#philplays

So, this is the part where I apologize to my friends for calling them idiots. I was impatient, and very stressed due to seeing a clear answer and somehow being unable to understand how they couldn't figure out how navigate through several stages while grabbing the gems and the yarn and ALSO making it to the finish in time to get the speed medal.

"Sorry."

Alright, now that that's out of the way, Battleblock Theater is a game that deserves a recommendation from everyone who has played it. I'm a huge fan of The Behemoth. I've played them all, from Alien Hominid, Castle Crashers, even Dad n Me if you want to technically call that a Behemoth game (it's on newgrounds, made by Dan Paladin). Each game they make plays a bit differently than the previous one, but BattleBlock Theater is almost a not quite different from something they've done. Sort of. Alien Hominid had a 4-player minigame you could access from the main menu, which was a PDA game of sorts. You could go solo or with friends, navigate a large block-filled level with enemies, boats, gems, and hazards, while attempting to reach the end of the level. This was something that you could jokingly call a building block, towards what would become BattleBlock Theater. It was much less colorful, there wasn't a ability to throw the other players; it was simple. Later versions of Alien Hominid would eventually have more PDA levels added. Alien Hominid was released on Xbox Live Arcade, but even earlier than that, it had been released on GameCube, Playstation 2, and the regular old Xbox. At the time of it's release, I was in love with Newgrounds, and loved the art style that Dan Paladin used.

While BattleBlock Theater stays true to it's old PDA-styled roots, it has added much more. I understand that Will Stamper was added to the project while late into it's development. Stamper provides an incredible performance as the Narrator of the game. His voice first pops up in an opening intro and it's so incredible that you'd find yourself playing the entire game straight through in a single sitting, just to get from one movie to the next. Almost as awesome as Stamper's voice, are the cats in this game. They are extremely adorable (yes, I used that word) but also evil. You see, you crash-landed on an island where you and your friends have been captured by cats, and forced to perform. Stamper's voice urges you to collect all the green gems and reach the goal. You'll repeat this for 9 levels and then move on to a finale level where you must race against the clock. I'm not kidding here, I've said horrible things to my friends while playing this game. You can check out my YouTube series I did on BattleBlock Theater where I streamed the entire game on Twitch and was yelling at my co-op partner the entire time. This is kind of the reason I only record while I'm playing with friends, because I would hate to be absolutely rude to random people AND record myself doing it. This IS one of those games.

That is kind of the big part of this game. The yelling you will do, to your friends, your best friends. There is only one other game that has made me do this. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures on the Nintendo GameCube. That was a fantastic co-op Zelda game with one giant obstacle between you and good times. Rupees. The game counts how many rupees you pick up and tallies them up at the end of each level, so that you and your friends can bitch about who got the most. While the gems and yarn in BattleBlock Theater are collected equally, it's the attitude that you will exhibit while you're attempting to get by a robot, or those spikes, or that water, for the hundredth time. You will see a side of yourself that you never knew existed, unless you had played Four Swords Adventures.