BattleBlock Theater

There’s a jolly but ephemeral pleasure in modes that pit you against an opposing team, each tasked with painting the level your colour, or dunking a basketball, even if they invariably descend into fisticuffs. But this stuff’s just the intermission ice cream - the main performance here is the singleplayer campaign. Castle Crashers showed the developers could make a game of splashily kinetic thrills and gleeful immaturity; Battleblock’s meticulous mechanical design, its taut level construction and soaring learning curve shows that they’ve grown up - if only in the ways that matter. Parp!

But as long as you’re willing to give it a chance, you’ll reap the rewards of a fairly deep, interesting game that was built with a lot of heart. I can’t wait to see how Behemoth follows this up, and I hope it doesn’t take five years to do it.

BattleBlock Theater is here to do for puzzle platforming what Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers did for side-scrolling combat.

BattleBlock Theater’s lack of focus keeps it from being a true XBLA great, but this platformer still kept a smile on my face from beginning to end. Extremely clever and inventive stage design, a well-honed difficulty curve, and wealth of extras and bonuses make it another winner for The Behemoth. Who knew keeping cats entertained could be so harrowing, and so fun?

In essence, BattleBlock Theatre is not without its frustrating moments, but such is the nature of all puzzle platformers. Any negatives noted here exist, but are slight and surely nothing more than minor blips in what is a very rewarding, very well presented, and very enjoyable and hilariously funny puzzle platformer. As the landscape of these types of games becomes increasingly bigger, it’s nice to see a game strive so hard for innovation. And in doing so can make the player feel like the ...