Atari attempting a new Warlords remake

Atari is taking another crack at reinvigorating its arcade classic multiplayer game Warlords. The publisher today announced that it has enlisted Griptonite Games to develop a new Warlords for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 with a summer release in mind.

It's the arcade classic, not the turn-based strategy series.

The downloadable revamp is being billed as a "whimsical reinvention" of the arcade classic, which saw players slide Breakout-like paddles around castle walls, attempting to deflect a fireball away from their own keep and into the heart of their opponents' strongholds. The Griptonite remake will retain the premise and multiplayer focus with online and offline cooperative and competitive modes. However, it will add a new layer of strategy as well. For example, players will now need to marshal soldiers to capture control points on the playfield and collect power-ups in addition to defending their own castles.

Warlords will be Griptonite Games' first downloadable console game, although the handheld specialist has previously worked with retail releases for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the form of Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet and Where the Wild Things Are. Among the studio's more notable portable titles are the latest DS and PSP Assassin's Creed spin-offs, as well as Spore Creatures on the DS.

This is not the first time the publisher has tried to bring back the Warlords name. In 2008, the publisher released an "enhanced" version of the game on Xbox Live Arcade as part of a series of revamped coin-op classics, though it met with scathing reviews.