A fun if flawed 2d platformer. The game starts out excellent but isn't able to keep it going for the 10ish hours it takes. However this has an excellent 2 person co-op mode, though it's not required.Battleblock Theater is a game from The Behemoth, the same guys who released Castle Crushers and Alien Hominid. Both great games with a unique style. Batlleblock Theater is in the same category.
Battleblock Theater starts with 3 of the funniest minutes of gaming history as it tells the backstory to the game, and I haven’t laughed that hard at a game in a long time, if ever. The entire game is set up to be a stage play, but the opening is full theater presentation with objects on sticks and just a brilliant presentation. In fact much of the game’s inter world breaks are more videos similar to this and to be honest, they don’t always live up to the original opening but there’s still some humor to be found in them, even if they run a bit juvenile.
Then the game properly starts, the player is in prison by their friend Hatty Hatterton (yes that’s his name) and he must run through levels to the amusement of the wardens (A large number of cats).
The levels in this game are large single screen (though larger than the screen itself) maps that each hide seven gems and a ball of yarn. Three gems are needed to exit the level but completionists can go after all seven gems, as well as the ball of yarn, and do it in a set amount of time to get an A++ on the level. I chased “perfection” for a couple levels but the fact is most of the levels required multiple playthroughs to even get close to this bar, and ultimately I stopped, prefering to enjoy the game rather than chase the higher tier goal.
However if that’s not enough, the game also offers an Insane difficulty, during which all checkpoints are disabled and the player must beat a level in one life, or have to start over. This can get quite frustrating but luckily it’s not required to beat the game, just available for those looking for more challenge.
The entire game is comprised of 8 worlds with 13 levels per world, 9 normal, a finale which is a time attack over three levels, and then three encores which are the hardest levels that also contain a time limit.
But if that’s not enough, the game also comes with an absolutely excellent two player mode. Two players can tackle another 8 worlds, with 13 levels per world, designed with two players in mind, including parts which require cooperation. These levels are a great change of pace because rather than racing through the levels together you will actively be forced to work together and that works rather well, as long as you can avoid turning on each other.
However if there is some aggression to work out there’s competitive multiplayer, from speed runs, to fighting, to a painting race, there’s always something to do to keep between two to four players. While these sound interesting honestly, there’s not much here that I’d play more than once or twice. I liked some of the modes, but the competitive seems like an afterthought, and sadly the game seems to imply that it’s where the player should grind out gems to get all the unlockables, it’s not where I’d want to spend my time.
Finally there’s a level editor and the ability to play many levels created by fans. A good location for players who want more, and while every level feels like it could be made in the level editor, I didn’t really feel like playing random people’s levels as much as I wanted to play more of The Behemoth’s levels.
But there is a good amount of things to do in this game. I easily put in 10 hours, playing all of the single player and some multiplayer and could easily have doubled that if I went for mastery or just A++ or insane runs.
The part that saddens me though is I didn’t love the humor as much as those first minutes almost promised me that I would. There’s great moments (the secret level song still makes me chuckle) and the story has those flashes of greatness, but eventually the juvenile humor wins and it’s not as funny as I think it wants to be.
So how is the game overall? The fact is I recommend the game just because I love the level designs, I love seeing what came next, and there are moments where the game just sings. It’s a shame that it wasn’t able to keep it’s humor up the entire game, but I still wanted to play more levels, and I got my fill. This is a fifteen dollar game and for that price I think it’s just right.
I would recommend trying to find a partner as the co-op is excellent, but if you can’t and can only tackle the single player you’ll still have a good time. The competitive multiplayer and the grind to unlock all the content is disappointing, because it’s just not as good as the rest of the game, but overall, you still will have a good time playing this game.
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3.5