Battleblock theater is one of the few great platforming games that are on relevant platforms. It was made by one of my favorite companies The Behemoth, and it includes a ton of levels and quite an interesting storyline. It has many things to offer, so lets get to the review!
The Gameplay: The best part about Battleblock Theater is that what it does, it does VERY well. It has amazing level design, and its use of puzzles is not frustrating but just challenging enough to where you won’t get bored with it. The controls are fairly easy to use, and they are mostly what you would expect to be in a platformer, aside from the weapon system, which is a small mechanic in the character customization screen that I will get to later. Most of the Levels consist of using various objects to jump around, and use physics to your advantage.
Every level is permeated with excellent gameplay and a memorable soundtrack. Turn that volume UP!
The great part about this is that there are infinite combinations of levels, where you must think differently to solve each puzzle. The gameplay is mostly the same idea throughout the whole game; solve puzzles, collect three gems and the door will open to the next level. This method of going through levels is something that is easy to understand and very good for playing with kids. It has a co-op mode also, where you can team up with a friend to play a level together. This will actually change the level to make it so that you have to work together.
Then there is the shop, the shop is where you go to spend your gems and yarn which is collected once every level. Once you have five yarn, you can go to two shops: one to buy a tool, and one to buy a weapon. These can be equipped in the player customization screen and are very handy for things like killing enemies. When you have 10 gems, you can go to stores to buy extra heads (yes, tha’ts right, heads). You buy these heads, and you can equip them on your character to make them look different. These range from an angry triangle head to an apple with a face on it.
Altogether I would say that the gameplay is very entertaining, and is something that you will not get bored of quickly.
The style of animation really fits the cut scenes well.
The Graphics: All of the graphics in this game are 2d sprites, they all have a cartoonish style to them. Although they are not ultra detailed, I found them very easy to look at and understand. While the main game has these sprites done normally, every cutscene has the animations look like they are a play you are watching with props made of cardboard. There isn’t much to say about the sprites other than they are colorful, and cute. You can also make custom heads for yourself with 500×500 images that you put in a custom heads folder.
Altogether, I would have to recommend Battleblock Theater to anyone who likes a good platformer, it is one of the best platformers I have ever played, and I am sure most people would love it.