The Behemoth has remained relatively quiet about their latest project, BattleBlock Theater, since its announcement last year, but the twelve-person studio arrived at PAX East 2011 with plenty to show. Six hand-made arcade cabinets, two of which featured DLC for Castle Crashers and four that housed three-level cooperative demos for the charming new cubic platformer, lured fans and press alike to the small booth at the back of the show floor where BattleBlock Theater got its first real public testing. It's got every bit of humor and cartoony violence that Lead Artist Dan Paladin infuses into all the developer's games, along with a new level of character customization in appearance and functionality. But like Castle Crashers, BattleBlock Theater is at its best in cooperative gameplay, where a helping hand or mischievous trickster can show off their version of teamwork, making for plenty of laughs and off-screen collaborating that few other platformers achieve or even encourage.
Castle Crashers is just as fun today as it was a decade ago, writes Gazette gaming columnist Jake Magee.
Newgrounds fundamentally changed indie gaming and independent animation. Now it's struggling for the very reasons it was so influential -- creative freedom.
Interesting story. I haven't heard about newgrounds in years. The site was great and I hope the people that still frequent the site choose to support it. If not, you should give it a Viking funeral.
Geraint at GameSpew.com writes: "From The Behemoth, creators of Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers, comes this little gem of a puzzle-platformer.
Having grown up on early-90s platformers like Commander Keen and Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure, and playing both of The Behemoth’s previous titles, it seemed only a natural choice to pick up the fabulous Battleblock Theater.
The Behemoth have advanced their status in the gaming world by finally adding actual speech to their games instead of just speech bubbles filled with witticisms and exclamations. They have employed the voice talents of Will Stamper of Newgrounds, StamperTV and OneyCartoons. Here, he is the much-loved-and-loathed narrator."
