“Castle Crashers” will bring back sweet memories of your childhood. It’s in the action, beat-’em up genre that supports online and local multiplayer. It has amazing, catchy music that aligns with the mood and what’s happening at that moment. The 2D and cartoon art style pairs well with the humor the game is attempting.

There are two main game modes, but the campaign is the one you’ll be spending the most time on. The story in “Castle Crashers” is that you are just partying, having a good time when an evil warlock steals the king’s magic crystal and four princesses. The king sends you to save the princesses and his crystal, and so the journey begins.

As you play, you level up and gain experience points, which you can add to strength, magic, defense, or agility. If you put the points into strength, you can do more damage to enemies using combos and attacks. If you add them into magic, you deal more magic damage and get new attacks like projectile magic. With better defense, you experience less damage from enemy attacks, and with more agility you move quicker and shoot your bow faster. There are animal orbs and weapons hidden throughout the game that increase your stats in exchange for a slight decrease in others. Some weapons and animal orbs can be sold in the shops, along with potions and other items.

The other game mode is arena. If you are playing it solo, waves of enemies fight you in a colosseum. The more you kill, the more that come. In multiplayer, you’re pitted against your friends in a fight to the death.

“Castle Crashers” has funny moments that will delight the child in all of us. Playing with friends improves the experience, as they will laugh along with you. There are dozens of characters, weapons, and animal orbs to unlock, along with an insane mode with each character. Multiple characters mean multiple playthroughs if you want to complete the game, however, doing that back to back can get repetitive.

The $15 price tag is well worth it. “Castle Crashers” is superb the first time you play it, but it starts to get stale after a while. I give it 8.5 clown princesses out of 10.