever door, sail on every boat and find every gem. God, I hope the screenshots do that sentence justice.
