The fab four returns!
Gauntlet makes it's way to the Xbox live arcade. It's a cheap game, and brings back the glory days of gaming to your living room...so tell grandma to watch her "stories" somewhere else...you have ghost and goblins to slaughter!
For those of you who don't know what Gauntlet is (which is an increasingly disturbing number of you)...it's pretty much the original dungeon crawler. You can pick one of four characters. A "light in his loafers" elf, A senile old wizard, a chunky and borderline retarded Valkerie, and A big, dumb axe chucking warrior...who most people hated playing as. Apparently young males hated playing as muscular, manly killing machines.
As one of these four players you make your way through a Gauntlet....that's why it's called...never mind. You can make your way through it alone or with some friends online. You collect treasure, fight ghosts, try to get food, but accidently shoot it, and everyone knows it was you who did it, because the voice of god speaks up and points his finger at you and says "Wizard shot the food", so you feel guilty as you continue making your way through the game, as nobody offers to let you get anymore food to heal yourself....thanks a lot God.
The Guantlet has who knows how many levels. Each one is a maze you need to get through. On the original arcade...these seemed to be a little more varied...on the Xbox version, it seems that they rehash a lot of levels..and fairly early on. But despite the fact that the game can get a little bit monotonous (even more so on this version), it's still an incredibly fun game. And hearing your characters complain is downright hysterical. Pick old man wizard and try not to laugh when he gets hurt. I dare you. Then pick the Valkarie and try your hardest not to feel embarassed for her as she talks like an uneducated circus beast.
This game, at its core, is fantastic. Bur for some reason, the xbox 360 version just feels a little off from the original arcade game. I couldn't put my finger on it...but it seemed something was missing...I could be just imagining things though.....maybe I have malaria.
Anyway, If you want to relive the glory days of Gauntlet, purchase the game on Xbox live. It's cheap and a lot of fun. If you have never even heard of this game before, buy it, play it, and feel disappointed because you just spent some poor kids lunch money on a game that you really don't understand because it doesn't have normal maps.