Gauntlet

15.10.1985
Critic 77/100
Users 70/100
The players, up to four at once in the arcade version, select among four playable fantasy-based characters; Thor the Warrior, Merlin the Wizard, Thyra the Valkyrie, or Questor the Elf. Each character has his or her own unique strength and weaknesses. For example, the Warrior is strongest in hand-to-hand combat, the Wizard has the most powerful magic, the Valkyrie has the best armour and the Elf is the fastest in movement. Upon selecting a playable character, the gameplay is set within a series of top-down, third-person perspective mazes where the object is to find and touch the designated exit in every level. An assortment of special items can be located in each level that increase player's character's health, unlock doors, gain more points and magical potions that can destroy all of the enemies on screen. The enemies are an assortment of fantasy-based monsters, including ghosts, grunts, demons, lobbers, sorcerers and thieves. Each enters the level through specific generators, which can be destroyed. While there are no bosses in the game, the most dangerous enemy is "Death", who can not only drain a character's health, but is difficult to destroy. As the game progresses, higher levels of skill are needed to reach the exit, with success often depending on the willingness of the players to cooperate by sharing food and luring monsters into places where they can be engaged and slaughtered more conveniently. While contact with enemies reduces the player's health, it also slowly drains on its own, thus creating a time limit. When a character's health reaches zero, that character dies. The character can be revived in place with full health by spending a game credit (i.e. inserting a coin) within a certain short time window after it died. This allows even the least proficient players to keep playing indefinitely, if they are willing to keep inserting coins.

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31.12.1987

Deeper Dungeons is essentially a repack of the original Gauntlet with new, redesigned dungeons.

Part of collection:
Gauntlet (last 3 games)

11.08.2015

The classic Gauntlet 4-player co-op action gameplay returns in a completely new experience! Battle the endless hordes of foes as you and your friends fight for treasure and glory via both local and online co-op multiplayer. Invade the Darkness!

23.09.2014

The classic Gauntlet 4-player co-op action gameplay returns in a completely new experience! Play as one of four distinct heroes in an intense monster filled dungeon brawler with a combination of both uniquely built and randomly generated levels to explore. Battle the endless hordes of foes as you and your friends fight for treasure and glory via both local and online co-op multiplayer.

12.12.2005

Gauntlet is back for yet another iteration. The Emperor has crucified his four loyal heroes to a magic tree, driven by a maniac thirst for their immortality. Hundreds of years later, as only a ghost, he came to regret all the wrong deeds he has done and frees them, asking them to defeat his six former advisors in an attempt to undo what he has done. This version of Gauntlet goes back to the roots: The warrior, valkyrie, elf, and wizard fight their way through hordes of enemies to make their way to the six bosses. The game is mostly a hack'n'slash affair, puzzles are limited to finding keys and pressing buttons that open doors and portals. Every character has a unique set of moves and attacks: The warrior has rather powerful attacks, the valkyrie has quick moves, the elf can shoot powerful arrows, and the wizard has several magical range attacks. Defeating enemies gives you experience points that may be used to increase your three stats; some chests in the levels contain better armor or weapons. Also, new moves can be purchased with gold. The game can be played both in single-player as well as cooperative multi-player, where up to four players fight together. The newest feature of this game (other than the much better graphics) is the online gaming feature. Played online, the game is identical to a regular multiplayer game, with each player on a different box.

Could be interesting

16.10.1993

Choose again from Thor the Warrior, Thyra the Valkyrie, Merlin the Wizard and Questor the Elf (each with their own advantages/disadvantages) and 1 to 4 players(supports Sega's four-player adapter). Alongside the standard arcade mode, there are the Quest, Battle and Record modes. Quest Mode: Defeat the four towers and solve the mystery of the ancient castle; weapons can be bought with collected gold from merchants in the main hub area, where you can also choose which tower to take on next. Experience points are good for increasing your stats. Battle Mode: Fight your fellows to the death. Maps can include teleporters/monsters/items etc. Avoid exits(or you'll be out of the round). Record Mode: Arcade mode with some variations such as a password continue, also you can't die - although points will be lost for every 500 health lost.

