Pit People, The Behemoth and Their Amazingly Quirky Games

Pit People is the latest title from one of my favorite game companies. It'll be hard to describe the awesomeness of this game without a little understanding of the developer's past, so first some history. The Behemoth is a video game development company that was founded way back in 2003 by John Baez, artist Dan Paladin and programmers Tom Fulp, Brandon LaCava, and Nick Dryburgh. The company made their way onto the gaming scene with Alien Hominid which was originally an online flash game. Later it was released in 2004 for most platforms, including Gameboy Advance followed by Alien Hominid HD shortly after in 2007 for Xbox 360.

In 2008 the company released Castle Crashers and they quickly became a household name. Castle Crashers, to this day, is a favorite in my family and friend groups, mostly for its couch co-op chaos. It's a wacky side-scroller full of absurd villains, pooping deer, and some of the most amazing dialogue ever. If you haven't played this one, it's now backwards compatible or you can pick up the HD remake on Xbox One. Highly recommended. In 2011 they released two mobile games on IOS, Super Soviet Missile Mastar and Alien Hominid: PDA. These games were both well received and have great ratings in the App Store but I'm not too much into mobile gaming so I haven't checked them out yet.

Their next big launch was BattleBlock Theater in 2013. This game is a co-op or single player platformer that rivals games like Super Meat Boy or Guacamelee for its difficulty, creativity and story. Again, if you haven't played this game and you love a good challenge and some humor, this is a must have for your collection. The intro video alone is worth watching and each chapter you unlock just adds to the obsurdity. This brings us back to Pit People. One thing The Behemoth has done well that many other developers fail at, is they have created a variety of games in different genres that take place in the same universe. All of their games have unique characters that usually end up as collectibles, unlockables or story elements in their other games. This is a huge factor in the replayability of both Castle Crashers and BattleBlock Theater. Pit People takes these concepts to a whole new level. The game itself is a sort of sequel to BattleBlock, but is itself an entirely original concept. The easiest way to describe it is a Pokémon-ish style game where you explore and battle and capture characters with different abilities. Each character you capture, along with the loot you acquire, grants you additional weapons or costume pieces to customize your team.

The battles themselves take place on a hex board where you command your people in a turn based combat system with the intent to destroy or capture. The quests are all just as hilarious and random as the stories In other Behemoth games and even though I'm used to their writing style at this point, they still seem to catch me off guard with off the wall remarks. The game also has an arena where you can team up with a friend against AI squads or enter in 2v2 online and local co-op. The game is still listed as a game preview with an assumed official release set for early 2018. The Behemoth recently hosted a AMA on Reddit and asked fans what they'd like to see in the official release. So if you're familiar with Castle Crashers or BattleBlock or if you're just looking for a new game that is garunteed to deliver hours of hilarity and fun challenges, pick up Pit People and check out the other titles as well.