A pretty nice retread of the classic game.
I played the PC port of the original Archon, and only managed to see the C64 version a couple of times. The pace was fast and brutal - the "pawn" pieces, i.e. the melee ranged goblin and knight were actually quite dangerous: the AI was adept at seeking you out like a guided missile, and at the last moment performing a sidestep and then clubbing / jabbing you at an angle. It really sucked when enemy pawns went up against your more valuable pieces because they'd actually have a good chance of winning. I recall that the easiest way to deal with them was to abuse the phoenix (light side) or banshee (dark side), because they had an aura damage type of attack which extended a little around the creature, so it was perfect for dealing with melee enemies. Just wait until they get in range (but not so close that they'd hit you) and then activate your aura and flee, letting them kill themselves on your aura.
The first remake was by SSI in 1994, "Archon Ultra". It tried to introduce "depth" by using some sort of pseudo 3D on the battle map where fliers actually flew and weren't affected by terrain. Pacing was noticeably slower though, and the pawn pieces were very much easier to deal with. This was somewhat of a mixed bag because other pieces like the phoenix too got nerfed; you could easily outrun it's slow missile attack, and simply avoid it's slower weapon and close in on it before it could attack again. Overall a decent game but not quite as fun as the original.
Now we have Archon Classic - it appears to be a remake of the original, not the SSI version, since the terrain behaves as in the original game (appearing / disappearing obstacles), and the pace is close than Archon Ultra's was. From the few games I've played though it appears that units tend to favour random movement; melee pieces often get close enough to pop you one but they keep running in a random fashion around you. It's quite unsettling though so maybe it's deliberate. You start to panic since your slower piece can't seem to get away, and after a few suspenseful seconds the enemy pawn will finally deign to take a swing at you. And as in the original game, it tends to connect. The solution I've found is to duck around an obstacle and hope the random pathing will run against it and buy you some precious time to get some breathing space and aim your counterattack.
The campaign mode looks nice and the medals (how you performed in battle) was a nice touch. Not nearly enough detail though, it isn't an RPG. Kind of a shame, i wouldn't have minded more stats. What I found most annoying though was the absence of in-battle saves. I suppose those are too easy to exploit, but on certain maps the loss of a single battle may lose you that map, and it can get frustrating if you dealt with almost all of the enemy units only to die from an unlucky blow from the last guy. More often than not it only costs you your medal, but it's still a fairly annoying "feature". For perfectionists this can get very aggravating very quickly as even a single death usually results in not being able to obtain gold medal ranking for that level.
Other than that, though, I'm fairly impressed with this remake. It's got a bunch of stuff to "unlock", givinng you more incentive to do better - but it's not like fans of the old games would need much encouragement to check this game out. This one's definitely a keeper. Go buy it, you'll never regret it.