The King of Redvonia loves smashing things. "So what," you're probably thinking. "Who doesn't?" Well, my friend, the King of Redvonia has several advantages over you in the smashing department, such as an oppressed peasant class whose very life blood is being squeezed to provide the taxes for newer and greater projectile innovation. Not satisfied with the kingdom he conquered in the previous game, at this point the king has become a smash-aholic, invading another kingdom just because he's heard they've got great castles, and recruiting the best castle smashing talent that the stolen riches of his people can provide. A situation that can only end when one man stands up for the downtrodden, for the weak, for the defenseless... for FREEDOM.
Well, maybe that'll be the next game. Crush the Castle 2 is a physics game about smashing things. With a trebuchet! Woohoo!
The controls are as straightforward as the previous games. Click once to start the trebuchet, and click again to release its deadly cargo. Timing is everything. Release too early, and your missile might sail over the castle altogether; too late, and it will thud harmlessly into the ground at your feet. Once you get off a good shot, though, your payload will smash into the castle, causing it to topple to the ground while the hapless medieval folk inside burst like a bright red blob, leaving behind a tiny tombstone. Aww.
Analysis: There are many kinds of sequels. There are glorified expansion packs and palette swaps. On the opposite extreme, there are the sequels you wouldn't even know were related except for the name. Crush the Castle 2 knows not to change the core mechanics that made the first game a success, but they've improved the art and added some great new features.
The difference that hits you first is that this game actually is trying to do a plot and characters. A somewhat absurd plot and characters, but hey, you're causing tiny jesters to hand jive on fire, so that's actually just what you'd want. As you progress through the different areas, you'll meet different characters who will give you more kinds of ammunition, from the trustworthy old log to parachute bombs to a jar of electric eels. The over all feel of the game has gotten more puzzly. Rare is the level where you just wail on the thing trying to get a lucky shot. Instead, it's critical to figure out just what to use and where to hit for maximum effect, and a little thought is all that's needed to figure it out.
The game also includes a level editor where you can play with all the new building materials in the game. You can even set the time of day and weather, and your control over the terrain is much more precise than in the first game's level editor. In addition to several presets, you can randomize the ground or make it the exact curve that you want. The builder also includes a great feature, "settle", where you can test the castle and save it once it settles into a more sturdy position. If you need some ideas for your castle, you can check out the "People's Empire". The game's only been out a few days and there's already over 26,000 castles to take a whack at, which promises that there'll always be new challenges to scratch your smashing itch.
There is one drawback: you must register with Armor Games in order to save, and if you're allergic to registrations, this might be bad. However, the site-specific save does have the plus that you can load your game from any computer just by logging in. It's a small hassle, but you'll have to put up with it, until the day when you set up your trebuchet outside Armor Games HQ. Then they'll see. They'll ALL see.
I love this game and I've been playing it on and off for the past couple of days. Unfortunately I don't think Armorgames' servers are robust enough; most of the time when trying to play a random player-made castle, it takes ages to actually load one and often it won't work at all.
No music volume control? Fail.
Great review! Thanks for that. :)
Login is not a requirement actually. The game saves locally as well. It's just an added feature that you can login and load you game from anywhere.
Joey - thank you for not making logins a requirement for savegames. As much as I love the Armor Games crew, I try to keep my registrations to as much of a minimum as possible.
Great game, I can tell a lot of labor went into it! Kudos!
finished all the game levels (no user created levels showing yet). i appreciated the different weapons and backdrops but the level designs were not challenging. version 1 used to limit the number of throws before failing and having to start over. now with unlimited throws and only gold medals to give out and a few achievements, it's too easy. the old version took me a long time to get through. this one i finished in half an hour. plus the achievements unlocked before i even knew what they were. meaning not about to go after them as goals if i didn't know what they were first. boring.
I just heard the Wilhelm Scream. I love this game.