31.10.2003

The video game adaption of the acclaimed film of the same name. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a follow up the well received adaption of the first two films in the trilogy. The game expands on what The Two Towers accomplished, with the action and adventure sequel introducing three separate story lines from the movie: one following Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, as The Two Towers did, another following Gandalf, and a third following Frodo and Sam, with Merry, Pippin, and Faramir serving as unlockable characters. Gameplay features were also expanded upon, including multiplayer.

01.10.1998

Gauntlet Legends is an arcade game released in 1998 by Atari Games. It is a fantasy themed hack and slash styled dungeon crawl game, a sequel to 1985's popular Gauntlet and 1986's Gauntlet II and marks the final game in the series to be produced by Atari Games. Its unusual features for an arcade game included passwords and characters that could be saved, enabling players to play over the course of a long period.

27.01.1989

Progress is made through the game by fighting through Death Adder's henchmen, including men armed with clubs and maces, skeleton warriors, and knights. Players are able to attack using their weapon, jump and cast spells that hurt all enemies on the screen. The force of this magic depends on the number of "bars" of magic power currently available. The bars are filled by collecting blue 'magic potions' attained by kicking little sprites who then drop the potions. These sprites appear during regular levels and during bonus stages in between levels. The male warrior Ax is able to cast earth spells. The dwarf Gilius, casts lightning spells and the female warrior Tyris casts fire magic. Each character has a different number of maximum magic bars and varying ranges of attack. Various steeds known as bizarrians are found in the game. These can be ridden when the enemy rider is knocked off, or if one is found dormant. The least powerful steed is known as the Cockatrice, which can be used to knock down enemies with a swipe of its tail. The more powerful dragon, which can either shoot fireballs or breathe fire, is found later in the game.

23.09.2014

The classic Gauntlet 4-player co-op action gameplay returns in a completely new experience! Play as one of four distinct heroes in an intense monster filled dungeon brawler with a combination of both uniquely built and randomly generated levels to explore. Battle the endless hordes of foes as you and your friends fight for treasure and glory via both local and online co-op multiplayer.

20.04.2006

Ninety-Nine Nights, is a fantasy hack and slash video game developed for the Xbox 360 by an alliance between Q Entertainment and Phantagram; video game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi served as producer for the game.

02.11.2004

The Lord of the Rings:The Third Age introduces entirely new characters which aren't mentioned in the books or movies. The game does relate to the movies by including scenes from all three movies, with new background speech by Ian McKellen (Gandalf). There are seven playable characters in the game which have been created specifically for it, as well a small appearances by characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Eowyn, Faramir, and Gothmog. The game covers events in all three movies/books, mostly with references to major events shown through cut scenes, or the scenes from the movies with Ian McKellan's narration. A classic RPG game, The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age has gameplay elements similar to Final Fantasy, where you have a party of characters, each with a different set of skills and attributes, who gain levels, making them stronger as the game progresses. Battles are turn-based, and let the gamer make different decisions on what they want to do to change the outcome of the battle. The game travels through many areas throughout Tolkien's Middle Earth, including The Pelennor Fields and Moria.

01.07.1986

Solomon's Key is a puzzle game developed by Tecmo in 1986 for arcade release on custom hardware based on the Z80 chipset. The game is generally recognized as one of the most difficult games to appear on the NES. The player, controlling a sorcerer known only as Dana must overcome unlimited enemy spawning, challenging level designs, a countdown timer, instant death from any physical contact with enemies, and limited ways to dispatch enemies.

07.02.2005

An action fantasy RPG that is the sequel to the 2004 Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest, and with the same style of dungeon crawling and hack 'n' slash, Champions: Return to Arms differs from its predecessor by offering the player the ability to fight for either 'good' or 'evil'. With a variety of races and classes to create a character from, the player travels across different acts and different lands combating all sorts of enemies.

15.05.2018

"Wizard of Legend is a fast paced 2D dungeon crawler where you assume the role of a powerful wizard on his quest for fame and glory! Combine powerful spells and quick reflexes to overcome all of the challenges and become a Wizard of Legend!" "Battle your way through each challenge by defeating powerful conjured enemies! Collect valuable spells and relics and build up your magical arsenal to fit your playstyle! Achieve mastery over magic by chaining spells together to create devastating combination attacks! Face each council member in combat and earn your right to become a Wizard of Legend!"