If you ever have had fond memories of going to some kind of family entertainment center and playing arcade games like The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men, or Final Fight then you will absolutely love Castle Crashers. Not only is it a refreshing breeze of nostalgia for beat-em-up fans, but it is also one of the best Xbox Live Arcade games currently on the marketplace.

As you would imagine from a game like Castle Crashers, the story is simple. There you are just partying in your castle when all of a sudden you are attacked by some wizard who steals a giant crystal and four hot princess right from under your nose. What does the crystal do? Why did they have to take the Princesses? Who cares, all you need to know is that you need to get their asses back to the castle. So you set off on a quest through over twenty unique locations and battle against over twenty bosses to rescue the princesses and perhaps even save the world.

What sets Castle Crashers apart from your typical shallow action beat- em-up game is that it has some very profound RPG elements that add several layers of depth. The four characters that you start out with each come with their own unique set of magic attacks. The Orange Knight uses fire, the Green Knight uses poison, the Red Knight uses Lightning and the Blue Knight uses Ice. In this way you can kind of look at them as character classes. As you play through the game, your characters level up and give you the opportunity to add points to four stats: strength, magic, defense, or agility.

In addition to being able to add points to stats by leveling up, you can also find or buy new weapons that give you stat bonuses. This gives the game a very Diablo-lite feel as you’re constantly on the look out for new weapons to beef up your stats. If that isn’t enough, there are also a total of 26 Animal Orbs that are hidden throughout the world that give your character some sort of bonus when equipped. Some Animal Orbs grant stat boosts, while others will fight along your side and others can make you jump higher or run faster when in water.

As far as the actual gameplay is concerned, the combat is simple. X and Y are your two melee attack buttons, B lets you use your various items and ranged weapons, LT brings up your shield, and holding RT and pressing A, B, or Y lets you use magic attacks. As with any good beat- em-up game though, beating up your enemies in Castle Crashers is incredibly satisfying no matter how you decide to do so. If you prefer melee, try to keep an aerial combo going infinitely by bouncing your opponent off the ground and back up into the air as you continue your barrage of quick attacks that keep you suspended in the air. If you’re a magic oriented character, I dare you not to smile as you get your magic stat maxed out and can shoot a lightning bolt across the screen, electrocuting nearly every enemy in the area and dealing about 50 damage per second. Or even if you’ve maxed out agility and can defeat nearly every enemy in the game by shooting your bow at a speed only limited by how fast you can tap the B button. There is something for all kinds of players in Castle Crashers, and it adds to the replay value immensely by making the experience change so significantly depending on how you decide to spend your level up points.

Of course, the big selling point of Castle Crashers is the fact that you can play it with up to three other players both on one Xbox 360 console and over Xbox Live. Unfortunately, as of the writing of this review, the online play quite simply does not work the way it should. Trying to get into a random game with other players has been an exercise in futility for me, with it only succeeding one time out of about 20 attempts. A fix for this is on its way, but it is a shame that they would put out a game with such a large online component, only to have it not work for a majority of people.

Online flaws aside though, Castle Crashers is a fantastic game that all fans of the genre should pick up. Even after you beat the main game, there is an unlockable difficulty called “Insane Mode” that basically forces you to team up with other players if you even want to have a chance of beating it. Combine this with the 26 Animal Orbs, a multitude of hidden characters, and a game that is highly replayable by its very nature and you have what is likely the longest lasting Xbox Live Arcade game there is. At $15.00, it’s bit pricier than most XBLA games, but that $15.00 game has more value stuffed into it than many full priced Xbox 360/PS3 games these days.