Gauntlet has to be one of the most classic arcade games of all times and was finally brought to the PC format (as well as many others) in 1988. Gauntlet is a fantasy based game that features single player or pseudo-cooperative simultaneous multiplayer formats.
The player has to choose from four standard heroes: Thor the Warrior; Thyra the Valkyrie; Questor the Elf; or Merlin the Wizard. Each character has its own strength and weaknesses. For example, Thor can deal a lot of punishment in hand-to-hand combat, whereas Merlin is the strongest magic use.
Gauntlet has to be one of the most classic arcade games of all times and was finally brought to the PC format (as well as many others) in 1988. Gauntlet is a fantasy based game that features single player or pseudo-cooperative simultaneous multiplayer formats.
The player has to choose from four standard heroes: Thor the Warrior; Thyra the Valkyrie; Questor the Elf; or Merlin the Wizard. Each character has its own strength and weaknesses. For example, Thor can deal a lot of punishment in hand-to-hand combat, whereas Merlin is the strongest magic use. Questor can run faster than about all the other three put together, and Thyra is the master of defense. There can only be one of each player in each game, so a four-player simultaneous
game will feature one of each hero, for great cooperative balance.
The game is a bird’s eye view of a variety of dungeon levels and is a true dungeon crawler. The screen will scroll with the majority of players, requiring some degree of communication to avoid trapping players that are left behind in the mazes. Together, the heroes need to move through the dungeons, battling monsters, using warp tunnels and moving blocks to reach a stationary exit. Along the way, the heroes had to share the loot that could be found in the caverns, including treasure, magic potions, and food (which equated to health). There were a variety of monsters to battle, each coming from a specific house that generated them onto the dungeon level. Some notables included grunts, demons and ghosts. There are over one hundred levels to negotiate.
The greatest feature of gauntlet is the simultaneous play. While it is meant to be cooperative, it sometimes becomes a competitive battle for food. Gauntlet heroes lose health just from standing still, so time is a definite factor when killing enemies and seeking the exit. Players cannot advance to the next round until all the heroes have found their way into the sewer pipe type of level exit.
Overall, the levels are somewhat tedious, and this is a true hack and slash, with no puzzling or massive spell interface to learn. Still, it is a great time killer for four people and remains as all time arcade and arcade conversion computer classic.
