Take, for instance, the knight’s reflective ability. While in the original game, each piece had a primary attack that determined its range and lethality, now each piece has another offensive option in its arsenal, and in many cases its transformative.
One of the most important is the introduction for each piece of a brand new, second ability (except the “leader” figures on both sides, the wizard and sorceress, who retain their ability to cast spells). A host of new modes have been added, and even a quick dip into a standard game reveals layers of new mechanics that alter play in drastic ways. It’s a return to a formula that even now is powerfully addictive and nearly as compelling as it was the first time it was introduced all those decades ago.īut this isn’t just a nostalgia play, which is clear from the first time you load the game and catch a glimpse of the menus. Playing through a standard solo game is a powerful dose of nostalgia for anyone fond of the C64 or NES game (or any of the host of other platforms it appeared on around launch). The battles will feel intimately familiar to veterans of the 1983 version, down to fine details like how the movement feels as you traverse the battlefield, or the disappearing and reappearing terrain pieces (which block movement and projectile attacks). The gameplay so fondly remembered from the original is present here, with pieces moving in familiar ways, gaining strength when positioned on squares that match their color, weakened when the opposite is true. The beating heart of Archon is still very much intact in Archon Classic. It feels like a proper, faithful adaptation, created with the spirit of retaining the essence of what made the first Archon so incredible, by people who from all indications hold genuine affection for the property ( Archon was React Game’s first acquisition as a studio).
It adds a number of welcome new features, and updates the graphics and gameplay in some much needed ways, without ever violating the spirit of the original game.
Almost thirty years later, Archon Classic delivered a much needed, much appreciated update to the classic formula that pulled it (albeit in some ways kicking and screaming) into the modern era.ĭeveloped by React Games, the independent studio behind 2016’s Super Dungeon Bros, Archon Classic is more than a fresh coat of paint. The original Archon was a revelation, a wonderful hybrid of chess and direct control, action-combat that captured the imaginations of a generation of fledgling strategy fans back in 1983.
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