Foursquare Inc. has undertaken a backflip worthy of an Olympic gold medal and has decided to reintroduce badges and mayorships to its Swarm app.

The original Foursquare app (now represented by the Swarm app) was a geolocation check-in service that was part knowing where your friends were, but part games as well. Users earned badges if they checked into similar locations multiple times (say a badge for checking into 5 art galleries) but also “mayorships” which were rewarded to the user who had checked into the same location the most times over the previous two months.

The mayorships at one stage were fiercely competitive among heavy users of the service, and often saw them competing with their friends as to who could hold the most mayorships, along with the mayorships of popular places they frequented.

“We heard time and time again that while Swarm made those serendipitous hangouts possible, it could be more fun” a post on the Foursquare blog reads. “So today, we’re rolling out 100 new stickers, some evolved from your old badges, and a lot of new challenges.”

Additionally earned badges will now be able to be shared, with Foursquare adding that users will be able to “add them to check-ins, photos, or send them in messages.”

Mayorships haven’t returned as of yet, but as said to be coming soon.

Too little, too late?

While the return of the game aspect to Foursquare/ Swarm is not only welcomed but long-overdue, it may be a case of too little, too late.

The original Foursquare was wildly popular for a period of years, but the companies bizarre decision to move in a different direction and push away its most loyal and regular users onto the substandard Swarm app cost them not only users, but goodwill as well.

Swarm still does have users, be it no where nearly as many as Foursquare at its peak, and perhaps once mayorships and badges are fully returned word of mouth may yet see the service emulate the tale of Lazarus risen.