Gauntlet
Posted February 19, 2006
Adapted from the arcade classic, Midway has brought their ancient coin-popper to Live Arcade on the Xbox 360. In the past, Midway has attempted to revamp Gauntlet with visual upgrades and different game mechanics on the PS2 and Xbox consoles, which have been disappointing at best. Thankfully, Midway adapted the 1985 arcade classic mostly untouched with the exception of an interesting online addition.
As the game loads up, a fuzzy Midway logo appears and the game menu pops up in a few seconds. The menu incorporated elements from the game in the moving background, but it's fairly unimpressive. There is no music, so it seems a bit stagnant. The menu is easily navigable with options for the arcade game, Xbox Live game, Leaderboard, Achievements, and Help. The Help section provides a couple games of teaching information and layout of the controls.
Gameplay:
The arcade portion of the game is exactly how you remember it from the past. As a main character, you can choose from an Elf, Valkyrie, Warrior, or Wizard to use in the game. Each character has advantages and disadvantages. For instance, the Warrior has the best combat skills, but usually dies first due to poor defense. After choosing a character, your escape from the gauntlet begins. While searching for the exit to each two-dimensional level, you will encounter various types of monsters in your path. Ghosts, warlocks, trolls, and dragons are a few of the enemies the brave hero or heroine will face.
Within each level, you will find various items to further the quest. Health, in the form of food, can be picked up for consumption or destroyed accidentally. Magic potions can be used to destroy entire rooms of baddies. In addition, there are potions that will provide temporary boosts to stats for a series of levels. Golden keys are littered everywhere to collect and break into locked passageways. Also, keys can be accumulated and carried from level to level.
Oddly, the single player game includes an odd game mechanic that cheapens the experience. The yellow Y button replenishes your health without any limitation. While it will reduce your overall score for that level, the semi-God mode takes away from the urgency of finding an exit and makes the single player game quite boring. It's taken as an adaptation of the 'insert quarters for more life' from the old-school arcade machines, but it's poorly implemented.
After the single player portion of the game gets tiring, the online section can be a blast with the right mix of people. Too many online Gauntlet players are incompetent or idiotic. Out of the nine rounds I attempted to play, only one of them fielded a four-person team able to pass level 10. The online game relies heavily on cooperation between teammates, which can be difficult when everyone wants to go separate ways. The person that gets stuck with the worst character in the game, the warrior, is usually whiney and uncooperative. Also, the game can suffer from serious lag if one person has a poor connection. Building a solid team takes time and effort, especially if you want to unlock all the achievements.
The 12 achievements worth 200 points are split fairly evenly between the online and single player modes. The single player achievements are mostly simple to attain if you invest a few hours into the game. They add slight replay value to the title and can be fun to grab up quickly. Midway did a good job forming a group of achievements that even a casual gamer can pick up.
Graphics:
Visually, the graphics have gotten a slight face-lift from the old version. The differences are barely noticeable and don't add much to the title. It would have been interesting to see a major upgrade in the Gauntlet universe, but Midway took more of a purist's attitude. The game doesn't take advantage of widescreen on your HDTV, so the black bars on each side are normal. Also, there is an option in the game menu to change back to the original graphics of the 1985 version.
Audio:
There is no music in the game, which makes for a nearly silent experience. The sound effects are taken verbatim from the old version and remain true to the nature of the game. I particularly enjoy the robotic voice of the overlord character running the Gauntlet. The occasional shout of the person who shot the food is useful for berating the trigger-happy Xbox Live user.
Conclusion:
While the game is on the cheap end of the Xbox Live Arcade cost spectrum, it has a short single player life and the online portion is only average at best due to poor players. Fanatics of the old arcade classic won't be disappointed, but the average Xbox Live user may feel cheated as the game pales in comparison to the quality of a game like Geometry Wars. Be wary of the difference in quality before purchasing Gauntlet, but it is worth a few hours of fun if you are looking for a classic 2D shooter.
As the game loads up, a fuzzy Midway logo appears and the game menu pops up in a few seconds. The menu incorporated elements from the game in the moving background, but it's fairly unimpressive. There is no music, so it seems a bit stagnant. The menu is easily navigable with options for the arcade game, Xbox Live game, Leaderboard, Achievements, and Help. The Help section provides a couple games of teaching information and layout of the controls.
Gameplay:
The arcade portion of the game is exactly how you remember it from the past. As a main character, you can choose from an Elf, Valkyrie, Warrior, or Wizard to use in the game. Each character has advantages and disadvantages. For instance, the Warrior has the best combat skills, but usually dies first due to poor defense. After choosing a character, your escape from the gauntlet begins. While searching for the exit to each two-dimensional level, you will encounter various types of monsters in your path. Ghosts, warlocks, trolls, and dragons are a few of the enemies the brave hero or heroine will face.
Within each level, you will find various items to further the quest. Health, in the form of food, can be picked up for consumption or destroyed accidentally. Magic potions can be used to destroy entire rooms of baddies. In addition, there are potions that will provide temporary boosts to stats for a series of levels. Golden keys are littered everywhere to collect and break into locked passageways. Also, keys can be accumulated and carried from level to level.
Oddly, the single player game includes an odd game mechanic that cheapens the experience. The yellow Y button replenishes your health without any limitation. While it will reduce your overall score for that level, the semi-God mode takes away from the urgency of finding an exit and makes the single player game quite boring. It's taken as an adaptation of the 'insert quarters for more life' from the old-school arcade machines, but it's poorly implemented.
After the single player portion of the game gets tiring, the online section can be a blast with the right mix of people. Too many online Gauntlet players are incompetent or idiotic. Out of the nine rounds I attempted to play, only one of them fielded a four-person team able to pass level 10. The online game relies heavily on cooperation between teammates, which can be difficult when everyone wants to go separate ways. The person that gets stuck with the worst character in the game, the warrior, is usually whiney and uncooperative. Also, the game can suffer from serious lag if one person has a poor connection. Building a solid team takes time and effort, especially if you want to unlock all the achievements.
The 12 achievements worth 200 points are split fairly evenly between the online and single player modes. The single player achievements are mostly simple to attain if you invest a few hours into the game. They add slight replay value to the title and can be fun to grab up quickly. Midway did a good job forming a group of achievements that even a casual gamer can pick up.
Graphics:
Visually, the graphics have gotten a slight face-lift from the old version. The differences are barely noticeable and don't add much to the title. It would have been interesting to see a major upgrade in the Gauntlet universe, but Midway took more of a purist's attitude. The game doesn't take advantage of widescreen on your HDTV, so the black bars on each side are normal. Also, there is an option in the game menu to change back to the original graphics of the 1985 version.
Audio:
There is no music in the game, which makes for a nearly silent experience. The sound effects are taken verbatim from the old version and remain true to the nature of the game. I particularly enjoy the robotic voice of the overlord character running the Gauntlet. The occasional shout of the person who shot the food is useful for berating the trigger-happy Xbox Live user.
Conclusion:
While the game is on the cheap end of the Xbox Live Arcade cost spectrum, it has a short single player life and the online portion is only average at best due to poor players. Fanatics of the old arcade classic won't be disappointed, but the average Xbox Live user may feel cheated as the game pales in comparison to the quality of a game like Geometry Wars. Be wary of the difference in quality before purchasing Gauntlet, but it is worth a few hours of fun if you are looking for a classic 2D shooter.