When the first thing you see at the start of a game is a giant chicken with a sword...
It's amazing how they managed to give Crashers a great sense of humor, and a storyline, without any dialogue whatsoever. Part of the credit for this goes to the ridiculous situations the game puts you in, as you'll do everything from fight giant cats to play beach volleyball before the game is through. But the majority of the credit goes to the game's lead artist, Dan Paladin, as it's done in a cartoon-style that's incredibly fun to watch, and tones down the violence enough to make it accessible to just about everyone but small children. This wide appeal is actually the game's saving grace, as it's meant to be played in groups, as opposed to a solo campaign.
You can go by yourself, but Crashers just doesn't do a good job of adjusting the difficulty down to an appropriate level for a single-player campaign. So without any allies to distract the baddies, they all end up nailing you and you alone, and it seriously gets so freaking cheap in spots that it feels like you're being slapped senseless. Characters can be leveled-up (thanks to the games light RPG elements) to the point of completely overpowering your enemies, but this usually means replaying previous levels continuously, which starts to feel like tedium after a while.
Thankfully if you don't have a group of people in your living room ready to play with you, it can be taken over Live for games with friends or random matches. There will be times that it will take you ten to fifteen minutes just to find a match, but these instances are few and far between and can be fixed by simply creating your own match and waiting for others to join you. It usually won't be long before you have three others ready to join you.
Everything else that should be included in this game is there, including a near-epic soundtrack, tight controls, and varied enemies, and it also has a lot of replay value thanks to several unique unlockable characters, available weapons, and useful animal companions that provide you with extra abilities.
If you own an Xbox 360 and have Live, the only reason you shouldn't own this game is if you don't play well with others; everyone else should download this for the entertainment and high-quality gameplay it provides. Don't miss this one.