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Super Meat Boy character select screen reveals playable Alien Hominid [update]

by Ben Gilbert { Jul 5th 2009 at 7:00PM }

Things are on the up and up for Super Meat Boy developer Edmund McMillen. After releasing This is a Cry for Help last year and subsequently announcing SMB for WiiWare, he put his indie cred on display for the world in adding Braid's Tim to his upcoming game. And now, during a live video interview with Bytejacker, McMillen ~~revealed~~ The Behemoth's Alien Hominid as another playable character!

Quickly panning to his computer screen during the interview and teasing it, one of our wonderful readers snagged a screen grab so we could share it with the world. Now the real question: Castle Crashers characters playable as well? Hmmmm, McMillen? Hmmm?

(We love you. Please?)

Update: It was pointed out by a few astute Game Informer readers in the comments section that Alien Hominid was actually revealed as a playable character in a recent issue. Sorry, folks!

(Thanks, Zack!)

Reminder: Alien Hominid HD for 400 MS points this week

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 30th 2009 at 12:00PM }

Major Nelson reminds us that Alien Hominid HD is only 400

($5) this week for Xbox Live gold members. The Behemoth's first XBLA title is normally priced 800

($10). If this is somehow your first time ever hearing about Alien Hominid, the title received generally favorable reviews -- and we'd also like to welcome you back from your troglodytic lifestyle of the last three years.

The Behemoth is currently working on ~~The Crying Sugar Cube Leprechaun~~ its third as-yet untitled project, which the developer recently showed off in trailer form.

Fable, Alien Hominid HD get slashed for March Deals of the Week

by Xav de Matos { Mar 13th 2009 at 5:41PM }

Before Peter Molyneux and Co. captured our GOTY hearts with Fable II, Lionhead introduced the world to Albion in Fable -- on the original Xbox. Next week -- billed as the figurative pot of gold for St. Paddy's Day -- the Xbox Originals release of Fable will be discounted to 800

($10) on March 16, down one third the standard (Read: Overpriced) tag of 1200

.

March 23's Deal of the Week isn't nearly exciting, discounting the Iowa Mission Pack for Battlestations Midway by 20%. Finally, to put an Irish kiss on the end of the month, the Deal of the Week beginning March 30 will be the XBLA title Alien Hominid HD, discounted by 50% to 400

($5). Those are some quality price drops... Irish I had some more MS Points.

The Behemoth revealing trailer for third game next week

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 10th 2009 at 10:09AM }

The Behemoth has announced that it's ready to unveil a trailer for its third game on March 18, "just a few days before" the Tokyo Anime Fair. The latest post on the company blog informs that several of the developers are going to the Tokyo Anime Fair on March 20-21 and will showcase Alien Hominid, Castle Crashers and "an uber-early version of Game #3." So, if you're in Tokyo, would you kindly upload any gameplay video you capture to YouTube?

As an amuse bouche, The Behemoth also showed off an image from the new game (pictured). Early idea on a name: The Crying Sugar Cube Leprechaun vs. The Helghast.

[Thanks, Adam M O'Neill]

Castle Crashers dev's third game closer to unveiling

by Randy Nelson { Mar 9th 2009 at 8:10PM }

The Behemoth, developer of Xbox Live Arcade favorites Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers is preparing to reveal its third -- as of yet unnamed -- title. The dev has been teasing "Game #3" on its blog and Twitter feed for some time, updating the latter today with, "Trailer for game #3 is complete!"

Given that the 2009 Game Developers Conference kicks off in San Francisco in only two weeks' time, we'd say the odds are good that Game #3 will get a proper unveiling -- and title -- during the event. Predictions? Let's hear 'em in comments.

[Via Primotech]

Castle Crashers seizes 250,000 players

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Sep 16th 2008 at 5:30PM }

Speaking to Gamasutra, indie developer The Behemoth has revealed that 250,000 players have now experienced the joys of barging into throne rooms and slaughtering evil, fish-wielding bear ... things. Castle Crashers' lead artist, Dan Paladin, said he was "pleasantly surprised" by the game's success. "I was optimistic and hopeful for Castle Crashers but I wasn't prepared for the reception it got."

Of course, neither was the game's online capabilities, with Paladin re-re-re-re-iterating that work on a soothing patch continues unabated. "You fix, you test, you verify in as many situations as possible, you fix again if you need to, you submit the update to Microsoft, they verify the fix, etcetera," he explained, unable to confirm a precise release date.

While people are waiting for error-free online romps, they've apparently been returning to The Behemoth's other XBLA darling, Alien Hominid. Compared to this time last year, nearly five times as many people are playing it and, if our memory serves, dying a lot.

Alien Hominid HD's Live play increases with Castle Crashers' release

by Dustin Burg { Sep 4th 2008 at 11:45AM }

Taking a looksy at last week's Xbox Live activity report (courtesy of one Major Nelson), one can spot Castle Crashers taking home the number one most played XBLA game award and even breaking into the overall most played 360 games list at the number seven spot. All of which we fully expected. But one thing that we didn't expect, and found rather interesting, was the appearance of Alien Hominid HD on the Live list.

Alien Hominid, The Behemoth's other year old XBLA game, landed in at the number nine spot on the most played XBLA game on Live list, after being absent since its release. An appearance that is probably a direct result of Castle Crashers' release and (possibly) the fact that a certain unlockable yellow alien is in the game.

[Via Joystiq]

Joystiq E3 Hands-on: Castle Crashers

by Mike Schramm { Jul 17th 2008 at 10:00AM }

Thanks to the dedicated blogging of the folks at Behemoth, we pretty much knew everything there was to know about Castle Crashers coming into E3 -- it's the followup to Alien Hominid, a game that started out on Newgrounds, and ended up on the XBLA. It's got tons of playable characters, lots of "animal orbs" you can recruit to fight with you, and a great art style and a sly sense of humor. In fact, the only thing we didn't know about it was probably the most important thing: how it actually played.

After playing it with Microsoft Director of Digitally Distributed Content Scott Austin here at E3, we can safely say it's going to be one of the biggest XBLA titles of this year (it's due out before September 21st). Castle Crashers is crazy good button mashing fun, and we can't wait to lay down our hard-earned Microsoft Points for it.

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