The Behemoth still tinkering with that Castle Crashers patch
by Jason Dobson 
{ Dec 1st 2008 at 6:10PM }
The fact The Behemoth's fun, but undeniably broken Castle Crashers hasn't yet been patched boggles the mind. More than two years after the game's initial reveal, what players are left with is a crippled 1200
icon on their dashboard and months of promises for something better down the road. Not good enough guys, not even close.
Our sister site, Xbox 360 Fanboy, stepped up and asked The Behemoth point blank what's the hold up, to which they were treated to the same sort of non-information we've been reading for months. Yes, a patch is coming, and the devs say they are working to "get the title update out as quickly as we can." Also, the patch is "definitely reaching the end of the process," though a release date remains unknown. We've reached out to The Behemoth to see if we can find out more, but come on guys. Some things bend your line of credulity. Others, like this fiasco, just break it right in two.
icon on their dashboard and months of promises for something better down the road. Not good enough guys, not even close.Our sister site, Xbox 360 Fanboy, stepped up and asked The Behemoth point blank what's the hold up, to which they were treated to the same sort of non-information we've been reading for months. Yes, a patch is coming, and the devs say they are working to "get the title update out as quickly as we can." Also, the patch is "definitely reaching the end of the process," though a release date remains unknown. We've reached out to The Behemoth to see if we can find out more, but come on guys. Some things bend your line of credulity. Others, like this fiasco, just break it right in two.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dravean @ Dec 1st 2008 6:17PM
jerks...
Jerk Face [GT:xJERKFACEx] @ Dec 2nd 2008 12:31AM
Don't compare those lazy, wallet-raping bitches to me.
Thanks for taking my money and leaving me with a shitty, broken game The Behemoth. Hope your studio doesn't burn down or something.
...
Okay, that was admittedly harsh.
Fox318 @ Dec 1st 2008 6:19PM
Wow its already been "2 years".
Man I remember when this game first came out in 2006.
Haggard @ Dec 1st 2008 6:25PM
"after the game's initial reveal"
I'll forgive you since reveal and release share 5 letters.
Someone Sneaky @ Dec 1st 2008 6:27PM
It says it was announced 2 years ago, smart guy.
jajaes @ Dec 1st 2008 6:30PM
you r so retarded u delaystation3 fanboy.
Mr Khan @ Dec 1st 2008 6:20PM
We all know that good net code is tricky (Gears 2, Brawl, LBP), but geez. It's been over 3 months...
Danny F. @ Dec 1st 2008 6:43PM
Seriously... I was one of the first to defend them for an awesome game too. But 3 months and nada?? Not cool... I know its a small team and all but jeez. At least a incremental patch or something every month. You can't blame MS' authorization system anymore now.
Obie @ Dec 1st 2008 7:05PM
The game is great, but the botched online play ruined a lot of goodwill towards it. I made all my friends buy the game, but then none of us could play it together.
Not cool.
burgerbat @ Dec 1st 2008 8:57PM
I'm just glad a major gaming website is finally taking them to task for this. This seriously damages The Behemoth's credibility and consumer confidence. I'm still waiting for the day I can finally connect & play a game with my brother.
20 bucks says the Behemoth is going to respond with the same old "we're just two guys" bullshit. Just wait.
Markez @ Dec 1st 2008 9:39PM
@burgerbat
Just wait until CC2 that is! Seriously tho, thank goodness my then roomie and I had the chance to blaze through it while we both still lived in the same state. This would've been a blast to play coop over Live, I guess thank goodness I idn't have to?
omgJOHN @ Dec 1st 2008 6:25PM
Oh common!
"...what players are left with is a crippled 1200 icon on their dashboard..."
Your joking right? I played the game with my roommates from beginning to end and had an absolute blast. Yeah, there are issues, sure. Game breaking ones? Not even close.
I spent a lot more money on disc based games that were a lot more broken than this. Your being a tad harsh.
jpw21683 @ Dec 1st 2008 6:41PM
My game save just up and vanished, for no goddamned reason whatsoever. Hours and hours of leveling up, unlocking new characters/weapons/pets, all gone.
Yes, the game is broken.
As a die-hard Alien Hominid fan back in the day, it pains me to say I'll never buy another one of their products.
FAT MAN @ Dec 1st 2008 6:42PM
sorry but this game is a broken piece of shit that never should have been released. People game saves have been deleted, the game OFTEN freezes causing you to have to do a hard reset(I HATE GETTING OFF THE COUCH. Grrr), and half the time its must advertised feature the onine component, wont even let you join a game (no scratch that, i say 87% of the time matchmaking doesnt work).
john @ Dec 1st 2008 8:47PM
Agreed.
burgerbat @ Dec 1st 2008 8:59PM
It seems you're obviously in the minority. This is, as stated above, a BROKEN game for most users.
Courtney @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:12AM
Hmmm, I would say this might be a broken game for the most vocal users. The fact that there are many people complaining does not mean that the vast majority of people had problems.
