Good evening boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen. Turn the lights down low and shut your faces as I wrap you in the cosy blanket of a story. A story as heart-warming and soft as a mother’s kiss, or is it?
From Behemoth studios, the team that brought you Castle
Crashers and Alien Hominid comes a new Xbox Live Arcade title: Battleblock
Theater. Anyone who has played either of the previous two games (and if you
haven’t then, seriously, where have you been?!) will undoubtedly be very
excited to learn of this new release. Whilst both previous games were very different
to each other, they were also both very popular (Castle Crashers was, until
recently, the most downloaded XBLA title of all time) and very well made so
previous players will have had high expectations for this new title. Battleblock
Theater is a puzzle-platformer which presents a familiar concept. Collect
things, in this case gems, and they’ll unlock the exit. Collect more gems and
complete the level in a better time and you’ll get a better grade for the level.
Your story in Battleblock Theater begins as you set sail
with a group of friends on a ship (The S.S. friend-ship). Amongst these friends
is Hatty Hattington, your best friend (and best friend to one and all) All is
going well in the voyage until suddenly you are hit by a storm! Unfortunately this leads you
and your fellow friends to be shipwrecked on an island, which is also a theater
for some reason. Hatty is kidnapped by some evil cats who force him to run the
theater in which you and your fellow friends/prisoners/performers are forced to
participate. Your mission is to complete every scene and rescue the aforementioned handsome gentleman, Hatty Hattington.
The art style of Battleblock Theater will be instantly
recognisable to those who have played Behemoth’s previous games. Cartoon
effects and customisable characters with colourful yet simple backgrounds make
Battleblock Theater’s visuals fitting for the type of game it is. There is an
ongoing quest to free all of your friends from the captivity of the cats which
you do so with gems, collected from each scene. Once freed, these prisoners
become playable characters and collecting each character quickly becomes
addictive. The soundtrack to the game is fun and bouncy and just really fits in
very well with the atmosphere the game creates. The dialogue is also hilarious.
The narrator constantly heckles you through every death with words of wisdom
such as “Oh, that was the easy part” or “You died there?” And on top of
that the story itself is enough to keep you completing level after level,
hoping to get to the next side-splitting cut-scene.
The gameplay itself is simple and challenging at the same
time. The controls are easy to learn and the earlier levels ease you into the
game quite fairly. As the game progresses the skill required to complete each
level increases to the point where it becomes quite difficult in the final
stages. Collecting each gem and ball of yarn (Yay! Yarn!) becomes more
challenging by each level and the A++ grades that came easy with the earlier
stages quickly become quite elusive. It is in the co-operative game-play that
the game becomes most enjoyable, with teamwork essential to complete some levels
and betrayal a constant temptation, Battleblock theater has all the ingredients
to make an addictive co-op experience. The game is reminiscent of the Portal
series, particularly in the co-op modes with the puzzler aspect which makes you
work together and with the humour sprinkled throughout. The story mode doesn’t
have any moments which are beyond completion, so long as you have the perseverance
needed, and the game doesn’t glitch at any point. Obviously this is what you’d
expect from a game but recently it seems that some developers have forgotten
about this (I’m looking at you SEGA) so it’s worth a mention
It’s important to mention the online aspect of
the game. The great thing here is that Battleblock Theater comes with a level
editor, where users can create their own scenes and build them into a playlist
for others to play online. This creates an endless supply of puzzles to
complete, so if you think you’ve come to the end of the game finishing the story
mode then think again! They’ve also included a rating system for these levels
and playlists so when you do find one that might be a little glitchy (and with
user created levels you’d expect nothing less) then you can warn other players
by leaving a bad rating for the playlist. This also means that you’ll have a
good idea of what a playlist is like before even giving it a go. There’s a wide
selection of multiplayer modes including death-match, basketball, king of the
hill and capture the flag (or pig in this case) and users can also create levels
for these modes to be played by the community.
The Verdict
Battleblock Theater is a puzzle platformer that’s easy to
learn and fun to master. Simple in its concept the game is surprisingly addictive,
hilarious and endlessly entertaining. For 1200 Microsoft Points you won’t
regret a single second of gameplay. Now stop reading this review and go
download it and, in the immortal words of Hatty Hattington: “Hold on to your
butts!”
Rating 9/10