Review: BattleBlock Theater

The wait is finally over. The Behemoth's follow-up to Castle Crashers has been released on Xbox Live Arcade (for now, hopefully it sees release on other platforms in the future) and it starts like this..

"Once there was a boat..."

And so a humorous narration of your character's short tale thus far begins. It won me over before I even knew the controls.

Once I did know the controls, I had a great time. The story and its delivery combined with fluid and fun platforming action made an addictive combo.

Just another day in BattleBlock Theater. (Photo credit: http://www.battleblocktheater.com)

Gameplay: If you have any experience with the platforming genre then you know what you are in for from a game-play standpoint. Namely jumping a ton and making your way through obstacles.

Aside from that there is a heavy collectible element to the game as it allows you to unlock new looks for you character as well as new weapons and tools used in the game.

These weapons and tools are of use for dealing with enemy cats in single player (it's a weird story) and then opposing teams in multiplayer.

Multiplayer: Speaking of multiplayer, this is where things get (more) interesting. There are a number of game modes. One of them, for example, is a basketball type mode where two teams battle for possession of a ball and attempt to throw it in the opposing teams net for points. Whoever has the most points after time runs out, wins.

I convinced a friend to purchase the game (our very own Cody Steeves) and after he played the solo story mode and got used to the game, we proceeded to play some multiplayer. First up was the co-op story mode.

Co-op play is much like single player but with added wrinkles like your partner crossing a bridge that is appears when you stand on a certain spot and having them reach over to pull you up after you make a leap with no bridge (since there is nobody to stand in the spot that makes it appear) and other teamwork type things.

We got off to a bad start but we figured out how co-op works quickly enough and became a pretty good team. I killed him with some badly timed fireballs (*cough* one or two on purpose) and he knocked me off of ledges now and then but other than that we did pretty well.

Eventually we got a little competitive and hit up the game mode known as Muckle (think death-match). We won more than we lost in that mode. We also had a cool team kill where I set some dude on fire and then Cody blew him into his teammate, which set his teammate on fire as well. Moments like that are when the game is at it's best. The mode plays a little like a simplified Super Smash Bros.

We then moved on to Challenge mode. This mode is all about getting through levels and trying to do it faster than the other team. At first we didn't do so well. We got stuck when we ran into a cat that threw fireballs and we displayed a comic amount of confusion in the process. That gave us a horrible time somewhere north of three minutes for the level. The good news is the other team only beat us by 20 seconds or so.

Other games modes include King of the Hill, Horse (ride a horse to team stables), Colour the World (think Tony Hawk Pro Skater's Graffiti mode) and others.

There is also the ability to trade items in multiplayer. This consists of going into a trading booth with another person and viewing their inventory, selecting what you would like and coming to agreement. You can trade prisoners, weapons/tools, gems and wool (currency). In my first trade a cool dude gave me something like 20 wool for free, which meant I was able to buy some new weapons at five wool each. Yay.

Music: The soundtrack is great, in fact I found myself wanting to hear the music more often. I even just left the game at the main menu for a few minutes a couple times to hear the music.

Not being a huge player of platforming titles these days I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy BattleBlock Theater, but between the gameplay, art style, narration, soundtrack and suite of multi-player modes I found a game I will be playing a lot of. Off to Challenge mode now.