We played it local only and had a blast. No glitches, crashes, lost game saves, just a ton of fun.
dphizzle @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:55AM
i think it would be safer to say that for those of us who wanted to play online or with xbl friends, it's broken.
i did beat the game locally and it was awesome, and when it was time to play with some of my friends who lived nowhere near me, the game froze often, disconnected randomly and i lost all my weapons and orbs.
so game is great if you can get 3 other people in the same room, but some of us dont always have that luxury. if it wasn't for this issue, i would say it is an amazing game.
Vcize @ Dec 2nd 2008 9:58AM
"We played it local only and had a blast. No glitches, crashes, lost game saves, just a ton of fun."
Well that makes sense considering every glitch except 1 is online related.
Seriously, your comment is akin to saying "oh I never played that game, so I never encountered any glitches, so it must not be broken".
The game was billed as a Live co-op experience, and co-op over Live not only doesn't work on it, but deletes your game saves half the time when you even try it.
And god forbid you get a RROD and have to try and play it on a different console, because then you can kiss that game save goodbye for sure.
RiccochetJ @ Dec 1st 2008 6:32PM
Aren't these guys a small dev house? I can't imagine that they can churn out a patch as quickly as someone like Epic can.
Although, it would be nice if they could give us some more information instead of these vague responses.
Danny F. @ Dec 1st 2008 6:48PM
Your 100%, it would take them longer, though in the same respect they made a lot im sure off the game so far so its only fair that they answer the calls of gamers looking for a patch. Sure they run the Newgrounds website and all but I mean most of that is self sustained. I cant really picture them having day jobs with the $ they earned on this.
offday @ Dec 1st 2008 6:34PM
This shouldn't be a surprise for anyone who bought Alien Hominid. It's the same old crap with the behemoth. Nothing is ever their fault.
Matthew @ Dec 1st 2008 6:47PM
I beat the game, but stopped playing since I could never connect with friends. When I saw it on my dashboard the other day I got excited and wanted to play again... but when I tried to start up an online game, it wouldn't even connect. :-(
Brian @ Dec 1st 2008 7:03PM
Paid for a fun online 4 player co-op game... Still waiting..
Yeah, definitely not buying their next game until they inevitably fix whatevers broken with it.
time @ Dec 1st 2008 6:43PM
This article is too harsh on them. They're an tiny indie dev house; they're not gonna be able to release a patch as quickly as large developers can. Plus, they've probably had it done for a while now. Microsoft isn't exactly quick when it comes to releasing things.
offday @ Dec 1st 2008 6:56PM
How's it too harsh on them? People pay a lot of money for these games, and when they don't work for months, that's unacceptable. I don't care if you're a big developer or a small developer. Your game needs to work. Especially when so many people are hyped about it. This crap happened with their first XBLA title, Alien Hominid too. I couldn't even save my freaking game for half a year. And by the time a patch actually comes out, no one gives a crap anymore.
If the behemoth is going to keep releasing broken games like this, then they need to give it up and shut down. After buying two behemoth games in a row with problems that make the games unplayable, I can officially say I'm done with their games forever.
bobartig @ Dec 1st 2008 7:14PM
@offday: Man, they are really shooting themselves in the foot. I think that Castle Crashers is a great game, and Alien Hominid has a following of its own. But, with all the problems the game has been seeing, and basically broken net-play, I can't exactly recommend others buy the game. As much money as they've made off of the games, they could have made a ton more with smooth online play and a problem-free launch. They're just leaving fortunes on the table here, which could be used to grow and make more better, bigger games some day. Such a waste.
I was really excited about this game, and even more excited about netplay with my friends across the country. I've played through it 3x w/ my girlfriend in local coop, and that process was basically problem free. However, I paid for an online game which I can't take advantage of, and can't recommend to my buddys. I've already moved on to other games, anyways.
FoxHoundADAM @ Dec 1st 2008 8:10PM
Didn't stop them from taking my money.
time @ Dec 1st 2008 9:01PM
This is a 15 dollar self funded XBLA game. Developers like this don't have the same resources for testing as those who develop $60 blockbuster games funded by publishers like EA or Activision. And even with that testing, a good number of these games still need patches after release to make them work the way they should.
15 dollars isn't a lot of money either. That's cheaper than even a DS title. For 15 dollars, errors are excusable. For 60 dollars, it better be problem free.
Also note that I haven't bought the game yet; I'm waiting for the patch to release before I buy it. I do think there is a problem with how long it's taking for this patch to release, but I don't think it's really fare to blame the developer.
Random Fires @ Dec 1st 2008 6:45PM
Look how long it took 2KGames to fix Civilization:Revolution. The only solution is to remember these sticky points when it comes to the next release, since gaming is always about the next game rather then one being played. To little too late seems to be a growing theme amongst those practice the "patch and play" mechanic.
Yuccadude @ Dec 1st 2008 7:10PM
You mean how long it took 2K games to break Civ Rev? Now I don't even want to play it any more because of what they did to some of the game mechanics. V 1.3 can suck it.
Sokkratez @ Dec 1st 2008 6:44PM
The broken game was given 9s and 10s. That boggles my mind more than the fact that it isn't patched yet.
