After the aptly subtitled Seven Sorrows left the Gauntlet brand whimpering on the naughty step, you’d think that few would be eager to attempt yet another update to the classic fantasy hack-and-slash. Backbone Entertainment, however, seems to be developing a specialty in dusting off old titles and, with its remakes of 1942 and Commando still cooling on the shelf, the Canadian studio has picked up the gauntlet to, well, pick up Gauntlet for DS.

Like the recent Commando 3, but unlike 1942, Backbone seems to have understood what made the original arcade game a joy, preserving the top-down viewpoint and frantic battles against hordes of enemies. The core of the game is as it ever was – working out how to systematically approach and destroy each spawn point without being overwhelmed by enemies – and Backbone’s level design does much to promote this while throwing in an exploration element and the occasional sub-Zelda block puzzle along the way.

While determining the threat priority of spawns remains the challenge throughout, it never feels stagnant. The game introduces new settings and enemies that tweak the dynamic – imps which make you dizzy just as you attempt to navigate a lethal spike pit, or zombies which will return to life until you destroy an obelisk and then subject their shambling legions to therapeutic oblivion.

There are currently issues: collision is imprecise and the level geography sometimes sticky and difficult to interpret from above. Even with such flaws, Backbone looks set to produce that rare thing – a reinvention of a classic that both faithfully recreates its core gameplay and advances in step with expectations.