Overall 8.2 Graphics 6 Sound 6.7 Addictive 7 Story 2.5 Depth 7.3 Difficulty 7.3
6.5
Gauntlet - A Medieval Treasure Maze geeogree
Gauntlet was the game that got me interested in medieval stories, games and movies. It was my first real introduction into the medieval fantasy world through a game and I was hooked. The game itself was not impressive but was incredibly difficult to beat. In order to beat the game you had to play through 100 different floors exploring for hidden treasure, exits, food, keys and monsters. And while you played you had a countdown life meter that drained as you played. Slower the beat a level the closer to death you became. Get hit by monsters and the same meter would drain. Very challenging thing to balance when you’re playing for the first time. Still, the games excels in its ability to have multiple players playing together. Depending on the version you could have up to 4 people playing together which was great.
Graphics 4/10 – let’s be honest about this one. The graphics for this game are brutal. The levels all look basically exactly the same except for the occasional wall color or floor pattern change. The characters you pick look bland after you get through the character
selection screen. The monsters are limited in design and variety. The graphics are not what make this game fun though. The monotony of the graphics can be forgiven when other things are considered.
Sound 8/10 – one of the ways this game makes up for its terrible graphics is through the sound. I absolutely love the soundtrack for this game. The intro song gave me chills when I listened to it again and after listening through a few of the other tracks for the levels themselves it was like I was playing the game all over again. The level music is quiet but has an intensity to it. It isn’t overpowering or loud but the pace behind the song definitely lends to the gameplay that requires you to solve the levels as quickly as possible. Definitely a good addition to the overall gameplay style that the game has.
Addictiveness 6/10 – this is definitely a game that will make you come back for more. I remember playing the game over and over as a kid trying to solve the puzzles and progress through levels as quickly as possible. I don’t think I understood the overall goal of the game though so I quite often didn’t progress very well because I was just randomly running around and completing each level rather than trying to progress as quickly as possible. This game definitely requires a comprehensive guide if you expect to complete it in 1 try. And it is definitely more fun and easier to play with help than to try and complete it on your own.
Story 3/10 – The story is pretty basic and standard for a game like this. Morak, the bad buy, has stolen the Sacred Orb, the good thing that keeps the world safe, and if the heroes don’t steal it back then the land they live in, Rendar, will be destroyed or something. The heroes themselves are named to be Thor, Thyra, Merlin and Questor. Each one has various abilities when it comes to magic, armor, speed, shot power and hand to hand fighting. There isn’t much else to the story of the game.
Depth 9/10 – this game is LONG. There are 100 levels to it. If that isn’t a long game I don’t know what is. Each level doesn’t have to take 20 minutes to beat or anything but if you are going to be thorough and find everything there is in the level that you might need or in order to find a secret exit or treasure then you have to spend extra time searching those things out. That sort of stuff is vitally important in beating the game and missing some secrets can make the game impossible to beat.
Difficulty 9/10 – the gameplay itself isn’t what really makes this game difficult, but it can be part of it. What makes this game difficult is the size of it. 100 levels and you’ve got to find 8 clue rooms that give you part of the combination that will unlock the last level. If you can’t get all of these clues I’m not sure what happens because I’ve never played that far into the game but I imagine it means you can’t unlock the final level. Likely you’ll have to start over and play it through again trying to find the clues that open the final level. This is clearly a very frustrating mechanic that this game has. However, if all you had to do was complete levels as fast as humanly possible the game would lack this major difficulty bump that this idea gives the game.
And honestly, even without including this in the game the levels themselves can be very challenging. Your health is on a countdown timer that drops when you are hit as well. This alone makes the game difficult. Treasure rooms are the only places where health can be fully regenerated (I believe food will restore some life as well) and they only appear once in a while in the map. The map isn’t cheap on beating you like other games are. Side-scrollers can kill you off because of a bad jump. This game can kill you 3 levels before you actually die because of some bad play that you never recovered from. This is almost worse than dying instantly because you invest another 5-10 minutes into playing before realizing that the mistake you made earlier really did result in your death.
Overall 6.5/10 – I personally really liked this game growing up. It’s more of a nostalgic love for the game than Gauntlet actually being a great game. It can be a fun when played together with someone but on its own can be a pretty long grind of a game. I still recommend it to anyone who is looking to play a classic NES/arcade game but don’t be surprised if you quit out of frustration.