Beat all the castles, then went back and got almost all of the achivements, (one left)
Black hole bomb is surprisingly fun to play with in campaign mode,
It makes the hardest of levels easy, because as a weapon, it sucks... literally.
The "Toggle Fullscreen" in the context menu doesn't seem to work in either Firefox or Chrome+. Haven't checked Opera or IE yet.
The directions say that Arrows control view, but irritatingly enough WASD has been ignored. Meaning right hand mouse arrow jump. Ugh.
Besides that, does anyone have a hint for the "Hell Froze Over" award?
Do games through Armor Games' server drag for anyone else? I think it's the only place that drags for me. Games are slow and jerky, but on other sites they run fine.
Hell Froze Over spoiler
Use an ice bomb on any level with a volcano
of all the games that could do with an expanded back story, this to me is not one of them... it's called 'crush the castle', what could be more straighforward? I really like the updated graphics but otherwise this is really just more of the same, but hey, the original was great so nothing wrong with that.
Hell froze over:
Ice bomb on the volcano levels
Does anyone know how the prohibition achievement work? Do I just keep doing the levels with barrels?
There's a trick you can use to get most of the achievements:
You can get them even in levels you design yourself. So, for example, you can make a level with 100 barrels and destroy them to get that achievement. You don't have to save or upload your levels to do this (except for the achievement that requires you to upload a level).
Also note that there's no reward for getting all the achievements.
thanks Neddo, I hadn't thought of that!
anyone struggling with the prohibition task, ive made a level that will help you out
http://armor.ag/10r0N
I have a lot of questions!
Is there another weapon better than the ice bomb? How do you get it?
And,
What is a level with a volcano?
finally,
into the void?
So, Joye, you are saying the level scenic view in the first area requires no lucky shots? That it requires only planning? Wrong, to get the gold medal takes an endless amount of trying ended only by a lucky shot.
Rad:
1: Yes, there is the acid vial and void potion. The vial, you unlock later. The void potion, you get when all castles are crushed. 2: I think that means a level with a volcano in the background. 3: One shot a castle with the void potion.
I've beaten every level and I'm still missing this mystical suck potion. I'm only missing one gold medal. Is that the issue?
Thanks...Ok, how do you get gold medals in
1. Castle Conolopolis, 2. Ballroom Dance and 3. Solid City in Conalopolis?
Scenic View took me a long time to get gold. The middle ball would break through the wall but never actually hit the Queen. I couldn't get anything to work until I switched from the heavy ammo to the plain metal ammo.
Also, are people seriously cheating to get achievements in this game? What is wrong with you people? It isn't even like a gamerscore on XBLA, nobody is going to see the achievements you got from this game by making your own custom "achievement-getting" levels. What a waste of your life.
I agree that it's too easy. The focus on clever level design and having gold achievable with the available weapons on each level means the game is more about figuring out the "trick" to the level. Some of the best levels in the original involved castles that had to be brute forced - you'd look at it and figure out the weak point and then have to hit the weak point over and over again. It could be frustrating, but it was VERY rewarding. This feels more gimmicky.
Another thought:
It might be fun for levels from the original to be imported here, with all the new weapons.
By getting "Into the Void", do you get this mystical final ammo type? If so, how does one achieve Into The Void?
I think you get the ammo by getting all the gold medals, and you get the achievement by using the ammo.
you get a small vial that creates a black hole if crush all castles with gold medal, use that vial to complete in the void achievement. As for scenic view castle, for time being, just leave the castle without a medal, advance in the game. when you get 3 bombs, do this level again and you complete it easily
Anybody know how to get the air burst achievement? Seems straightforward, but I must be misunderstanding the instruction, and it's the only one I haven't got yet.
this game was easy xD in just over 15 min i was done :( with al achievement en everything
To get scenic view medal
Use acid on those walls and it'll end up with all the walls falling on those 3 dudes
Scenic view
use the electric eels on the metal part!
how do you get the scaffolding gold medal? its the only one im missing.
how do u get into the void acheivement?
Update