"To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood." -George Santayana
I would fathom to guess that ol' George Santayana may have built a sandcastle or two, just for the thrill of participating in its destruction. A lot of games have taken a cue from this philosophy: Space Invaders, Star Castle, and Tron all used destructible elements. Even modern games have destroyable cover, wreckable cars, and exploding creepers. The good folks at Zen Studios, creators of Star Wars Pinball and FX Pinball (Zen Pinball if you play on a Sony), are bringing gamers the modern downloadable equivalent of kicking over your brother’s Lego fortress: CastleStorm arrives on XBLA on May 29th.
CastleStorm is a mixture of a tower defense game and Angry Birds, with a comical visual style that reminds me a lot of Torchlight. Players simultaneously control assault troops, a ballista, and a mighty hero who is able to teleport from the castle to any point on the battleground. Troops consist of either knights or vikings, archers, and spellcasters. The ballista can utilize several type of ammunition, from anti-personnel javelins to powerful wall-smashing spiky balls of death. Killstreaks supercharge ballista ammo for a short period of time, so players should take advantage of the temporary upgrade quickly. The hero, Sir Gareth, is the mightiest, yet terribly underpaid, knight of the realm, and can make quick work of most ordinary troops. Larger animals, like trolls and dragons, complement the fighting forces.
The castle editor allows players to construct their own castles.
The game includes online multiplayer modes, co-op, a humorous single player campaign, and a castle editor: that’s right, amigo, you get to build your own castle! The gameplay is in real time, and there is a lot of stuff going on at the same time, but it doesn’t take long to get a handle on the controls and start whipping ass, medieval-style. Once I got the controls down, I was able to switch ballista ammo, direct ground troops, and put Sir Gareth exactly where I wanted him without getting too confused. The destruction physics are pretty good and the 2D presentation felt awfully familiar, yet addictive. The game is difficult, without being overwhelming: single player enemy advancement is particularly constant and challenging. However, a game like this is at its best when two friends are playing against each other, protecting your Lego fortress while trying to knock down your buddy’s Legos. Expect a lot of replayability out of this game.
Final Verdict
While Angry Birds veterans may see a lot of similarities in this game, CastleStorm is no clone. It takes the best parts from several genres and puts it all together in a fun package, for only 800 MS points. Zen uses the tagline “building castles and knocking them down has never been so much fun” and I think they’re right. You would be hard-pressed to find a better game for ten bucks.
