Castle Crashers is a 2D beat 'em up video game independently developed by The Behemoth and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It features music created by members of Newgrounds. The Xbox 360 version was released on August 27, 2008 via Xbox Live Arcade as part of the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade. The PlayStation 3 version was released in North America on August 31, 2010 and November 3, 2010 in Europe via the PlayStation Network. A Microsoft Windows version exclusive to Steam was announced on August 16, 2012.[2] The game is set in a fictional medieval universe in which a dark wizard steals a mystical gem and captures several princesses. Four knights are charged by the king to rescue the princesses, recover the jewel, and bring the wizard to justice.
Castle Crashers was well received by critics on both platforms. The Xbox 360 version holds a score of 82.73% at GameRankings and 82/100 at Metacritic, while the PlayStation 3 version averages 88.67% and 85/100 at the same sites. The game was a commercial success, and the Xbox 360 version has sold over 2.6 million copies alone as of year-end 2011. The PlayStation 3 version has also done well, moving over 181,000 units as of December 2010.
