Gauntlet Legends

"Arcade excellence - and a great 2 player mode makes this a winner"

Gauntlet was the fist game in the series, only to be seen in arcades, then this game makes a welcomed release, then came the PS2 Dark Legacy. Legends are Dak Legacy are very similar but are both worth picking up.

Based in the same old arcade style, Gauntlet Legends can be enjoyed by 1 to 2 players. The game is still level based, with ‘the tower’ being the hub, to teleport to all the other levels in the game.

During gameplay, as well as navigating and killing hundreds of relentless enemies, players can collect power-ups (as well as buying them from the shop), keys, fruit and veg (health-ups). Keys are required to access other areas of the game, or secret areas. Talking of secrets, special mini games can be accessed, where players must collect coins, to unlock another secret player. Players must collect Rune Stones, which unlock different lands, which must be visited, and golden items, which again, will give you access to different land which need visiting. So, a lot to do!

At the end of a set of lands (which will all have the same theme), three is a boss challenge. Beat the boss to get a shard, 6 or so shards makes a window, for the final level, and in this final level, you must face Scorn, an evil boss dude, beat him to win the game!

Graphics 6 – Don’t be put of, it is an arcade game. There is some 2-D, but I think the graphics really fit the general arcade gameplay, and they are very detailed backgrounds, with no frame rate problems. Overall, a good job.

Gameplay 7 – Plenty to do, with power-ups to spice things up, very similar to Gauntlet Dark legacy really. Not bad, really like an arcade version of Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance.

Sound 7 – Good music during gameplay, and sound effects are good too.

Lifespan 6 – Took me 14h 30m to complete, which is 2hrs longer than Baldurs Gate. With characters to unlock also, but it may be too easy for some.

Overall 7 – An improvement over the acade Gauntlet , and similar sort of game to Baldurs gate, set in an arcade theme. It doesn’t have a solid story, nor spectacular graphics, but it’s a wonderful game, at can be found for ver cheap anywhere, so its well worth the money. What I will say is that if you’ve played Gauntlet Dak Legacy recently, you probably wont be bothered to play on it, but you can take it bit at a time, as it is level based. Good value for money, an arcade gem, which I could recommend.

(As you can tell, I played Dark Legacy first, then bought this. Both are worth the money and both should be bought. There great 2 player coop games too).

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/08/03, Updated 06/08/03