You didn’t need to be psychic to see that when The Behemoth shambled its way out of the swamps of Newgrounds back in 2003 that it would be a studio going places. And sure enough, in the twelve years since its inception, each of the team’s games have been both critically and commercially adored. So what are the folks behind games like Alien Hominid and Battleblock Theater cooking up now? Well come with me and we’ll find out.
Pit People
Holy hell I think Pit People is shaping up to be my favorite title from the studio to date. The game has progressed quite a bit from a year ago when it was yet to even have a name. (If you missed my impressions from last year then you can find them here.)
To recap, Pit People is a tactical RPG (think Fire Emblem or XCOM) condensed down in such a way that most people should be able to just pick it up and go, even if strategy isn’t normally their thing. The game is remarkably approachable, asking players to worry less about issuing commands in the heat of battle and more about where you place your units and how you customize your party. Some may be turned off if I use the phrase “streamlined”, but make no mistake this is a much more complex game than anything you’ve seen from The Behemoth to date.
Because I played the game at the show last year I was able to skip the normal introductory sequence and begin my twenty five minutes of play right where the previous demo ended. The first obvious change was the addition of some new party members including Gluten, a healing class who is also a sentient cupcake with the voice of a baby. Absurdist humor can easily come across as goofy or cheap, but as usual The Behemoth pulls off the bizarre with all the finesse required to put a smile on your face. The second notable change this year was the game’s difficulty which I found to be considerably more challenging than before, something that I had worried about a little bit after breezing through the game last time.
I’m particularly in love with the game’s recruitment system. Charging into battle with the right items will give you the opportunity to capture one of your enemies and turn them over to your side for future battles. The process works like so: eliminate all of your enemies except the person you wish to recruit, throw a net on your presumed captor, if you have a cage in your inventory your new friend will be selectable the next time you visit the game’s hub city.
Fans of The Behemoth won’t be surprised to find that Pit People will feature two player couch co-op. Although the demo was entirely single player, the studio’s community manager Megan Lam was able to shed some light for me on how exactly the second player would factor into your adventure. Basically your partner will be able to customize and control their very own second team of heroes in battle. In order to properly address having double the normal amount of party members on the battlefield, enemies will be stronger and have more health while playing with a friend. Two players not good enough? The game will also allow you to pile in an additional two people in an additional vs mode.
It’s still early, and in typical Behemoth style the current release date for Pit People is “when it’s done”, a philosophy that certainly hasn’t steered the team wrong in the past. My twenty five minutes of play melted away in the blink of an eye and I’m really excited to get my hands on this one again when it eventually lands on Xbox One and PC.
Castle Crashers Remastered
While Pit People was obviously the star of the show this year, there’s also some fast big news regarding the team’s previous game: Castle Crashers, that news being that the game will soon be seeing a new remastered, 60 FPS re-release on the Xbox One. Beyond increasing the resolution dramatically the game will also feature some unspecified improvements to the online matchmaking and multiplayer, admittedly an aspect that was likely the weakest part of the original release.
But if bigger textures don’t tickle your fancy then perhaps a brand new mini game will convince you. Enter the incredibly chaotic Back Off Barbarian!
In this mini game your character is dropped onto a grid map and given the sole object of not getting caught by the barbarian tokens patrolling it. You move by pressing the face buttons on your controller, with the catch being that every tile has a different button map, meaning that while the A button may move you down one time, the next time it could move you in any other direction. The control swaps are clearly labeled, you can even see a couple moves ahead to get an idea of how to map out your movement.
This game is about as simple as it gets, and yet no matter how many times I played I found myself getting tripped up. I wouldn’t guess that Back Off Barbarian is going to be hours and hours of play for you, but it should be a nice distraction when Castle Crashers Remastered launches next week, on September 9th. Yes, you read that right, next week. AND if you already owned the original game on 360 you can snag a copy for free until September 20th. Go ahead and soak that one in.
