The Indie Shelf: Battleblock Theater

Hello everybody! On this installment of The Indie Shelf, we have Battleblock Theater (recently gone Game for Gold).

BATTLEBLOCK THEATER

Developer(s)	The Behemoth Big Timber Studio
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Studios The Behemoth (Steam)
Designer(s)	Dan Paladin, Tom Fulp
Platform(s)	Xbox 360,Microsoft Windows, Linux
Release date(s)	Xbox Live Arcade April 3, 2013 Windows, Linux May 15, 2014
Genre(s)	Platformer
Mode(s)	Single player, Co-operative and competitive multiplayer (1-4 players, local and online)

You’re an anonymous doughy prisoner, stranded in a dilapidated theatre run by cats in the sway of a haunted hat; cats who build deadly platform challenges out of blocks and make prisoners like you run them for laughs.
In the regular game, the aim is to collect gems to unlock the exit while seeking bonus gems and balls of golden yarn to unlock new weapons and unlockable bonus heads for your character. Progression is a mix of rapid, accurate movement—your abilities include double jumping, wall jumping, sliding and dashing—and puzzle solving based on the blocks you’re faced with.

Flash games aren’t the crucible of indie talent that they once were, but Battleblock Theater carries the legacy of those halcyon days. The technology might have changed, but this is a game from the culture that produced Meat Boy and N+. It’s by The Behemoth, the guys that made Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers, and it marks a sea change in how much indie developers are capable of achieving with a single game. It’s a platform adventure, a co-op and versus multiplayer game, a creative suite and a comedy revue.

What sets Battleblock Theater apart, in the first case, is that its levels are contraptions. Blocks interact with one another according to a consistent internal logic, and this logic is used to create challenges that the player can tinker with. You might encounter a platform that fades in and out of existence on a regular timer—but this timer isn’t set by some behind-the-scenes clock.

It’s determined by a laser block, situated elsewhere in the level, that regularly fires at a switch block that triggers the platform. Block the laser at the correct time and you can prevent the beam from hitting the switch, stopping the vanishing platform from disappearing—and so on. You’ll crack dozens of puzzles like this over the course of the adventure, and a full block-based level editor expands the potential challenge exponentially.

It’s all presented wonderfully. Battleblock Theater is a very funny, sharply written game, narrated with incredible energy. Puppet theatre cutscenes put a smile on your face and intermittent lines of voiceover keep it there. Then there are the excellent songs, particularly the hilarious, nonsensical scatting that accompanies secret levels. There’s a lot of The Muppets in Battleblock Theater, in the best possible way.

PROS:

• Fun game play elements.
• Interesting plot.
• Somewhat challenging puzzles.
• Likable characters.

CONS:

• Slow Game play.
• Silly and elementary dialogue.

SCORE: 8.5 / 10

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