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Newgrounds Presents Castle Crashers :: Review by Charles
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Album Title: | Newgrounds Presents Castle Crashers | Record Label: | Newgrounds |
| Catalog No.: | Promotional | |
| Release Date: | October 1, 2008 | |
| Purchase: | Download at Newgrounds |
Overview
Everything about the Castle Crashers soundtrack screams that humorous, awesome, and especially epic style straight from the heart of the game. The Castle Crashers soundtrack is, no doubt, one of the more appropriate soundtracks I've heard in a video game. The funny thing about the soundtrack is that it was never actually written for this game specifically. It's actually a collection of music previously made by various users of Newgrounds. Despite what you might be thinking, it's far from amateur and I can't say I've ever heard a better user-based soundtrack in my life.
Body
This game is no doubt a comedy, but that doesn't stop it from being epic. The more serious tracks work extremely well. I don't like to use the word "epic" too often, but I think anyone who has played this game would agree that it is an appropriate word. Some of the greatest serious music starts right with the main theme, "Four Brave Champions". It really gets you pumped for battling with your buddies and the fact that I could see it in a big name action RPG shows some of these non-professional musicians are worthy too. There must have been a lot of picking and choosing for what tracks went into the game and, of course, these were the best of the best. And after a battle of epic proportations, there's nothing better than relaxing to the quirky shop track called "Spanish Waltz". With the style of the game, it all just flows perfectly back and forth from epic to humorous.
The boss tracks also range from upbeat to epic depending on the boss. The final boss track, "Necromancer", is just bursting with hardcore rocking energy and when the synth comes in, it sounds great. The Painter Boss' theme is just upbeat and silly like the painter boss is. The tracks do get a bit repetitive while listening to them without the fun game to back them up, and I'll talk more about that in a moment. A lot of the action-packed tracks contain electronic beats, but they are not exactly techno tracks; it works most of the time but at times it gets a little annoying.
For more light-hearted levels there are themes like "Jumper", the theme to the forest entrance. It's a great, upbeat synth track that you will, no doubt, have stuck in your head. It's extremely energetic, but smooth to the ears also. It amazingly captures the fun vibe that this game has and is my personal favorite track. "Jumper" is then followed up by the fun and haunting forest theme, "Space Pirates". There's just not much to complain about here except that I would like it to be a little less looped.
And in the end, that is the problem with the soundtrack. No matter how much I love the tracks, they aren't all full out compositions. This doesn't help them stand out as much with out the game to back it up. I'll admit that my nerdy self has tracks like "Spanish Waltz" and "Jumper" on my iPod, but I'd listen to them a lot more if they had a crazy solo or bridge to complete them. This just isn't noticeable when playing the game as the music shifts so much through the fray. Also, this was a collaboration of many artists, so the music isn't exactly stable quality-wise. It does flow together enough to make a consistent enough album at least. And some of these track are so fun that it really doesn't matter.
Summary
To summarise, the music of Castle Crashers is detailed but not exactly layered or artistically deep, and it really just makes it all the more fitting with the game. The game doesn't look good on paper, and neither does the music, I'm sure. However, it just has so much heart and humor and, well, "epicness" that you can't help but love it at times. It really has found it's own space in the giant world of gaming. There's really no reason not to give this soundtrack a try, as the tracks are completely free at Newgrounds. I'd still suggest playing the game though since the music works best there.
