Then, something happened on XBLA.  4 magical knights arrived on the scene, in the form of Castle Crashers.

Man, did that shut me up good and proper. Here it was, the jewel in Behemoths already sparkling crown. I was (as always) filled with doubt as I downloaded the demo from XBLA  as I had seen and heard about this 2d scroller beat em up from the team behind the great Alien Homimid, which don’t get me wrong I did enjoy but felt it lacked a certain something. But Castle Crashers totally exceeded my expectations. With a solid 5+ hours of gameplay which can be thoroughly enjoyed with 3 more friends either there in the room so the banter / insults can flow freely, or over XBL where the same thing can easily occur as you bond and test the boundaries with your new found cyber pals.
The gorgeous 2.5d cartoon animation coupled with genuinely funny moments make this  an absolute treat to play. Collect sandwiches to go all “hulk on yo ass”, an array of weaponry from a stick to something that looks suspiciously like a light sabre and powerups in the form of collectable creatures which float aimlessly above your head randomly raining down all sorts of fire and brimstone on your assailants.  If you want a break from slaying the vastly varied forms of enemies then you can head to either the arena to fight amongst yourselves or prepare for the button bashing spectacle in “all you can Quaff” which reminded me (and my thumbs) of a Mario party mini game.
Since its launch the team have added some downloadable content which gives you access to more playable characters complete with their own special abilities and while there a nice addition I only hope they add some more mini games or side missions.
For a mere 800 points, this is worthy of a place on your hard drive.