Customer Reviews

Gauntlet and Rampart Dual Pack

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was pleased to see more GBA cartridges of classic arcade compilations at the electronics store. Destination Software is putting out several of these in 2005. With so many to choose from, I decided on "Gauntlet/Rampart". Finally--I can play the arcade classic "Gauntlet" on the go!

I understand that there are CPU limitations to get the GBA to fully emulate these arcade titles, but I have a feeling that at least this cartridge was rushed to production. Yes, the graphics are almost "pixel perfect" but these games don't feel like their arcade counterparts.

In Gauntlet, the sprite collision does not work correctly and the music in between the levels is missing. On top of that, whenever you complete a level, you're required to press the A button.

As for Rampart, every time you lay down a piece of wall, the game will pause for three seconds. And regardless of how many castles you encircle, you only get 2 bonus cannons!

If this sounds like I'm nitpicking it's just that I expect arcade conversions to closely resemble the original as closely as possible. I get the impression that the development team which did the arcade conversions only had a half-hearted respect for the originals or that the quality assurance team was not allowed to point out the discrepancies.

I don't mind the lack of a save feature or multi-player mode because it is more convenient to play games on the GBA by yourself. The problem that I have with this cartridge is the fact that the games do not feel or quite play like the originals.

Rampart rocks.... I first played it in an arcade in 1993, and it's pure fun... using Tetris like pieces to build walls around castles and then shoot ships with different attacks... The two modes (build and fight) are extremely clever. This port isn't perfect. There are bugs. Sometimes the tanks shoot one castle and another blows up. But it's good simple fun.... Not being a DS game, I can't save my level, so instead I have to leave the power on and have it plugged in at work, so I can continue on my way home...

This game is what you would remember from the original nintendo. It is still fun and challenging. If you want a game to tease your mind; with old graphics it will do it.

I have never enjoyed Gauntlet so I won't even talk about it, but I have always loved playing Rampart until this release. This edition of Rampart is horribly buggy and far more difficult than any previous rendition. The cursor for firing is very difficult to control, making it difficult to target specific items, especially infantry; killing infantry is not worth risking damage to your own structures. As previously mentioned, the building phase grinds to a halt every time you place a wall piece. Despite all older versions doing so and even the manual for this game stating so, when you wall in one of the bad guy infantry units, it does not get destroyed; instead, you have a little infantry unit all set up to destroy your castle the first chance they get. If you want to play Rampart, go find a different version (e.g., the SNES version was much more fun than this).

The front of the box shows what the game looked like in Arcades.

The back of the box, shows the sad let down that is the GBA version!

Now if that isn't deceptive advertising, I don't know what is!!

This isnt' a review talking about the quality of the games or how good the translation is. This is simply a public service to anyone like me who loves Gauntlet on the NES. It's the only version I ever played so when I thought I could have it on my GBA, of course I was excited. However, shortly after purchase I realized it is not the same game as the NES version. So that's really all I have to say about it. It may be a great game for all I know but I took it back because it's not what I wanted. So if you're like me, and want to take the NES version of Gauntlet with you...sorry, no dice. You'll have to do what I did and drag the NES back out and find yourself a copy of the original cartridge. (Worth it, by the way.)