Castle Crashers: Painter Boss Paradise DLC Review (PC): A Creative Portal to Relive a Classic

Nearly 17 years after its original release, The Behemoth’s indie darling Castle Crashers receives a new piece of DLC, lathering the game in a fresh coat of paint, as well as opening the floodgates for artists and modders to create their own custom characters. The Painter Boss Paradise DLC features new art for all base game characters, weapon redesigns, a new playable character, and Steam Workshop support for user-created content, serving as the game’s second art rework since the Barbarian Makeover update in late 2015. It’s worth noting this is not a “content” DLC in a traditional sense, as it doesn’t add new levels or bosses, instead focusing on the game’s characters and art.

A Fresh New Look

When booting up Castle Crashers with the new DLC installed, you’ll be prompted to choose between two modes: 2008, which keeps the game’s look intact, and “Fresh,” which enables the new art. Even though the new sprites may seem like an objective upgrade to most people, this addition is very important, as it’s not uncommon to see people on social media asking if the graphical upgrade is optional, most likely having grown fond of the original designs and animations. Personally, I adore the new designs and can’t think of a single one that looks worse than its predecessor, but it’s nice to see that The Behemoth understands how powerful nostalgia can be and offers a toggle for those who prefer the older look.

Speaking of designs and animations, all 30+ Castle Crashers characters now have a modern set of animated sprites, with some of them also receiving slight redesigns. Most characters now have slightly bigger heads and a less hunched-over posture, as well as a swaying idle animation that replaces the up-and-down bobbing previously performed by all characters. The most noticeable touch-ups are probably the ones pertaining to the four main knights, who now look much more detailed and dynamic.

Unleashing Player Creativity

Aside from the cosmetic updates, the biggest selling point of this DLC has to be its workshop support, allowing users to create their own knights. The Castle Crashers workshop has had thousands of submissions after the DLC’s launch, with no signs of stopping or slowing down. So far, it features a surprisingly high amount of quality content, including user-created crossovers with Doom, DanDaDan, Devil May Cry, Umamusume, Smiling Friends, and pretty much anything else you can think of.

For those who want to join in,the process of creating a character involves importing the provided template into a third-party art program, like Photoshop, Procreate, or even Paint if you’re brave enough, and then adding it back into the game, which updates your character in real time inside of a test room.

The easy-to-use template provided by The Behemoth is a good part of why artists and modders managed to create such high-quality content and stay on model so well when designing their workshop characters. The template is generated automatically when creating a new character in-game and comes loaded with rough outlines for each body part and their respective animations, giving artists a pretty decent checklist for what is required to make a full character.

If I had to nitpick something about this DLC, it would be the unfortunate fact that created characters don’t have access to custom magic, instead having to use preexisting spells created by The Behemoth. It feels like a huge missed opportunity to not give players access to a template where they can create unique spells for their custom characters, especially since magic has always been a huge part of what makes a Castle Crashers character unique.

Final Verdict

The Painter Boss Paradise DLC is a fantastic workshop expansion for Castle Crashers, not only giving users access to custom content but also featuring some genuinely impressive art touch-ups that help keep the game feeling fresh after nearly two decades. In some ways, it feels like a victory lap for what is arguably one of the most influential indie games ever released, as Dan Paladin and Tom Fulp were some of the first developers to bridge the gap between Flash and consoles, shaping the modern indie gaming scene to what we see today alongside developers like Ska Studios and Edmund McMillen.

Long-time Castle Crashers fans will be more than pleasantly surprised with the new character art and animations, while artists get to effortlessly flex their drawing muscles thanks to the excellent template developed by The Behemoth. Even if you don’t fit into any of those categories, you can still enjoy the novelty of running around as Hatsune Miku or a PNG of Jerma985 thanks to the Steam workshop.

Castle Crashers: Painter Boss Paradise was reviewed with a code provided by The Behemoth on PC.

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