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A victory for good game-play

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: December 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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 other versions of Gauntlet Dark Legacy. In fact, the manual gives us the story (in very small print, I might add; eye strain!). It's not much of a story. Just enough to give us a reason to be exploring, beating up monsters, and collecting treasure on a linear quest through five realms. The Mountain Kingdom, Castle Stronghold, Desert Lands, Ice Domain, and Dream World. 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. There's the strong Warrior, the well-armored Valkyrie, the magical Wizard, and the speedy Archer. 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. 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 view here is isometric overhead. To move straight through a corridor, you have to press the directional pad diagonally. 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. The good variety of bad guys here includes scorpions, rats, snakes, orcs, trolls, magma demons, sorcerers, and other creatures. There are also archers who fire arrows at you, large golem monsters, and 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.

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. The two items we need 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.

The level designs here are quite labyrinthine. They're 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. The levels are also spacious, offering us plenty of room to maneuver and dodge enemy fire.

The graphics here are a mixed bag. The characters are decent at best. They're not sharply drawn, nor are they sharply animated. By GBA standards, the animation is below par. The scenery is where things get good. Forest foliage, rock cliffs, bridges, castle walls, tundra, rivers, waterfalls, lava... Everything looks good. 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 is decent. 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. 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. On an odd note, there's no multi-player link capability. Rather strange. You can save your game between levels in one of three save slots.

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. I played through most of this game in one sitting. That's how engaging it is. It's solid fun.

One vs a million odds, a huge challenge and arcade fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: November 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is true Gauntlet insanity! Gauntlet is a game that is just that; a gauntlet. You are one of four heroes (archer, barbarian, Viking, or sorcerer) sent on a quest (I have no idea what that quest is), that you must enter a labyrinth (you see a bird's eye view) and work your way from the start point to the exit that takes you to the next labyrinth by any means necessary. So why is this game a gauntlet? There are enemy houses in the labyrinth, and when you see them they begin producing enemies and they do not stop until you destroy the house itself. There are specific houses for each enemy (scorpions, ghosts, wizards, grunts and more). The enemies are easily destroyed either with your long-range attack (archer is the best for this) or the close range attack (barbarian is the best for this). There are enemies such as Minatares, rock monsters and death itself, which walk through the labyrinth without being made by a house. There are power-ups throughout the labyrinth, such as a variety of food, magic potions, and keys to unlock doors and treasure chests. So why would anyone play this game? The person who plays this game needs an incredible challenge, because you are far and beyond outnumbered! This game is not for everyone!

Just great!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I actually wasn't expecting much of this game when I bought it. I have the Playstation 2 version, and i though : "This will never beat a PS2 game!" ... I was wrong! The gameplay is more dynamic, and I'm quite pleased with the graphics and music. The fact that different charactes actually have different qualities (as opposed to the PS2 version) Help a lot. It definately brought back the 80's Nintendo fan in me.

YES! GAUNTLET HANDHELD!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game looks great. I have grown up on the gauntlet series, and i love it so much it's not funny, and this game looks just as good as it's counterparts on the gamecube, Xbox, And PS2. Gotta say the graphics are exotic and the game control is smooth.
BUY IT!...

BORING!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

While I expected a flashback to the coin-op days, I got only a poor imitation. The audio is horrible, and the game play (though the controls are easy) is just plain SLOW. Compared to other games' features, this game is seriously lacking -- no mapping, difficult navigation (given the psuedo-3D of the worlds you traverse), and finally, after spending time looking for and collecting gold, there is NO REASON TO DO SO! Gold means nothing! AAAGGGHHH.

I was also looking forward to the audio telling me things like "Red Warrior needs food badly," but in reality, this game is "about to die."

Nothing can compare

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: December 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is...just it. The best version I've played this game on was Gamecube, and that was just b/c you could keep your items in storage to bring out in case you need them, otherwise they're all the same, and there's little new, cept maybe a few levels otherwise everything remains the same. Might be good for rent, but only version worth buying is on the Nintendo Gamecube.

Go buy a different game.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: April 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is not NEARLY as good as the other Gauntlet games. The levels are long and boring, the characters are Bad, there is no shop to buy things (therefore the collecting of gold is pointless), and the items activate the second you pick them up. I liked the other Gauntlet games much better than this one (especially the one for gamecube), but thats just my opinnion and if you want to waste your money and try to prove me wrong, then go ahead, but don't say I didn't warn you.

What's new?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Sorry to say, but there isn't much to tell about this game. I would preferably rather go with the one on PS2 or something. The sad thing is that you might as well just get Gauntlet Legends on Playstation. Why? To me, it's the same exact thing. But the programmers took some of their time to shove some new stuff in. For example, the levels are different (This only means the worlds are, not the stroy line; the boses and characters are practically the same, and yes, Skorn's in here). However, There's no co-operative, and I still haven't figured out what the gold's for! But just not to let your hopes up, it is a decent game. The graphics are okay. But if you're someone like me that actually wants a good action game, don't buy it...

great game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: December 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I just got this game for Christmas and I love it. I like it because its not too complicated yet it takes a long time for each level so you never get bored or "stuck" with it!

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