Gauntlet Dark Legacy

"A victory for good game-play"

I can understand why other reviewers didn't like this game. The gamer of today-- pampered by nearly endless eye candy, CD-quality music, intricate RPG stories, needlessly complicated game-play, and enough cinematic scenes to fill up a hard drive--expects more from his games than this one can ever deliver. At first glance, this game doesn't look like much. However, it delivers in spades when accepted for its intrinsic value. This game would've been right at home on the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis. It's of a similar quality.

The scenario is pretty much the same as the PS2 version of Gauntlet Dark Legacy. In fact, the manual gives us the story (in very small print, I might add; eye strain!). Some wizard named Garm has used the legendary rune stones in a failed attempt to increase his magical power. He unwittingly opened up a portal to the Underworld, and out came the evil demon Skorne. Garm found himself unable to defend himself from the mighty Skorne. He was defeated and banished to the Underworld. Skorne unleashed his minions upon the peaceful lands, and now our anonymous hero has to embark on a quest to find the lost rune stones and defeat Skorne.

The only safe place in the land is the wizard's tower where it all started. From there, you enter portals that lead to various locales in the land, all of which have been overrun by Skorne's evil minions. This game takes us on a quest through five realms. The Mountain Kingdom, where scorpions, orcs, and magma beasts dwell amongst the backdrop of forests, volcanoes, and lava flows. The Castle Stronghold, which is a large castle with dungeon, barracks, armory, and so forth. The Desert Lands, home to ancient ruins, a pyramid, and a tomb filled with mummies. The Ice Domain, home to dwarven mining operations that are now infested with trolls, wolves, and snow worms. And the Dream World, home to a freaky circus and haunted house.

Each realm has five levels that must be completed in sequence. Each completed level opens up the portal to the next one. Residing within the fifth level of each realm is a boss.

We get four characters to choose from here. That's less than half of what the PS2 version offers. I like this because in truth, there really are only four Gauntlet characters. There's the strong Warrior, the well-armored Valkyrie, the magical Wizard, and the speedy Archer. In the original Gauntlet arcade game, the Archer is an Elf. The PS2 version of Gauntlet Dark Legacy sports eight main characters and nine unlockable characters, but they're all very similar to each other. The Jester is pretty much the Archer with a different look (speedy, fast rate of fire). The Dwarf is essentially a smaller Warrior (strong but slow). The Knight and Valkyrie are pretty much the same (great armor). And the Sorceress and Wizard are what one would expect (great magic). The unlockable characters there are just stronger versions of the main characters with a different look.

When we break it down, there are only four Gauntlet characters. A guy who is strong but slow, a woman with great armor, a wizard with great magic, and an archer who is speedy and has a fast rate of fire. That's it. That's all she wrote, folks. We have four character attributes. Strength, Armor, Speed, and Magic. Each character is great with one of them while suffering in other areas. The rest is all cosmetic. The huge variety of characters the PS2 version offers... it's mostly cosmetic.

Let's move on. Your character can be one of four colors. Yellow, Blue, Red, or Green. A nice little cosmetic thing that affects their appearance. In this game, each character has one attack (much like in the original Gauntlet arcade game). He shoots a projectile at his enemies. The Warrior tosses an axe, Valkyrie tosses a sword, Wizard fires a magic missile, and Archer fires an arrow. In addition, you can always go melee if you feel like it. Just run up to the monsters and attack 'em at point blank. This nets more experience than shooting them from a safe distance. You can also collect magic potions and use them to unleash an area-affect of damaging magic. Regardless of what method you use to attack your foes, you gain experience for defeating them. When you gain enough, your character gains a level, and your four attributes improve (Strength, Armor, Speed, and Magic).

The dopey slow attack and idiotic turbo attacks from the PS2 version are not present here. The slow attack was just something to keep the square button company. Dopey. The turbo attacks made an already easy game easier.

Unlike the PS2 version, the view here is isometric overhead. To move straight through a corridor, you have to press the directional pad diagonally. Sometimes the graphics try to gloss over the fact that this is an isometric view. Jagged cliffs, ramps and staircases that lead up to plateaus, unusual angles in the scenery, and so forth. The camera here is what one might expect. It's always with you, providing a great panorama of what's around you.

The controls go without saying. Directional pad to move around. A button to attack. B button uses magic. The L button causes your character to block, and the R button is used to strafe, but these moves aren't all that necessary.

Each of the five realms has a theme. Forest and volcanic areas, a large castle with dungeon, barracks, and armory, ancient ruins, a pyramid, a mining camp, a crystal mine, a twisted circus, a haunted house, and underground caverns, just to name a few. One of the final levels is based on the works of M.C. Escher. It has the never ending staircase and the "realm of impossibility" (where you ascend staircases or ramps, circle around on a straight walkway, and end up back where you started without having descended). Fun stuff.

Scattered about the levels are generators, which produce bad guys. They'll keep coming after you until you break through the throng and destroy the generator. Types of bad guys include ankle biters, grunt soldiers, shooters, golems, and generals. Ankle biters are creatures such as scorpions, rats, and snakes. Grunt soldiers are orcs, trolls, and such. Shooters fire flaming arrows or magic bolts at you. Golems are big monsters who can take a pounding before going down. And generals are big guys who wield big weapons. Also present is Death himself. He has two incarnations. Red Death drains health. Black Death drains experience. The only way to get rid of him is to use a magic potion or have an Anti-Death power-up.

