The Australians from 3RD Sense have just released Swords & Sandals IV: Tavern Quests, a pretty neat looking MMO in which you take the role of a gladiator and… battle against others, of course!

Since it’s a new and enhanced version, Swords & Sandals IV: Tavern Quests introduces a new twist on the original series: instead building your gladiator from the ground up and battle online to become the best of the best, the gameplay has now been shifted to a series of minigames in a tavern.

Oliver Joyce, Creative Director for Swords & Sandals IV said, “The idea came to me while at my local pub, watching people playing games in their downtime. And it occurred to me that maybe the gladiators of old did the same after a long day of fighting.

Basically, there are 23 mini games to play in the game, and gladiators’ skills will be tested in everything from racing beasts to sailing boats down raging rivers (and we should not be upset that real gladiators had nothing to do with that!) Of course, the brutes will also win gold to spend at the end of the minigames (if they perform well) so it’s all for that extra bit of cool-ness.

But that’s not all! Swords & Sandals IV: Tavern Quests adds a hot-seat multiplayer mode, where up to four people can play the game, on the same computer. So… why not give it a try here?