We are always on the lookout for new games to play, in local co-op, that our eight year old will enjoy. She’s one of those kids that likes playing with others and finds video games more fun with friends. When I downloaded Crossy Road Castle on our Xbox, I knew that she knew Crossy Road from video game arcades and mobile phones, so figured she’d be into playing. What I didn’t expect was me, myself, wanting to play the game even after she was done.
Crossy Road Castle does a fantastic job of creating small, bite-sized, action packed platforming levels that make you want to go again, and again, and again. We started off playing local three-player, with Amelia, Robin and I all playing together. After a few short levels, Dann wanted in and soon we had a packed couch!
The levels show up in a random order after they’ve introduced the mechanics from that castle to you. You’ll be zipping your way through these short levels, flying on rainbows, dodging enemies, collecting coins, and avoiding spikes! There are so many different types of levels but after a while in the same tower, you’ll start really understanding what each one does. Some levels even have bonus “exit” doors that lead you to places where you can find more coins. It’s fast, frantic and so much fun!
The really good thing about playing multiplayer is that if one of you makes it to the end door, you won’t completely lose a life, even if the rest of you die. This means that it takes everybody dying on one screen to lose one of your three lives. Also, once one person makes it to the door, the rest will be teleported after a while, so playing with younger children is pretty easy.
Each tower does have bosses, which all feel and work differently. You will be facing the boss of the tower again and again through the one tower, but the way the boss acts and attacks is slightly more intense each time. We found this to be a good break from the platforming actions, as it’s primarily a bullet-hell approach to bosses, which are fun.
Every 10 levels, you are able to spend 100 coins for a heart, collecting up to three hearts from the vending machine. This is a fun little way to keep yourselves afloat! They also appear as an option before a boss and after you have defeated the boss, which is quite generous.
Once you do actually die, you get to see a bunch of points add up, showing your run in giant boxes. Players also get little pop-ups above their head saying if they were the fastest or collected the most coins. You can then spend your coins and tokens on another gacha style machine that gives you new characters, hats to wear on your characters or stickers for your sticker book. Robin was instantly obsessed with getting all of these and filling up their book.
Unlocking a new tower isn’t actually about defeating the previous tower, something that I did not expect. In Crossy Road Castle, you just need to clear a set number of rooms, collectively. This then gives you a new building with its own challenges, new mechanics and new monsters that you need to kill. You can also switch between these towers each time you restart the game, so they aren’t really for progression and instead are just for having some variety and finding out what mechanics you like. The construction tower, for example, has enemies you need to bop to stun, then hit towards ropes where they then light them on fire. It’s wild and brings a lot of challenges as you explore.
Crossy Road Castle is a very fun game, one that the entire family will enjoy. With so many different levels, characters and just general stuff – it’s one that’s well worth the price tag, even if you found Crossy Road to be boring.
Crossy Road Castle can be found on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.