In sharp contrast to the PS2 version, the ankle biters are usually the most prevalent here, mostly because they tend to be very fast. They generate quickly and will come after you just as quickly. The grunt soldiers and other characters tend to be rather slow. Death is everywhere in this game. He shows up frequently. Golems and generals are also much more prevalent than they are in the PS2 version, but here they're easier to beat. There are some areas where four or five of these guys will come after you at once. In the final level, the generators spew out golems and generals in addition to Death. If you don't get rid of that generator, you could find yourself facing four or five Deaths. But no cause for alarm. With the exception of scorpions and some other "fast generators", the rate at which enemies generate is consistently slow throughout the entire game.

Scattered about the regions you explore are various helpful things. Food restores health. Gold is... umm, gold is just accumulated in this game. There's no shop where you can spend it. Power-ups include triple shot, five-way shot, reflective shield, rapid fire, speed boost, invulnerability, gas mask (protects from poison fog), and the Anti-Death halo (turn the tables on Death! You'll gain health or experience from him). Unlike the PS2 version, the power-ups here last quite a while.

The harmful things in this game are minimal. Poisoned food takes health. Some barrels explode into an area-affect of poisonous gas. Exploding barrels will explode when shot. Shooting a magic potion will set it off (they're better when saved for when you really need them). Food disappears when shot. There's also the occasional steam vent in the floor or a wall.

The two collectables we collect the most of are keys and magic potions. You can only hold nine of each at a time. Keys are used to open doors and treasure chests. Regular barrels can be shot, and they may contain a useful item. Treasure chests usually contain gold, food, or a useful item.

That should cover just about everything in the game-play department. In a nutshell, almost everything from the PS2 version that grated on me is missing here. Wow! Awesome! All those idiotic colored crystals. Not here! Those dumb golden lion claws and other junk. Nowhere to be found! Moronic secret areas behind breakable walls. They're not here either! The "junk" collectable that takes away gold. Nope, it ain't here! Spikes and other annoying traps. They ain't here! All that worthless gimmickry (switches that activate cranes, moving platforms, and other nonsense). Nowhere in sight! None of the treasure chests explode! The poisonous barrels and exploding barrels aren't even all that numerous or troublesome. Man, this game rocks!

But things get even better. The level designs here are quite labyrinthine. Whereas the PS2 version sticks us on a linear path from Point A to Point B, these levels are proper mazes with plenty of avenues and passageways leading to dead ends with goodies to find. The levels here are also huge, offering us quite a bit of exploration. It can take up to a half hour to fully explore and clear out a single level. As if this weren't enough, there's another feature of level design here that I really like. Whereas the levels in the PS2 version are dreadfully cramped, the levels here are spacious, offering us plenty of room to maneuver and dodge enemy fire. I say again: this game rocks! Kudos to the level designers. They did a great job.

The graphics here are a mixed bag. The characters are decent at best. They're not sharply drawn, nor are they sharply animated. Your character doesn't have an animation for getting hit or knocked off his feet (instead of getting knocked off his feet, he's pushed backward a bit). Enemies just sort of disappear when killed, and there's a brief splatter of blood. By GBA standards, the animation is below par. Contrary to exaggerated reports in other reviews, the characters are identifiable. Scorpions, orcs, magma demons, knights, archers, rats, snakes, wolves, trolls, snow worms, flying demons, sorcerers... I could easily tell what they were. They're just small. The larger generals and golems tend to look better. Player characters look decent as well. They're just small. I'm not saying these are great visuals. They're functional.

The scenery is where things get good. In fact, some of the scenery here looks better than the PS2 version. I like the forest foliage, which looks much better than the two-dimensional, pre-rendered backgrounds in the PS2 game. Walls also tend to look better. The PS2 game has two-dimensional walls with cartoony scenery painted on them. This game doesn't have that awful cartoony look. Forest foliage, rock cliffs, bridges, castle walls, tundra, rivers, waterfalls, lava... Everything looks appropriately realistic. The egyptian levels have a good variety of nice-looking floors and walls. This is some good scenery.

The sound department is where this game falters badly. Repetitive music themes with tinny horns. There is some guitar music here. On the whole, the music sounds like a decent attempt at a MIDI file. Because the levels are large and your character tends to move rather slowly (even the fleet-footed Archer), you'll hear the same theme repeat over and over and over. There are very few sound effects here, and none are thrilling. Arrows being fired, axes being tossed, and so forth. A "crash!" when a generator is destroyed. Two different effects for when you pick up items, and an effect for the use of magic. There's no sound for your character being hit or an enemy dying. It's amazing how bad sound can bring a game down. I got used to it.

This game is an example of game-play triumphing over visuals and sound. The game-play works, and the intricate level designs make it fun. It's about as easy as the PS2 version. Actually, the absence of the shop adds a level of challenge. You can't just spend a hoard of gold to restock your health between levels. You can replay a level you've already been to, but I don't see any of them being much easier than the other. They're all pretty long and filled with enemies.

The RPG elements here are about as bland as it gets. You simply level-up. No points to spend on attributes. You just gain a level. Also, this game doesn't offer multi-player link capability. That's kind of odd. You can save your game any time you're at the wizard's tower (between levels).

I'm not going to lie to you and say that this game has eye-popping visuals, beautiful music tracks, great effects, or intricate story elements. What it does have is something that many great-looking and great-sounding games are lacking. Engaging game-play. The dichotomy between this game and the PS2 version is quite astonishing. I played through most of this game in one sitting. That's how engaging it is. When I played the PS2 version, I felt like quitting after the first two levels.

On the Game Boy Advance, Gauntlet Dark Legacy succeeds brilliantly where the PS2 version failed miserably. I'd say I had about as much fun here as I had with other games that I rated a 7. When the dust settles, engaging game-play will always triumph over visuals, sound, and anything else designers throw into video games.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/23/05