Castle Crashers has been a long time coming – originally announced as a PS2/Xbox game at the 2006 Comic Con, then courting controversy as developer The Behemoth pulled the game from the Slamdance Guerilla Games Competition in protest at Super Columbine Massacre RPG’s removal. But it’s here at last – reconditioned for an Xbox Live exclusive release, and raises the already high stakes set down by the developer’s previous title, Alien Hominid.

Perhaps it helps to be a retro-head, and a rabid, jabbering fanatic of old school 2D beat-‘em-ups, but the passion this revivalist game is laced with doesn’t suggest any kind of nostalgic lilt; this is every bit as contemporary as any hot new photorealistic, 3D, next-gen extravaganza. It simply happens to use hand-drawn two-dimensional graphics and adopts a classic, raw and unadulterated gameplay style.

Taking on the role of one of four caricatured knights of old, it’s up to you to head out into the barren battleground and lay waste to legions of nefarious malefactors. The gameplay is wonderfully reminiscent of the classic beat-‘em-ups that really set the arcades alight toward the end of the 1980s and into the 90s – before the coin-op died an ignoble death. But it doesn’t confine itself to 15-year old mechanics, making superb use of the technology and connectivity now available.

Four players can take up arms in a glorious co-op mode; either all together in the same room or warring it out quite transparently over Xbox Live. There combat is naturally at the core of the gameplay, and for such heavily stylized, cartoony graphics, it’s surprisingly action packed and dynamic. Heavy and light attacks are shored up by combinations that increase as the players level-up, while each knight sports his own brand of simple magic. Whether breathing fire or encasing enemies briefly in ice, this simple addition to your standard arsenal adds a brilliant dimension to the vigorous, addictive gameplay.

The huge range of wonderful and diverse enemies is augmented by the inclusion of system-controlled knights fighting the same battle you are. This inspired addition does more than just alleviate the more difficult, unfair moments of play – it creates a world in which the characters live. Most beat-‘em-ups feature cities and environments populated only by the villainous element you’re there to destroy; often making them feel rather unbelievable and flaccid. Using such a simple concept, Castle Crashers delivers a world of olde fully populated by heroes and villains, packed with more vibrant life than a dozen Gears of War, Halos or BioShocks - despite such cartoony stylings and tongue-in-cheek characters.

Those stylized graphics are also one of the more prevalent aspects to Castle Crashers. The skill at which The Behemoth wields a digital paint brush was more than proven by Alien Hominid, but this latest title from the indie developer really proves the magnificent depths of creative insanity these guys are willing to plunder. Saturated with detail yet wonderfully clear, the whole game screams dark, juvenile humor whilst never allowing these brilliant visuals to betray their primary purpose.

Similarly, the music is at once suitably orchestral and medieval, while thumping out the kind of modern, metronomic soundtrack that really brings out the flavor of a true, timeless beat-‘em-up. All these factors prove The Behemoth not only knows its audience and genre very profoundly, but is one of them – reveling in the raw, caustic playability that oozed from arcade games of yore, and has somehow become an afterthought, or forgotten and elusive quality from modern mega-developments.

The level design is equally incredible. Lots of forks in the road ensure you’ve got enough new places to explore and battles to fight, while the diversity of environments increases as you brawl your happy way toward the later stages. A level-up system adds to your abilities along the way, though storing up gold also means you can buy new weapons and increase your damage, defense, magic and other abilities to keep you rock hard enough to deal with the swarms of tough, imaginative aggressors.

Long and loud have been the calls from the world’s gamers to return to the natural playability of classic games, yet the big developers refuse to remove their fingers from their ears – churning out one soulless mega-game after the other in an effort to dictate what we are allowed to enjoy. It might initially appear rather costly for a download game (weighing in at 1200 Points, where we’d definitely rather have seen it with a standard 800 Points price tag), but the sheer, unadulterated gaming scope offered by Castle Crashers easily outweighs 80% of the full price junk littering the Xbox 360 shelves right now.

With such undeniable quality and passion streaming from an indie developer like The Behemoth, the giants had better watch out. Castle Crashers could easily bury remakes of games like Bionic Commando and Golden Axe – providing gameplay more closely related to the originals while still offering a wealth of contemporary excellence.

Pure heart-pounding, brain-pummeling, eye-searing entertainment.