REVIEW: Warlords (Xbox 360)

Scribbled on June 11th, 2008 by Jonah Falcon
Filed in Action, Casual Gaming, New Release(s), Retro, Reviews, Xbox Live Arcade

It’s a pity that Warlords isn’t getting much play on Xbox Live Arcade, because twenty-plus years later, the core gameplay is as solid as ever.

For those of you not familiar with the game, it’s basically Breakout/Pong with four players. Each player has a castle guarded by bricks – and a shield they use basically in the same way as they would in Breakout to redirect a ball at the other players. The minor twist is that balls can be captured and fired – and when there’s four players, it’s a tense moment in whom the attacker will try to aim at. Once a ball makes it through the bricks and hits a player’s castle, that player is out of the game, and another ball comes into play. Against the computer, it’s mildly entertaining, but with other human players, gameplay becomes fast-paced and wicked.

The Xbox Live Arcade version comes with “classic” arcade graphics and revamped HD graphics – it’s slightly surprising that Atari didn’t include the version most veterans are familiar with – the Atari 2600’s plainer-than-plain look. The classic arcade version is even more challenging than the HD version because the paddles are smaller. The game comes with a speeded up version for each graphic layout as well. Unlike other paddle games like Tempest, the analog stick in lieu of a true paddle controller doesn’t kill the gameplay too much.

Unfortunately, there are almost no players playing on Xbox Live, which is a pity, because the game soars with multiplayer; Xbox Live Vision cam support doesn’t hurt, either. One of the saving graces is that there’s also same machine multiplayer. At 400 Microsoft Points ($5.00), it’s well worth the price, despite being an ancient game, but if people go ga-ga over Arkanoid even now, there should be no issues with Warlords. Give it a chance.