Gauntlet

"A classic that just doesn't hold up"

The other day I had this horrible urge to play Gauntlet, as in the original game and not the new ones in the series. I remember not liking it much and just sucking at the game. I also wanted the achievement points and hey, it was only 400 MS Points. Does the title stand the age of time? Is it a solid port to the Live Arcade? How is LIVE? Read on to find out.

Gauntlet looks pretty good even though it's a rather old game. It's easy to tell what kind of monster you're fighting and their little huts are easy to make out. It's all rather easy on the eyes and not too flashy.

The sound in the game is very old school. Music is almost catchy, yet slightly annoying at the same time. Sound effects are laughable but enjoyable in a nostalgic kind of way. Not terrible but not one of the better ones of its time.

I've found that while the 360; s controller is better than the original Xbox's it still has some flaws with the d-pad. Thankfully it really doesn't affect this title and I found the controls to be responsive and very easy to master. Only problem was the whole portal hopping thing.

Gauntlet is the perfect example of a dungeon crawler. Force your way through hordes and hordes of enemies and finish all 100 floors. Personally, I made it to floor 40 or so and gave up out of boredom. Those first few levels are very nicely down. Multiple exits, lots of enemies and items. It really keeps you on your toes. Then the game became kind of mundane for a while. Every level feeling like the one before it. Thankfully in the 30's it mixed things up and it got interesting for a bit but I couldn't put any more hours into my single game.

The game offers 4 classes to pick from. Wizard, Elf, Valkyrie, and a Warrior. They all play the same so it really doesn't matter. There are maybe 10 different enemy types and while lacking in AI they do act like mindless drones that are suicidal so it really doesn't matter.

So the single player is long and rather tiresome. LIVE play is pretty cool but hard and I had a terrible time getting a game started due to no one being on. I had to post somewhere asking if anyone wanted to play. Not always a good sign but when we did play it was fun. The achievements are split between offline and online which is nice and I must give many props to anyone who beat all 100 levels, which must have taken a lot of time.

Would I recommend Gauntlet as a download for the 400 MS Points? Well, no. If the LIVE was more active I would say yes but to be honest the game is fairly tedious. A classic, yes but not one I want to sit and play a lot. As far as the LIVE arcade titles I've played Gauntlet isn't one of my favorites. Try the demo out and if you really see yourself playing it all the time then buy it, it's not like it's costing you $15 like a certain puzzler is.

Story - N/A
Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 5/10
Control - 8/10
Game Play - 7/10
Replay value - 2/10

Final Score - 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/22/06