Hack, slash, and smash your way to victory in this red-hot arcade adventure from The Behemoth! Featuring hand-drawn characters, Castle Crashers delivers unique hi-res illustrated visuals like nothing you've ever seen before.

Play with up to three friends locally or over the Playstation Network and discover the mind-boggling magic and mystery in the amazing world we have created just for you. Save your princess, defend your kingdom, and crash some castles! Play with more than 20 unlockable characters, 40 weapons to customize your hero, and an arsenal of combos and magical attacks to choose from.

Player Arena matches will now allow you to choose teams! You can play 2-on-2 or take on the world with 1-v-3. Of course, you can still do free-for-all as well. Sharing a sweet, sweet victory with your friend is like eating a delicious cake in front of your other friends while they cry. It’s like their pride is inside the cake that you are devouring, and your teammate is your stomach helping to digest that pride. And there can only be one mouth and one stomach to eat it with, so the other mouths and stomachs have to watch even though mouths and stomachs don’t have eyes. Take that, eyeless teeth and stomachs.

Inspired by the beloved Painter Boss from the studio’s classic couch co-op beat em’ up, the Castle Crashers Painter Boss Paradise DLC is coming to Steam on August 6, 2025 at $3.99.

Announced last year as part of the studio’s roadmap to bring updates to all of their titles, the Painter Boss Paradise DLC marks the first DLC for Castle Crashers in 13 years. Along with a myriad of other features like new art for all official playable characters, weapons, and map, the DLC brings a longtime fan request to Castle Crashers–custom character creation!

As part of their release date announcement, the indie studio shared a how-to video for any players interested in getting started with designing their characters ahead of launch, in addition to releasing the official template that players will use to bring their custom creations into the DLC. The template file, when filled with a character design and saved to a computer, will automatically update the character’s in-game design to allow for multi-angle character customization.

Players will be excited to learn that there is an addition to the previously announced customization options: custom weapons! A frequently requested feature, this equippable custom weapon will allow for even more personalization of player characters. After creating a character, players can choose to share their creations with the world through the Steam Workshop, or even to their friends actively playing the DLC with them, whether their friends own the DLC or not!

“You can make your own weapon art in Castle Crashers because it's awesome, and we figured you might want that,” says Dan Paladin, co-founder and art director at The Behemoth, “Have it look however you'd like while borrowing stats from any weapon in the game!”

Initially released for the Xbox Live Arcade in August 2008, Castle Crashers took the gaming world by storm with its colorful hand-drawn art, hilarious animation, and addicting beat em’ up combat. Its success led to digital releases for PlayStation, Windows (Steam), Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch, where it also received a physical edition in 2023! After almost 17 years of crashing castles, The Behemoth hopes to breathe new life into the game by allowing fans to unleash infinite possibilities of custom characters in the Steam Workshop.

The update’s key features include:

• Make your own custom characters with our template, and share them with the world! CREATE!
• New official character: play as Paint Junior, use your imagination, and unleash powerful art to vanquish your foes!
• New art for all official playable characters and weapons!
• New main menu art with eight scenes celebrating the world of Castle Crashers!
• New map art for fancier adventuring!
• Endless knightly possibilities – choose from community characters or download official characters created by our team! Toggle them off or on at your whim!
• Worried about missing the nostalgic feel of the original game’s art? Toggle the DLC functionality on or off from the main menu at any time to experience the classic adventure!

Key Features :

• Intuitive combo and magic system: Unlock new combos and magical attacks as your character progresses through the game. You have an almost limitless amount of combos to perform alone, or with a group of friends.
• Arena mode: This mode allows players to battle each other head-on with four unique modes to choose from!
• Experience system: As you fight your way through the various levels of Castle Crashers, your character gains more experience points that will in return give you the option to adjust your four main stats -- Strength, Magic, Defense, and Agility.
• Weapons weapons weapons! Each player has the ability to unlock more than 40 weapons.
• Animal orbs: These little companions add enhancements to your attributes. Each pet has different abilities to benefit you, with various ways of unlocking each one. Defeat a boss and steal his companion, dig them up, or buy them at a store.
• Treasure hunt: Unlockable items, weapons, pet companions, and characters are buried throughout the various levels of Castle Crashers.
• Stores: Spread across the various worlds of Castle Crashers, every store has specific items to sell. Collect gold from killing enemies, finding treasures, or opening chests, then take your collected gold to these stores for some weapons, items, character unlocks, and more!

Castle Crashers is available for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC (Steam).