Big Helmet Heroes

Crashing that Castle

In 2008, developer The Behemoth released Castle Crashers, an incredibly fun beat’em up brawler with entertaining 2D visuals and the humor the studio would continue to bring in future releases. It was a lot of fun and remains one of my favorite co-op experiences of all time. Big Helmet Heroes, developed by Exalted Studio, brings a lot of inspiration from the now 16-year old title. With a host of knights to unlock, and twenty levels to explore, this local co-op adventure is the spiritual successor to Castle Crashers we’ve all been waiting for. 

With some fantastic animations and impressive special attacks, you’ll harness the power of four distinct combat styles and use your surroundings to your advantage as you wield whimsical and hilarious weapons. Everything is a weapon alongside your arsenal of swords, hammers, and staves, from electric fly-swatters to foam fingers, frying pans, boltguns, and more.  

Across your adventure to save the princess, you’ll have to rescue 28 other knights. You’ll begin the journey as Shepherd, eventually unlocking the chaotic samurai in Tornado, the wielder of time in Chronos, to the exalted one, umm.. called Exalted. There are some fantastic choices here with some of my personal favorites being the ones wielding a staff in Chronos, who can stop time, to Sandstorm, who, as you might guess, causes a sandstorm to solidify your foes in sand. He is great for screen clearing, as is Gunner, who leaps out of the screen and can fire a Gatling gun at the entire field of enemies. Giant; however, might have the best ability as he turns into a massive version of himself and can stomp enemies flat. Thankfully, these abilities last for far longer than one might expect, allowing you to really rip into the waves of foes.

From the Goblin caves to Sunny Forests and taking to the seas as a pirate, you’ll explore deserts, pyramids, to the depths of a volcanic mountain. There are a lot of interesting levels, with a few that take to a bird’s eye view as a sort of maze. These levels didn’t quite suit what I wanted from the game, but the bulk of everything else is incredibly fun, complete with some wonderful bosses that can test your skills and your ability to work as a team. Since attacks like Sandstorm don’t freeze them solid, you’ll have to rely on your weapons to get the job done. 

Most levels will have a moment where you’ll have to contend with waves of enemies before you can progress. Otherwise, you are moving from the left to the right and decimating everything in your path. Abilities are easy to earn as you’ll find capsules that replenish your meter faster, and this allows your abilities to really become something you can use pretty often. The game has a solid pace to it that keeps the action going, especially with some fun and light combat that isn’t testing to new players. With several difficulty modes, anyone can easily pick up a controller and figure out exactly how each character works in just seconds. 

Combat works with light attacks, heavy attacks, and dodging. You can interact with new weapons, sheep, or grab enemies and toss them. From plunger guns to frying pans and pyrolaunchers, there are a vast arrangement of weapons that shake up your basic attacks. Ranged weapons have a one-use clip and can easily be swapped out for a fresh gun should you find an alternative. 

While special attacks are very useful, I do wish your abilities were not mapped to holding both Y and B. This is because you’ll often pull off your heavy attack instead, making it hard to get the timing right for the attack. Sadly, you cannot remap this at all, leaving you stuck with it. The amount of times I wasn’t able to get my attack off in time was in the hundreds by the time I rolled credits. It didn’t overally sour my time with the game, but was something that was a constant companion with the amount of sighs I would let out. 

You’ll also collect flowers that build a meter. This then drops a supply package from the sky. This pack usually consists of a weapon and some items such as an apple to heal or a canister to refill your special ability. Flowers are found everywhere, and petting a sheep will net you even more. These packs come in handy when you have used up every weapon on the field or need a spot of healing when you cannot find an apple, or have swapped to another character to perform combo attacks that in turn heal you as well. 

Most levels will have one, two, or three cages that will house the knights you’ll unlock. However, not all of these knights will be new. Cages are either grey or gold, with gold cages being new characters. You can tell the color of the cage on the level select once you have found it. I do have to say that finding a cage that belonged to a character I already owned was disappointing. Once I wrapped credits, I still had 17 knights out of 28 left to find, meaning through an entire playthough, I only found 11, not including the one you start with. While some of these are hidden in levels, especially the mazes, you’ll want to thoroughly explore the map. For a hint on the first really hidden one, in the first level, when your feet hit wood with lava on your side, explore the area to the left. 

There is a fun playfulness to the gameplay that really makes this a treat. I think the visuals are really great, with 3D models and animations that help this whole package shine. The opening cutscene that plays in fully rendered hilarity is wonderful, which makes the still frame cutscenes sadly feel like animatics for the actual cutscenes that should exist. While this is obviously would have been expensive to make, I feel it would have made the story bits really shine instead of feeling like something in progress. That said, while there is somewhat of a story, the narrative never feels like something really concentrated on here by the developer. 

Another issue is the performance of the game in one particular moment. When you fight the kraken, the game drops to single frames. I have a colleague who was stuck at this spot due to the shameful performance issues present here. That said, I also had plenty of crashes, to getting stuck in the background of the level more times than I can count which had me have to restart the level as there are no checkpoints. 

Despite its issues, Big Helmet Heroes is a blast. Its story bits feel unfinished, but the central gameplay that makes up 95% of the adventure is a true successor to Castle Crashers, making it a fun time with two players. While four players would have been ideal for being a party game, it’s likely something the studio will approach in a possible sequel, or at least that is my dream for where this series could go. I would also love to see something that breaks up the action, whether it is vehicle levels or turret sections, it could go a long way to add variety into the action. With fun weapons, engaging abilities, and 28 other knights to unlock across 20 levels, Big Helmet Heroes is certainly a fun time with a friend.

Developer - Exalted Studio.
Publisher - Dear Villagers. Released - February 6th, 2025. Available On - Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC. Rated - (E) - Mild Fantasy Violence. Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X/S. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.