Gauntlet Dark Legacy

"Party time!"

Gauntlet was a very fun and well-known multiplayer fighting game even before it's release on the gamecube. There was a Nintendo 64 Gauntlet, and even some NES and Arcade gauntlets, I think. In early 2002, Midway games released Gauntlet: Dark Legacy on the Gamecube, PS2, and Xbox.

Storyline: 8/10

In the instruction booklet, at least it mentions a lot of names in the plot description. A lot of different characters usually means a more complicated plot. The plot has a lot of names and references, but the main idea is pretty straightforward. Judging from the look of the characters and their weapons, GDL takes place in midevil times. They never say what year, but the plot is completely magical and fictional anyway.

The powerful and good wizard, Summner rules and keeps peace over the three realms. His evil younger brother, Garm is jealous of Summner. Garm takes over all 8 realms and deploys his evil monsters there. I could go into a lot more detail, but I don't want to spoil anything. The plot is pretty straightforward with little twists and in-game surprises, but it does the trick.

Graphics: 7/10

In some cases, the graphics are your average graphics of a 2002 game. The best looking parts when you are in the levels are the portals. They have a realistic, spiral-swirly look to them. The sky and the clouds are also well done. But the characters, enemies, and other environments look pretty basic. The cutscenes aren't too bad either.

Sound/Music: 8/10

First of all, the voices are absolutely horrible. They sound really fake and exaggerated. The music is a different story. In will not get boring or on your nerves at all. The music changes every few levels too. It is perfect music for a dark, evil, and mystic fighting game. It is encouraging.

Gameplay: 8/10

It seems like I praised the game in the previous sections of the review. But I will admit, the gameplay is not perfect. The controls are perfect, and combos are easy. The thing that that totally DESTROYS the gameplay is the glitches. On multiplayer mode, if two or three characters are in the same corner right next to each other, it might get jammed. None of you would be able to move to get out, and you would have to restart the level. Another problem is the freezes. When you are playing, the game will freeze. I found it will mostly freeze at the same spot every time in a level. Thank god the frame rate is fine though. Sometime in 2003, Midway released a updated version of this game. Everything, including the levels, enemies, etc. is fine, but it freezes less.

Overall: 8/10

If it was not full of irritating glitches, this game would have been a true masterpiece. In fact, the main reason people would not buy this game was because they heard other people complaining about the glitches. Maybe it also didn't do well because Midway over-used the storyline in earlier gauntlet games… There are also lots of other good things about this game. It is extremely fun to play on multiplayer, and all ages and sexes will enjoy it. I play with my mom and my younger sister. Also, your characters will gain levels the more fighting they do. When they gain a level, their fighting strength and speed will get a tad stronger. So the leveling up system adds replay value to the game.

There are also some other things that will add replay value. Sometimes you might want to play to unlock characters, which you will even get to play as. You also might want to go through the levels to collect the items, which you can use to help you defeat enemies. You also just might want to collect gold, which you can buy things with. There are no limits to the reasons you might want to replay the levels.

Gauntlet is a mix of a few game genres. For one thing, there are some puzzles in the middle of the level. It's also a really fun hack-em slash-em game, where you run around killing hordes of enemies. This game really is worth the buy, as long as you can tolerate the glitches and bugs. It has enough replay value to keep you playing for a million years.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/14/06, Updated 05/18/06