Castle Crashers is one of the top user rated and top selling Xbox Live Arcade games so it's no wonder that many companies are trying to mimic that success. There have been many hack and slash, games with adult humor trying to be the new Castle Crashers. Deathspank might be the closest we've gotten so far. It's simple you just run around killing basically everything on a quest for the artifact. In order to get this artifact you have to level by doing side quests. Some of them are pretty average like kill x number of a certain enemy, some however are funny like collecting poop from enemies after you beat it out of them. Your protagonist Deathspank is also very funny he's like Adam West as Batman combined with every stupid and raunchy teen comedy guy. I found myself time and again picking dialogue that wouldn't advance the conversation just because I had to hear the ridiculous things he was saying.
The controls are easy to master and pretty simplistic but this is what fans like in hack in slash games. It's fairly linear as far as you really can't wander off the beaten path but you do have totally control over what quests you do and when. New items and weapons are dropped/found in chest frequently, almost to frequently in fact. More then once I found myself picking up a chest piece and before even having a chance to check it out I had picked up something better.
Really though is to much good loot a complaint? Sort of, loot helps only your health since bumping up attacks is solely based on leveling. Not only that but the world is small, REALLY small which means the game is short REALLY REALLY short. It's no surprise that when you look on the leader boards less then a week after the game was released most people have reached the level cap. Now most hack and slash games aren't known for their extreme length, and being an arcade game would shorten it a little, but a five (at most) hour game for so many 1200 points? I hope there is lots of dlc coming out and I hope it's cheap otherwise I feel sort of ripped off.
But again it's a very funny, very nicely made hack in slash and if that's what you need as a gamer I highly recommend it. However if you are only slightly interested wait for the price drops that are sure to be coming, or for it to hit deal of the week.