Graphics 4 Sound 8 Addictive 6 Story 3 Depth 9 Difficulty 9
Review Rating: 5/5
Submitted: 04-11-16
Review Replies: 2
9.5
The Elf shot the Food! thudricdholee
Oh, sweet memories. This game brings them back. My family spent countless hours playing this game together. And not just on one system-we played it in the arcade. We played it on the Nintendo. We bought Midway Arcade Treasures on the PS2 mostly because it was on there. We purchased the Wii remake. We played the crap out of this game. Why? Was it that great? Well, not really...but as one of the few original games you could play multi-player co-op on, it was always the one we turned on when everyone wanted a chance to play. It was just that much fun. We liked it so much we even bought the crappy PS2 Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, which was a truly spectacularly horrible game. I haven't purchased this game here on Vizzed and I probably won't, and the reason is that it's just not as fun to play by yourself. For me, at least, it was all about the co-op, the ribbing we'd give each other when we accidentally shot the potion, the frantic "You get that one and I'll get this one!" interplay. Probably for the rest of my life, this game will rank in my top ten list of best games ever, though. And I'm sure I'll always have at least one version around, just for old times sake. Graphics: 8 The arcade graphics were better...at least, that's how I remember them. The Nintendo graphics, though, were pretty darn good for when it came out...and even now, looking at screen shots, I have to say it's aged pretty well. Sure, it's simple...but it's clean, it's bright, it's clear, and it's not too cluttered. And no matter how many enemies were on the screen...and believe me, there were usually a lot...it never lagged or got weird. Sound: 6 Oh, the music. As people who've read my reviews know, I am not a fan of old system music. Usually it drives me bonkers, and I end up muting them. This game, however, I remember liking the music quite a bit. Maybe it was that half the time I couldn't hear it over the conversations we were having...However, most of my score here is for the announcer guy. Sometimes I'd shoot stuff just to hear him announce it, with that ringing, rather disapproving tone of voice. You can't say the line "The Elf shot the food!" unless you say it in hat voice. I bet you even read the review title in that voice, didn't you? I've not seen such bravery! The wizard needs food badly! Addictiveness: 10 There's something about this game. I know we never could put it down; when we were bored, we pulled it out. And we never hesitated to buy the new format. We still play it, occasionally, when we all get together. It doesn't matter how far you get, or if you beat it or not...it's just playing it that's fun. I have a feeling this game will be played for generations to come. I hope so at least, because there's always a good reason to kill things.Story: 2 Ok. As much as I love this game-and I clearly do-I have to say the story was weak sauce. I mean, I don't even remember exactly why we were all trudging around in the dungeon anyway. I'm sure there was something grand and world-saving going on, but clearly, it wasn't enough to catch our attention. We didn't care. And that's really rare for me, for any game, ever. It made me curious and I went looking, and you know what? I don't think anyone else knew or cared either-there's no mention of an actual story line in any of the several random places I went to read. So maybe there was no story? Who cares. Kill things. Depth: 6 Depth is such an odd thing to measure sometimes. Was there a lot gong on? Yes! Fake walls, hidden rooms, potions randomly scattered around...was the game long? Yes. We could play for hours, and never hit the end. Did it get a bit repetitive? Yes. New monsters really didn't show up much, and the goal was always the same. So eh for depth, but once again...who cares? KILL THINGS! Difficulty: 8 Now...this score is dependent on a few things. First, NOT CHEATING. Because you can cheat on most of the ports of this game-the PS2 version lets you add health whenever you want just by squashing both the shoulder buttons. We abused the crud out of that cheat, of course. Also, how many people are playing. The more people, the easier the game. The last thing that you have to consider is how cooperative the players actually are-do you share the food and potions, or is it every man for himself? Even with fully cooperative, helpful players, this game does get rather difficult. The timer counting down your life force is a constant reminder that you are always in danger, and death pops up at the worst times to suck your life force like sugar. The spawn rate of the bad guys gets insane, and the level 4 spawn pits are everywhere. And it's really, really easy to accidentally murder your food. All. The. Time. Overall: 9.5For me, this is and will always be a classic awesome game. Simple but addictive game-play at it's best. If you never got a chance to play this at an arcade, you really missed out, because that was where it was the best.
Graphics 8 Sound 6 Addictive 10 Story 2 Depth 6 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 4.3/5
Submitted: 01-11-13
Updated: 01-11-13
Review Replies: 0
7
Gauntlet Review Marcmoney
Overall - 7
Gauntlet happens to be one of my favorite games in all times. I loved the leveling up and the abilities that each person does. I remember playing Gauntlet games all the time when I was young.
Graphics - 6
The graphics are bad in the game. I couldn't stand looking at the graphics.
Sound - 6
The sound was a bit catchy, but it didn't sound to real.
Addictiveness - 5
It's a 50/50 chance that I would play this again. Don't know when, but I might.
Story - N/A
There is no story in this Gauntlet game. Although, in the other Gauntlet games, they do have a story and it is very good. :)
Depth - 7
This Gauntlet game is sort of big. I do not know if there is any leveling up because I didn't get it on a count of how far I got.
Difficulty - 7
This game is quite hard. Your health goes down every second in the game and that is not fun. :S
Wrap Things Up...
Gauntlet is a great game to play. I wouldn't recommend trying this game out, but try it out and see if you enjoy it. I might try it again one day. :)
Graphics 6 Sound 6 Addictive 5 Depth 7 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 1/5
Submitted: 07-12-11
Review Replies: 0
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