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An Xbox Live Arcade game (built for the Xbox 360 system) based on the classic arcade game. Gauntlet is back! The original role-playing arcade game lets four adventurers explore together as a warrior, valkyrie, wizard, and elf. Traverse the darkest of mazes, destroying vile beasts and claiming gold. Consume food to regain your strength, collect keys to journey deeper, and seek out potions to defeat your most powerful foes.

Genre: Action

Publisher: Midway Games

Developer: Digital Eclipse Software

Online Play:

Local Play:

December 1, 2005 –
How I miss the old days of eagerly dropping my one or two precious quarters into the Gaunlet arcade machines that populated the sweaty ice rinks of my youth. If more than one person happened to be at the machine, the experience was exponentially better, at least until someone inevitably ran out of change. Now, the title of the past that’s spawned many mediocre sequels is back on Xbox Live and a few things have changed for the better.

For those unfamiliar, Gauntlet’s concept is simple. Pick a Warrior, Valkyrie, Wizard or Elf and then kill tons of stuff. Presented from an overhead perspective, the game challenges you to make your way through maze like levels and swarms of monsters to reach the exit door. Once you reach the door, you move to the next stage. You character is armed with an endless amount of projectiles to kill ghosts, ogres, wizards and many more crazy enemies. To get the enemy waves to stop, you need to destroy their spawn nests which can take varying numbers of hits.

The basic goal of Gauntlet, aside form surviving, is to get high scores. You do this by killing guys and collecting treasure scattered around the map. At some points you can pick up blue vials that will wipe the screen clear of enemies if you press the B button. At any time other players are able to join into your game, for up to four. This version of Gauntlet also supports play over Xbox Live, which is definitely cool.

Visually and aurally the game is pretty much the same as before. Of course, running the game on an HD set will make it sharper, but this game still looks and sounds much like it did in 1985.

You’ll be able to manipulate a few options including your starting health and difficulty levels, but if you do change them beyond the default levels you won’t be able to get any of the achievements. The 13 achievements consist of completing a set number of levels, achieving certain scores with specific characters, and beating level 100.

Aside from the new online functionality, there’s an option many might not care for so much. Remember how in the arcades you had to add more quarters for more health? Well, now you just have to hit the Y button. If you continue to hit it, your health will quickly rise to astronomical proportions, rendering the challenge of the game obsolete. So, if you want to play Gauntlet the way it was meant to be played, you can’t hit the Y button. This creates an awkward situation, however, since in the arcade you might normally have dropped three quarters into the machine to start off and continued to add more quarters when you’re health got low to avoid having to use a continue. Now that there’s no money involved, there’s nothing to stop you from building up a ridiculous reserve of health.

That being said, your scores won’t be as high as they could have been if you keep gorging on additional health. You’ll probably want to stick to the online game, for the most part, where you can’t use this ability. Unfortunately you can’t start a game by yourself online, you have to wait for others to join. Aside from these issues, it’s a decent expansion of a classic title.

Closing Comments
If you’ve played it before you know exaclty what to expect. The online mode is a fun addition, and thankfully the add health button is rendered useless over Xbox Live.

IGN Ratings for Gauntlet (X360)

Rating Description

out of 10
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5.0
Presentation
There’s a helpful menu and HUD to get you through both online and off.

5.0
Graphics
It’s straight from 1985, love it or hate it.

6.0
Sound
It’s nice to hear the classic voices and sound effects. Perfect to rouse nostalgia.

6.0
Gameplay
Classic Gauntlet gameplay with an instant health button.

6.0
Lasting Appeal
You can play this game forever in search of that high score. The online features may hook you for a surprisingly long amount of time.

6.0
Passable
OVERALL
(out of 10 / not an average)

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