BatAttack @ Dec 1st 2008 7:57PM
"How's it too harsh on them? People pay a lot of money for these games"
No they don't.
They pay a modest amount of money.
When I compare the cost of a game to the cost of things like food, it's not a lot, really.
FAT MAN @ Dec 1st 2008 8:14PM
STFU
food is a necessity (trust me i KNOW), games are not, games are a form of entertainment. Two different things
Obie @ Dec 2nd 2008 12:44AM
The reviews were accurate about the gameplay, that when it is works, it is wonderful.
I do blame that most reviewers simply never mentioned the technical issues.
J.Goodwin @ Dec 2nd 2008 9:46AM
Allegedly broken game. I haven't come across a bug yet in considerable online and offline play. I only hear about them from the same place that seems to go looking for dirty 360s in second hand shops then plugs then into 90volt power outlets and runs then 24 hours a day so that they can bring me the latest breaking news that one of them managed to red ring their system...again.
shannon @ Dec 2nd 2008 10:43AM
@BatAttack: OK. Lemme say for you what you really meant to say. People pay an OBSCENE amount of money for games; more than in any other generation before it and it will probably only get worse in subsequent generations. Developers/Publishers (teeny-weeney or giganto) need to stop putting out broken-buggy we'll-fix-it-some-other-day games and start putting out better quality product before we see another market crash like in the '80's.
Xanto @ Dec 1st 2008 6:45PM
I REALLY want to get this for the 4 plpayer co-op, but I've been waiting for them to fix it. :(
Katamari Toad @ Dec 1st 2008 6:54PM
I bought castle crashers and it ate my save data twice, first time it was characters, I thought right I know how to avoid it/try and restore it. 2nd time it ate all my weapons/animals/etc, I had ALL the weapons even that damn kings rod which took ages to get that damn king to die.
The DLC they offer best be free because theres no way on this earth or any other damn planet in the universe i'm paying for it after the game has screwed me over twice and it taking THIS long to get anywhere near fixed, in fact if it wasn't for this topic I probably would have forgotten about them even attempting to patch it.
wise_old_bird @ Dec 1st 2008 7:22PM
Wow, talk about lack of journalistic integrity.
First off, the game is FAR from broken, but it does has some severe bugs. I've put dozens of hours into the SP AND I've been able to play online / same screen MP extensively and never ran into any problems.
As far as fixing these bugs, it is odd that it has taken so long, but why is the development time of the game relevant at all? Where are all the other articles on Joystiq about having to pay $150 to get their PS3 fixed (which is at least as common as 360's dying these days), or how Super Smash Bros Brawl took 3 months to be able to play online properly?
Darrell @ Dec 1st 2008 7:45PM
Here's the crucial difference. I could actually play a game of Smash Bros Brawl during its initial release period. I have NEVER been able to connect to a multiplayer co-op mode in Castle Crashers ever. And the messed up part is that its the entire point of the game. This is a game that was paraded around as the king of side scrolling co-op. We were told for months about just how awesome it would be to go online with a bunch of your friends and beat the shit out of bad guys.
Now your point would be fair if say I bought an XBOX 360 and it could never go online, or if I bought a PS3 and it couldn't play blu-ray movies or if I bought a Wii and it didn't come with a sensor bar or something like that. But that simply isn't the case, and The Behemoth shouldn't get a free ride because they are small.
tmmoore_nc @ Dec 1st 2008 7:23PM
Didn't they say on their blog that at the end of October this patch was sent to Microsoft for certification?
If they're at work on it, it either means that the patch failed its' original certification and had to start again or they lied about it being sent in to Microsoft. Which is it?
FoxHoundADAM @ Dec 1st 2008 8:09PM
Yes they did say the submited it for certification. Either they lied or it failed. Either is likely knowing how they have treated this whole situation.
Doug @ Dec 1st 2008 7:36PM
Everyone here needs to look on the bright side. In a month or so, we will be playing Castle Crashers with people all over the states and yonder. Be happy guys, I mean, *I* can't even play Fallout 3 more than 3 times in a row lol. :D
Just be patient, good game about to be better.
FAT MAN @ Dec 1st 2008 8:18PM
online will probably be dead by then
burgerbat @ Dec 1st 2008 9:02PM
Online is already dead. It actually came DOA. Good luck.
FoxHoundADAM @ Dec 1st 2008 8:07PM
But don't worry guys, they had more than enough time to knock out that premium theme, only 180 MS available now!
Makes me know they care, going out ot their way like that.
burgerbat @ Dec 1st 2008 9:07PM
Don't forget your Castle Crasher figurines, now back in stock! Just in time for the holidays!
time @ Dec 1st 2008 9:17PM
artists don't have to program, smart one.
Ross @ Dec 1st 2008 9:06PM
I know Tom Fulp (the programmer behind it) and he was telling me how long the authentication process Microsoft puts content patches through can take to assure absolute quality. It's an unfortunate situation where a TINY development studio has to develop the patch THEN put it through this tediously long process. I'm really not surprised it's taken this long. I never really suffered any online problems once I found a friend who had compatible NAT settings, so it never really bothered me as we got no drop outs.