Warlords Review

If you have never heard of Warlords, do not feel discouraged. Regardless of when you were born, there are certain arcade titles that most gamers are familiar with, even if they have never played them. Pac-Man. Pong. Gauntlet. Asteroids. Donkey Kong. If I wanted to, the list could go on, but to cut right to the chase, Warlords would not make the cut, and unfortunately, this XBLA remake will not make it any more relevant.

Warlords is best described as a 4 player Pong match, but with an actual goal other than racking up points. Your job is to protect your “king” from being destroyed. There’s a wall that protects your king from a bouncing ball that destroys a piece of it every time it comes into contact with it. You also have a bumper that you control which you must use not to just protect your wall and king, but to also make the ball bounce and hit your opponents wall and king. More balls are added as the game progresses and the speed of them move faster as well, but if you can manage to destroy your opponents king before yours is destroyed, you win. It’s a very simple game. Unfortunately that also means it’s one that you most likely get bored of after a few rounds of play.

Warlords for Xbox Live Arcade comes with the standard attempts at updating an old game. You have your updated graphics, sound, and online playability (good luck finding someone to play with though). An additional mode called Throttle Monkey is added too, where the balls now move much faster than in the regular game, and you also have access to the original arcade title. The attempts to update this old arcade title are average. The gameplay however falls way below average. At best, it can provide a nice distraction for about 10 minutes, but by then you pretty much have experienced everything Warlords has to offer.