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What do cavemen, blobs of jelly and skeletons all have in common? They all live in dungeons of course. I have no idea why – or who built all these dungeons, or even what for, but they are always there anyway. Gauntlet has the original arcade adventure dungeon and US Gold have here succeeded in maintaining its reputation as the original and the best. Everything you could ever want from a dark hole in the ground is here, and more. In fact, there is a massive 512 levels – so this is a very large hole in the ground indeed. Gauntlet II is light on superfluous scenario and heavy on action. Let us face it, you do not have to have all this explained to you, do you? FIND THE TREASURE AND STAY ALIVE. Which means collecting food and drink to keep you alive, amulets with stranger powers than Mystic Meg and potions to assist your magic power, amongst others.

You can choose from four distinct characters: Warrior, Valkyrie, Elf and Wizard (in descending order of muscle and ascending order of magic). This comes in particular handy, as you have the option to play with up to four people if you interface with the printer port. A handy feature if you have that many joysticks and can fit that number of people round your monitor.

The monsters are reasonably various and the lesser ones often have to have generators destroyed to stop them regrouping to cause you more trouble next time you pass that location. The ‘it’ monster is a nice touch. If you have the misfortune to come into contact with this glowing sphere (which you almost certainly will) all the nasties on that level will become attracted to you. The result being that they steam into you like a Wimbledon team which has not been fed for three weeks. You can transfer this affliction by touching one of your companions, making them ‘it’. Needless to say, it does wonders for group loyalty as all other objectives go to the wall as you furiously chase each other around.

Graphically, Gauntlet’s dungeon is excellent. Effortless omni-scrolling, well-defined sprites and all manner of walls and floorplans to make each distinct from all the others. The on-top view means you are limited to a view of the top of your character’s bonce, but this pales into insignificance against the virtue of crisp definition, which Gauntlet II has to the highest level. The same goes for the sound – at last it is all there and sampled from the coin-op, too.

Since the first Gauntlet has never been available on the Amiga, this is the obvious choice if you want to buy one definitive arcade D&D game on 16-bit. For unabashed playability Gauntlet II is unbeatable. Mark Heley

SOUND 86%
GRAPHICS 90%
PLAYABILITY 90%
LASTABILITY 96%


OVERALL
94%

Title Gauntlet 2
Game Type Shoot-em-up
Publisher US Gold
Players 1 to 4 (With Parallel Port Adaptor)
Compatibility OCS/ECS KS1.3, KS 2.04
HD Installable No
Submission Keith Scroggins (kws@radix.net)

Review
Gauntlet 2 is an Atari Games arcade classic, and its translation to the
Amiga is no less than fabulous! Every element from the arcade game is
included, all the secrets, and the sounds are even digitized.

For those that do not know what the game Gauntlet 2 is, here is a quick
description. It is a never ending overhead shooter. Your view is
directly overhead like Pac Man. You have a choice of playing as a
Warrior, a Valkarie, an Elf, or a Wizard. Each of these characters has
their strong and weak points in different categories such as speed,
fighting ability, power, armour, and magic. Your object is to find the exit
to each maze you are placed in. The mazes contain elements to put a stop
to your progress like ghosts, demons, grunts, sorcerers, death, and even a
red dragon in some mazes. You collect keys to open doors and trigger
traps to open walls to get to other parts of mazes. You collect food to
keep your health up and stay alive. You kill monsters and collect
treasures to get points. There are also magic potions, which can aid in
monster killing, and special magic potions which can increase a charater's
attributes. Every few levels players are placed in a treasure room, where
they have a time limit to collect treasures and find the exit. If the
exit isn't found, no points are given for the treasures collected. There
are also secret rooms which players can get into. There are also some
other little goodies, but you'll need to play the game to find out about
those.

Now, some wonder why this arcade translation is so good. The reason the
arcade translation is almost perfect is because the arcade hardware is
based on a 68010 chip, and uses digital sound (easily reproduced) and 4096
color pallette.

Overall, I would say this game is a must have. It has the same unending
challenge like some of the other classics such as Centipede and Pac Man,
and yet it is simple to learn, and 4 players can get into the action.
Plans for building the 4 player adaptor for this game are on the web, and
they can be purchased from many Amiga dealers for about $13 US.

"Blue Warrior needs food badly!"

Hahahaha. My old memories are coming back to me here. A legendary game ported from the Arcade original, this is one furious game that all Amiga owners should have in their collection. Gauntlet was a big franchise back in the day; all the kids huddled around the arcade machine to watch another brave contender and co to battle it out to reach the final level. Did they? Did they 'eck. Gauntlet II is a hard and unforgiving mistress of a game, but they couldn't help but come back for more whipping.

Gauntlet II was one of the first games to support a 4-Way Co-op mode, long before Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, or The Simpsons. Just having this feature caused gamers to flock to their local game stores to buy it up, along with a few spare controllers. The game wasn't multiplayer only, as anybody could go it alone and fight their way through dungeon after dungeon of brilliant gameplay.

A total of 4 unique characters were available to play as, each being a different class: the Warrior (the battler), the Wizard (the magic dude), the Elf (the archer) and the Valkyrie (the female warrior). Now using these characters, gamers must delve deep into mazes and labyrinths to find hordes of treasure, gold and all sorts of booty. Sadly, there is no real story behind it, but it doesn't matter at all, since this is all about finger-aching, sweaty-hand and wide-eyed gaming. It's a fun-filled ride of determination and grit; you die, you're not man enough to handle it.

Like I've said, it's all about fighting. You must navigate your way around large mazes, swarming with enemies, traps, keys, doors, food, treasure and exits. You can stand and fight, but you'll soon be circled and trapped fighting an unstoppable force. Make a break for the exit to save yourself, but this means leaving the treasure undiscovered. It's all about determination and what you are capable of. Many people might say how the game is endless, with no way to complete the never-ending dungeons and mazes. That's a lie. It is endless, but thanks to the random-level generator, every game is fresh due to the different sequences of levels, keeping players on their toes. Monsters are varied and have their own attacks; slime bubbles will slurp towards you and leech into your skin, ghouls will swarm around and grope at you (in a menacing way, of course), with gremlins, elves, orcs and any other mythical creature making their appearance. Big, badass dragons also turn up as a sort of "mini-boss", guarding either a massive bonus of treasure (usually 5x the total amount found on any level) or the exit. Fight, or run like a coward.

The game has no eerie soundtrack to match the looming dungeons, but thanks to the voice effects, us nerds are free to giggle and quote our favourite lines:

"Green Valkyrie your time is running out!"
"I've not seen such bravery!" (This is basically Halo's "KILLING SPREE!")
"Three! Two! One! ....just kidding!"
"Red Wizard needs food badly!"

Excellent. Sometimes the sounds might begin to grate, like the bubbly sound when the slime enters you, but other than that, it's acceptable.

On the whole, it's one superb game which will even outlast Current-Gen games. It's a hack-and-slash title with bite, and it still has the challenge appeal to beat it. If you are interested in this game, you can find it pretty cheap in lots of game stores, as well as eBay, but for a much better alternative, buy Midway Arcade Treasure 2 for GCN, PS2 or XBox for 20+ retro titles, including this gem. Rock on, rock off.


Reviewer's Score: 8/10 | Originally Posted: 11/09/05