[REVIEW] Warlords

Marcus Estrada
(PlayStation 3 [REVIEWED], Xbox 360)

Are you a gamer who remembers the Atari classic Warlords? If not, the game is simple enough to understand. Basically, it is a multiplayer-centric title focused on destroying the “forts” of opponents. Since this was the early ’80s, destroying forts was accomplished with a ball being flung across the screen. Imagine Pong, but with up to four players, and that’s what Warlords was in both arcades and home consoles. A downloadable remake was made available in 2008, but now another, more creative remake has been released.

Warlords just arrived on PlayStation Network (coming soon to Xbox Live Arcade, and tries to be both reminiscent of the original, while updating the formula. For one, the visuals are probably near to what Atari would have done if they had nearly enough power on arcade machines at the time. Instead of very dull forts, they are now full on castles. When hit, the castle walls steam, blaze, and crumble. The Warlords themselves also have distinct appearances and attitudes, instead of being awkward block shapes.

Visuals are not the only update – gameplay has also seen a boost. The very basic mechanic of blocking incoming balls with a shield still remains. If you get hit enough times, then your castle will crumble and enemy warlords will still mock you. However, there are more fireballs which will slowly pepper the field until it becomes quite the challenge to block them all. There are also power-ups which will affect the balls and forts in a variety of ways. Expect to have power-ups to slow shield movement down, speed ball movement up, or even unleash a giant knight onto the battlefield. 

Another gameplay feature was added for players to make use of power-ups. There are now little knights called Snoots who will secure power-ups for you. In order to grab one, they must stand on a platform and maintain control of it for a set period of time. Once that’s taken care of, the power-up will activate automatically to help you mess with the other players. While this is fine in theory it works out to be much more of a challenge. When you’re busy contending with half a dozen flaming balls, you have little time to manage Snoots. They will attempt to automatically perform actions, such as repair your castle, but sometimes they don’t do a thing.

Not all modes require the Snoots, and these prove to be the better for gameplay. Not only are they hard to take care of when focusing on protecting yourself, the power-ups themselves aren’t labelled easily. Instead of having a very simplistic symbol, they are all marked with elaborate runes. As a power-up platform appears, it will say what it’s called, but often you won’t be looking right there as it flashes for a second. The developers really should have come up with a better way to quickly identify what is going on in the battlefield, as the game is so frantic. For a long time, you’ll probably end up randomly choosing power-ups, and hoping that they’re useful.

Although the game is much less infuriating without Snoots, you won’t be able to complete it without ever encountering them. In campaign mode, there are a great many levels which require their strategic use. Matched against A.I. that doesn’t need to “think” to manage troops, while defending, makes for some infuriating matches. Thankfully, quick matches, as well as multiplayer modes can be tweaked to keep that gameplay element out entirely. 

Multiplayer includes both online and local play functionality. In either version, players are presented with the same amount of options. With up to four players you can dictate things such as whether to use power-ups, as well as how many fireballs can be on the screen. As far as Warlords is concerned, the game is always best played with others. Even if gameplay is a pain, it’s at least entertaining to know that your friends are having as much trouble with it as you are.

It’s obvious that there was a strong attempt to modernize Warlords. While the basic gameplay still maintains a level of fun, it is certainly simplistic to modern players. However, it doesn’t feel like the additions have done much positive for the title. Instead of simply making it exciting, power-ups and additional fireballs only make for a more hectic experience. As stated earlier, it is quite difficult at times to even know what power-ups are available, much less be able to guide your Snoots there while also deflecting objects.

Although Warlords is a valiant attempt to update an over 30 year-old game, it fails to surpass it. It’s not even able to capture the same degree of fun the initial originally evoked. This doesn’t mean the game is a complete loss, though. Setting options to make the game about as close to the original as possible reveals something much more playable, if simpler. Fans of arcade-style games might enjoy it, but overall Warlords-curious players should simply skip back to the 1980 original.

[REVIEW] Double Dragon: Neon

Jonathan Tay

(PlayStation 3 [REVIEWED], Xbox 360)

Double Dragon: Neon is basically the same game that the original Double Dragon was. Whether or not that’s a good thing is up to you.

You are probably already familiar with Neon’s formula: your girlfriend has been kidnapped by thugs, and it’s your job to beat them all up in order to save her. Your repertoire includes classics such as punch, kick, grab, and throw, as well as newer additions, such as dodging and using special attacks. You probably won’t need many of these moves—a combination of punching and kicking seemed sufficient enough to combat the game’s core three or four enemies—but they’re nice to have, regardless. The controls are pretty fluid and responsive, although the overall speed of the game seems slower. Maybe it’s due to how sluggishly the main characters move.

Neon also includes some strange RPG elements. As I’ve mentioned before, you have special attacks, which can range from throwing out fireballs (wonder where that’s from?) to summoning a dragon to damage all enemies on screen. New ones can be found or bought at stores scattered around levels, and the moves themselves can even be upgraded to deal more damage. You also have different fighting styles that you can adopt, although these only result in statistical, and not visual, changes.

Speaking of visuals, this game does quite well in that department. If you liked the look of Street Fighter 4, you’ll probably like looking at this game. Character and enemy models are well-rendered and animated, and while the backgrounds could use more detail, they have a “classic 80s level design” vibe to them. The same can be said about the sound of the game—80s. The background music—which, sadly, is hard to hear over all the sound effects—is full of synthesizers and blazing guitars, while the voice acting has just the right amount of cheese to it. One of the bosses has a voice that is uncannily similar to Skeletor.

Whoops, spoilers.

I played the majority of this game with a friend. It was couch co-op, mind you, as online co-op has not yet been implemented. I’m not sure how far I could have made it alone; the single player mode is both difficult and boring. If you lose all your lives, you start at the beginning of the level. This, in a word, is frustrating. Chalk it up to how old arcade machines wanted to drain you of quarters, I guess.

By now you may have already decided if this game is for you. If you like 80s sensibilities, in both aesthetics and game design, then you’ll probably think that this game is an awesome blast from the past. If, on the other hand, you don’t like simple fighting mechanics, beating up the same 3-4 enemies over and over again, and a general feeling of antiquated game design, then the two or more hours that one can invest in Double Dragon: Neonprobably won’t be worth it.