Making a reboot can be a dangerous gamble--nostalgia's a powerful stimulant, but some game mechanics just can't survive the test of time. Take the core values and refurbish them with contemporary designs, however, and you've got something that can please old-school fans and bright-eyed newcomers alike. Such is the hope for Gauntlet, a modernized reboot of Midway's classic top-down adventure, as envisioned by Arrowhead Game Studios (which famously brought the chaotic co-op of Magicka into the world).

This Gauntlet is solely focused on re-envisioning the 1985 arcade original, meaning you won't find any references to Gauntlet Legends and Dark Legacy (shucks) or Seven Sorrows (thank God). But how exactly will it update the classic Gauntlet gameplay to appeal to fans of today's hack-'n'-slash action games? To find out, I talked to Axel Lindberg, game director at Arrowhead, about how this new Gauntlet plays off everything you love from the classic co-op dungeon crawler.