BattleBlock Theater[1] is a comedic platform game developed by The Behemoth and published by Microsoft Studios for Xbox 360, Windows, Mac, and Linux.

During cooperative play, players are able to work together to overcome obstacles, which includes throwing them across gaps, using their heads as platforms and helping each other get up ledges, although there is just as much opportunity of partner sabotage.

In order to progress to the next world, players need to collect gems (which can also be used to unlock new customizable parts) and complete a 'Finale' timed boss level.

Players can also collect balls of yarn which they can use to bribe cat guards and unlock new weapons, such as hand grenades, vacuum cleaners, dart guns, and many more.

As the player completes challenges, they find gems which are spent on unlocking fellow crew members to play as in these theater performances.

Hundreds of years before the player got shipwrecked on the island, Purrham Furbottom, a theatrical aficionado, sought to build the world's greatest theater.

However, Furbottom did not allow intermissions in the theater, and after an untold amount of time watching the show, he died after "pooping himself to death on the way to the bathroom."

The hat, the narrator theorizes, is haunted by the grief and sorrow of each of its past wearers, and Hatty is its current victim, having sunk into a depression while being surrounded by the many gems the player has accrued, without doing anything to help the state of the theater.

As the theater deteriorates further, the narrator provides encouragement to the player and continues to shed light on the cats' mental state, which grows more unstable as time progresses.

As the player celebrates with hot cocoa on the ship, they try to cheer up Hatty, who the narrator says that he would not move, blink, respond to hugs, or talk.

The hat lands on his head and begins glowing green as opposed to its usual red, and shoots a beam skyward, where it sends the boat flying and continues into space, where it vaporizes Alien Hominid from the game of the same name and a bear that appeared during the narrator's upbeat song, foreshadowing the events of Pit People.

"[11] IGN praised the same console version's inventive level design, but criticised the platforming gameplay in comparison to other 2D indie platfomers released around the same time such as Super Meat Boy and Braid.

[18] Metro gave the XBLA version nine out of ten and called it "The Behemoth's best game yet and a hilarious mix of co-op platforming and absurdly entertaining multiplayer madness.

"[24] GameZone also gave it nine out of ten and said, "If you want to have some mindless fun while an eccentric voice does its best to criticize you for your failures, BattleBlock Theater is ready to fulfill those needs.

The gameplay is easy to grasp for platforming veterans, while the massive amount of content and alternate game modes ensure you'll be entertained for hours.

"[32] Slant Magazine gave the PC version four stars out of five, saying, "With so many amusing ways to live and die, the question in this theater isn't 'To be or not to be?'