Be careful what you wish for

This was one of those rare, very rare in fact, occasions when a game that I've wanted to see remade for a long, long time is suddenly released. Perhaps someone, somewhere was listening to me.

I logged onto XBL the other day and my eyes were immediately drawn to the advert in the corner of the screen. The Atari coin-op classic Warlords was available for immediate download. I was more struck with disbelief and suspicion than excitement. Is that REALLY Warlords? It's can't be any good. Can it?

I downloaded the demo and plunged straight into the new HD remake. Wow it certainly look up to date and yet it's still instantly recognisable as Warlords. The gameplay is faithful to the coin-op original and works well usung the 360 pad. Playing this with 4 friends could be a lot of fun but I have reservations and seeing as the demo doesn't allow multiplayer...... The playing arena feels too enclosed, almost claustrophobic. While the gameplay is faithful it feels dated. I'm not going to get into a huge review here because my views are based solely on the demo but the over riding feeling for me was that it could have been so much better. I can't help but think that Atari haven't spent a lot of time thinking about this or spent much cash on it.

As with other Atari remakes the original is included and a quick go reveals that it hasn't aged particularly well. The gameplay is tough and completely unforgiving. It's far tougher than I remember too! I think I must've become to accustomed to softly, softly modern games like GTAIV. I used to be ok at Warlords but now I find it as hard as trying to thread a needle after an evil and wicked witch has turned my hands into pigs trotters.

Maybe this is all a bit harsh after all it is only 400MS points. I just can't help but think that I'd play this for 30 minutes and never touch it again. As I said my views are based only on the demo and perhaps the full version would change my mind. The problem is that the demo doesn't make me want to download the full version.

It's always disappointing when a retro classic gets released and it fails to satisfy. It's worse still when it's a game I really wanted to see re-released. I'm going to be careful which games I wish to see re-released in future.

If you could have one game remade on any current generation machines what would it be? Be careful what you wish for though, it might just come true! Gameov3r FORUM time.