Four player XBLA madness is nearly at hand.

You may remember Alien Hominid, either fondly for it’s unique art style or unfondly for it’s punishing difficulty.  Either way it was hard to forget a pesky alien chomping off the heads of FBI agents on his way to get back home in a Metal Slug style side-scrolling adventure.  Now the same team have turned their attention to classic beat ‘em ups like Golden Axe and Guardian Heroes to create one of the most colorful and most massive experiences to hit Xbox Live Arcade.

I was only privileged to play Castle Crashers for a few minutes at E3, and then only alone, but I was still awed by the sharp animation of the high resolution 2D art with humor etched into every exaggerated gasp and eager bash.  The gameplay was just as good with plenty of melee, ranged, and magic attacks to mix up your arsenal, and a cute little helper bobbing over your shoulder.  The Mario World style overworld map seemed to scroll forever with dozens of possible locations, all of which I’ll be exploring with my buddies online and off in only twelve hours from now, for the measely cost of 1200 points.

You should too.  Don’t miss what is going to be the downloadable game of the year.