Gauntlet Legends

by Sega

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004RC1Y
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: June 6, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,828 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Product Description

Sumner, a benevolent mage, has crafted a number of great towers to celebrate his prowess in the art of magic. Within these towers are portals to the different Gauntlet realms. Sumner's vile brother, Garm, using the portals for his own selfish purposes, has accidentally released the powerful demon lord Skorne. And now Skorne, along with his army of undead warriors, is planning to wreak havoc in the mortal world. Sumner needs you and the other heroes of the Gauntlet Legends to fight the undead warriors, weaken Skorne's power, and help send Skorne back to the dark netherworld where he belongs.

Gauntlet Legends still hosts the original Gauntlet characters--Warrior, Valkyrie, Archer, and Wizard--as well as new costars Minotaur, Tigress, Jackal, and Falconess. You'll slash and gobble through seven different kingdoms that contain all-new enemies, traps, rune stones, and power-ups.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great arcade conversion, but not without its flaws, June 23, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Gauntlet Legends (Video Game)

To cover the most basic point first: This is a near-perfect conversion of the Gauntlet Legends arcade games (more so than the Playstation and Nintendo 64 versions, which made a few modifications to the gameplay, particularly in the item system). If you haven't played the arcade version, find it and play it before buying the home version. If you find the arcade game exciting and interesting, then you'll probably love the home version as well (and it's a lot cheaper than shoveling in all the quarters to build a character to level 99 in the arcade!) If you find the arcade game boring and repetitive, then the home version will do nothing to change your opinion.

That being said, here are the notable differences between the Dreamcast version and the arcade: First, and perhaps most importantly, Midway has generously included all four of the new characters from the arcade sequel, Gauntlet Dark Legacy. These characters (particularly the Jester) have a quite different feel from the original four, which extends replay value. However, the "alter ego" versions of these characters--the special, animal versions you can select in the arcade after reaching a certain level--aren't included here; for that, you'll have to wait for Dark Legacy to come out on Playstation 2. (The alter ego versions of the original four Legends characters are present, though you have to reach level 25 to unlock them.)

Unlike the arcade, your character's health doesn't continuously count down; this takes a bit of tension out of the game. On the other paw, if you're killed before completing a level, you can't simply "insert coin to continue"; you have to restart the level, and you lose any experience you gained during the level. So it still pays to be careful. (If you find yourself too low on health to complete the harder levels, try just playing through the very first level a few times first; it's filled with food that will raise your health in a hurry.)

Another important difference: Just like in the arcade, many of the home version's levels are quite complex to solve, and rely on finding several hidden features in the level. In the arcade, if you find yourself stumped, you can simply stand still, and before long a 'magic arrow' will appear to at least point you in the right direction to proceed. No such luck in the home version; you're on your own. This certainly makes the game more challenging, but can also be frustrating, especially for new players.

As with a number of other Midway games for the Dreamcast, the user interface outside of the game itself does leave much to be desired. For example, there's no auto-save option; if you forget to save your character's progress before you turn off the system, you lose it all. For multi-player games, each character has to be loaded and saved separately. When you load a character, rather than showing you the saved characters' initials or other identifying info, you're simply shown a series of meaningless filenames ("GAUNTLET.001", "GAUNTLET.002", etc.); if you have more than one character saved to a single VMU, it's up to you to remember which file contains each character. (And be _very_ careful when saving your character; you can easily overwrite one of your other characters if you accidentally pick the wrong filename for the save!)

Despite these problems, though, Gauntlet Legends is still an extremely worthwhile purchase for anyone who enjoys the arcade game.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gauntlet Legends Review, January 28, 2001

By 

Jason Deiser "justjason" (PORTLAND, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gauntlet Legends (Video Game)

Arcade games, a genre of game that should be fun and action packed. Gauntlet Legends is just that, fun, action packed and plotless. Well, it does have a small plot but one that you really shouldn't concern yourself with. You can choose from a variety of characters to play as, each with its own special power to go through a maze shooting, destroying and surviving hundreds, sometimes thousands of enemies, collecting gold, food and power-ups. All this in order to collect rune stones and defeat the evil Skorne.

Up to four player simultaneous makes this an ultimate party game. With the 12 characters, all-new levels for the Dreamcast version, cooperative combos and 20 in-game quests you will be playing this along time. There are even levels and characters to unlock. The graphics are awesome and game play mindless and fun, this is a winner.

Unfortunately the camera sometimes makes this a frustrating romp into hell. Also the sound gets repetitive and annoying. So this game is not without its flaws, but all can be forgiven for the fun that Gauntlet Legends gives you.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun, but brief, July 31, 2000

By 

Kevin Doherty (Manassas Park, VA United States) - See all my reviews

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Gauntlet Legends (Video Game)

Gauntlet Legends is yet another game for the Dreamcast that proves a lot of fun for a while, but ends up growing boring after a while.

Don't get me wrong, because it's a highly entertaining game for a while, and a wonderful example of how to do a party game. I played it at a friend's house and even the people who were least into video games (who never played them except for this instance) had lots of fun.

Also, if you're expecting anything approaching an RPG, this really isn't the game for you. I personally have a background of mudding on hack-n-slash CircleMUDs, and so I found the game format very natural, but people who are looking for more storyline elements and character development are going to be disappointed, as in the end this game is about killing monsters and getting gold. There are some okay puzzle elements to the game, but the system is fairly limited.

One other tangential point to this game is that it has a _very_ good soundtrack. As the levels get higher, the music gets better. In particular, the music for the secret level Mausoleum (at the end of the Castle Treasury level) is stellar.

In short, this is game provides for a lot of fun, and can be fun for quite a while if you're looking for a mindless timewaster (which certainly has its place), but for actually wanting challenges and real goals, the game ends up falling off a bit too soon. If you have friends to play with you, I highly recommend buying it, but otherwise, I'd try it out first.