Gauntlet games had been legendary for many years before this game came out, so it would only be appropriate that this one be named 'Gauntlet Legends' (And then later 'Dark Legacy'). However, is it truly as Legendary as it's name suggests?

In October of 1998 the arcade version of this game came out, containing four player multiplayer and plenty of stages to play through. The game was one of the best multiplayer experiences and it was always worth taking a few friends, and a few pounds to the arcade to play this game. Of course, when an arcade game gets popular, the developers have to make console versions. A year later the Nintendo 64 version came out and in on the 28th June 2000, we got Gauntlet Legends on the Playstation.(And soon later the Dreamcast version)

When the game opens, like a lot of games on disc based consoles, the game shows a rather low quality FMV explaining an amount of backstory to the game. As the game itself says (In a rather low quality voice) "In ancient times a greedy young mage, using the power of the rune stones released a great evil upon the world. This demon Skorne, Fearing the power of the runestones, cast them to the far reaches of the four mystical realms in hope that they will never again be assembled and used against him. No one has dared try... Until now." (Sorry if I got any of that wrong. This begins by foreboding the player with what they will be facing in the game, along with what they need to get (The Rune Stones) in just a one minute movie. I for one find that not enough games do this as well as this game has, and that is a large disappointment on newer games.

The game has four playable characters (Along with four secret ones) that are the Warrior, who is the best at close quarters combat, the Valkyrie who takes the least damage, the Wizard who has the most effective magic attacks, and the Archer who has the fastest move speed and attack speed. Each character also has Turbo attacks which exist only to make the game easier by quickly clearing out enemies. Turbo attacks are triggered by holding the run button and pressing attack. The level one turbo attack fires a shot that goes through enemies, the level two is a large attack that circles around the player, and the level three attack throws a huge projectile, instantly killing most enemies and heavily damaging bosses. There are also other, character specific attacks can only be triggered with two players next to each other, these usually last for a long time and do a lot of damage. To go along with these characters focusing on a stat, the game has a level up system which is as simple as kill monsters -> get levels. However this, the Playstation version of the game only supports two players, despite coming out so late in the Playstations lifecycle and Gauntlet is very well known for its fantastic multiplayer, so when that get's butchered it is going to affect the game. And it truly has lowered the value of the game. But that in no way means that this is a bad game, nor does it mean that this is a bad port. Unfortunately, of all of the ports this could be considered the worst for having the smallest amount of stages and only two players.

The game begins in a main hub, Sumners Tower. Sumner is the wizard seen at the end of the intro cutscene and seen near the northernmost part of the center, reading a book. Talking to him will give hints on what levels contain rune stones, and what items are the weaknesses of what bosses. The item shop is also found in Sumners Tower. Items here are all obtainable in levels, and it serves little purpose to being useful as levels can be played multiple times and therefore farmed for items. The only use players will find in the item shop is buying food to restore their health. For Playstation standards Sumners Tower is a very nice looking level, however the characters look a little lacking in detail. The possible reason for this is to stop the game from slowing down when many monsters are on screen at once. The tower has five branches which go into the four realms, and the extra realm for after beating the game. Collected runestones are nicely laid out in the center of the tower, unfortunately the order in which they circle around the center makes little sense, making it a bad idea to use it as a checklist. The realm branches each have a background and background sound effects so that no text is needed to tell you where you are going, it is very clear to know which one is the Mountain Realm, Castle Realm, Ice Realm and the Battle Towers. Unfortunately, the stages just appear as circles with no distinguishable differences.

The stages are one of the places where the game shines. The stage design is very intuitive and are very rewarding to those who try searching just a little deeper because the game houses many secrets, with most of them being useful to the player(s). The stages while nicely designed are not too appealing to the eye as they have somewhat low polygon counts, and very low quality textures. My assumption for this is because the camera can zoom out very far for multiplayer, and they want the game to run well. And run well it does. I have never had framerate issues even on the most detailed of stages. Each stage has an Obelisk that the player has to touch in order to unlock the next realm. These obelisks are usually hidden with their locations hinted at many times through scrolls. Unfortunately, because in Sumners Tower the stages just appear as circles on the floor it is hard to keep track of what obelisks have been found and some are really quite hard to find. Also required to find (As I said earlier) are the thirteen rune stones, which are required to enter the final stage and fight Skorne. This is made clear by the time the player finds the first rune stone, noticing that it gets placed around the center, around a circle like for the other levels.

Each level and realm has monsters coming out of cabins, holes in the floor, and bone piles which must be destroyed to stop the monsters spawning. The monsters are poorly animated, just appearing out in front of each of the enemy spawners and just disappearing when they die looking rather ugly. The monsters are very badly detailed, like the player characters and play the same sound effects every time they hit you, get hit or die. While the sound effects get annoying rather quickly, the soundtrack in absolutely fantastic. Every single stage has it's own theme and the majority of these are brilliant. Because every stage has it's own theme, it makes for a very large soundtrack, and in very high quality as well. Later versions of this game (Which came under the name 'Gauntlet Dark Legacy') Included an even larger soundtrack as they had more stages to go with.

The bosses in this game are huge, possibly the biggest bosses at the time, and were rather impressive. They looked very detailed for playstation and were the only enemies to include more than one sound effect. The bosses would tower over the player, emphasising how huge they were, and had massive attacks that required good dodging skills (Or a potion shield) and did a lot of damage. The bosses would be tough to beat, and deserved to be. They are one of the games highlights. The only downside is there are only about six boss fights in the game, and the final boss just seemed a lot easier than all of the others. Boss fights however seem to become far too easy if the game is being played with a friend who is as good as you, and the bosses can be farmed for experience, meaning that getting to level 99 is not very hard at all. The bosses also give away a lot of money when they die, which for the first time you beat them is well deserved, but after that, is just a way to get a lot of gold. The bosses are not just a way to get to the next level, because they don't let you get to the next level at all, as that is what the obelisks are for. Instead, when the realm bosses are beat, an extra stage is unlocked, which allows you to fight the second to last boss in an extra stage. I won't spoil more of that to you, because it is really good.

I find that Gauntlet Legends is a fantastic game, and while this Playstation Port is butchered compared to the others, it is still and incredibly fun game. However, this game is in every way inferior to it's PS2 re-release (Technically also a sequel) Dark Legacy, but besides that this is one hell of a good fun time, assuming you only have one person that you want to play it with you. However, if you are planning on buying a gauntlet game, then you would be best off with the Playstation 2 version of Dark Legacy as it contains this entire game and more. But for me, with this being one of the main games of my childhood, it holds heavy sentimental value to me, and will always be a classic to me, no matter what anyone says.

Check the Arcade Mames for a Gauntlet that is closer to the real thing.

The thing was developed for munching quarters for many years.
They have an N.64 version but the controls are so funky I recommend the arcade Mame (I had no idea the thing even existed till I hit this site).

Thanks for reminding me I have to aquire a few Arcade hits for my gamer profile. The thing is still not fully loaded of all the cool hits on this site.

Everyone Knows about the classic ones with no end or ending.
The Gauntlet Legends set was a great breath of fresh air when they were launched. Everyone was under the impression that multiplayer was just a First Person Shooter or Street Fighter Game.
Gauntlet put the smack down on that Idea and reminded gamers that the rules are only in a persons mind.

Good Luck To All.
I'm done. Stick a fork in me.
Peace.

I already knew about the arcade versions. I have played every version of the game besides the Dreamcast version. This was a review about the Playstation version, and only about the playstation version. The game meant a lot to me, I wanted others to know that as well.