Gauntlet

Let's hack and slash!!

Gauntlet is an arcade masterpiece with a basic design that is simple, yet genius. It's a combination of a dungeon crawler with an extreme kill-em-all and this results in an unstoppable solo/multiplayer experience. Yep, 1-4 people can hack and slash through tons of hellish underground levels!! Absolutely gaming heaven.

We can play as one of four groovy characters: a Warrior, Elf, Wizard, and Valkyrie. Each has its own characteristics for strength and battling the nasties. I'm always the Warrior because he's bound to be the Samson of the group, and thankfully there is no Delilah. Each character needs to be fed, so don't do anything daft like shooting food as that seriously affects your health lol. Come on, you know how to play this classic!

Let's slap a pause on the reading for an animated GIF of Gauntlet...

A timeless arcade classic. Simple as that really.

Four heroes against millions of monsters?

The monsters are some of the most varied I have seen which adds so much to the dungeon feel. We have ghosts, demons, grunts, lobbers (I hate those!) and more. They all have their own evil attributes and are born from something called a Generator - so destroy these first to cease the onslaught of hatred against you.

The object is simple - kill the monsters and escape. We're trapped in a 100-level creepy dungeon and everything lurking here wants to eat you. So it's up to you (and any potential co-op players) to kill everything and find the exit in order to escape the hellish catacombs. Keys are littered everywhere to access to restricted areas and you shall also note the booty which is conveniently left for you, and collect it for extra points.

Finally, Death is here. Yep, literally Death himself and he is almost impossible to kill so try to avoid him if possible. This brings me nicely to the magical potions you can discover scattered about most levels. By collecting these your chance of survival is greatly improved and will certainly help during an encounter with Death. Hint: do not assume he is a single individual making a single appearance so be wise with your potions.

Before we get to the aesthetics, let's see a beautiful image from the game...

Whether demons or ghosts are attacking - this game is always freakishly GREAT fun!!!

Aesthetics?

Graphically, this has authentically crafted levels that look excellent. The monster sprites are just as good and it must count as one of the best-looking arcade conversions for the Atari ST. However, there's a price to pay for all that glam and it comes at the cost of framerate. This will drop when there are dozens of monsters on-screen at once. Of course, faster computers like my 16MHz Mega STe (and emulators) have no such issues.

I love the audio, from the moment we hear the Da-Da-Da-Daaa begin playing. I'm hooked. This is superb and good quality which is enhanced further with in-game sampled effects. Oh, I absolutely love Gauntlet!!

Right then, one final screenshot otherwise I'll only spoil you...

Argh, they're attacking from all corners of the dungeon!! Heeeeeelp!!

The CryptO'pinion?

There are two conclusions to draw here. If you're using an upgraded ST or have something fancy like a Mega STe, TT, etc/etc then you're gonna love this beautiful game. However, there is some slowdown (on the stock ST) and it will get sluggish if the screen is overcrowded. Can you handle that? I hope so!

Whether you play solo or not, this is an awesome shooter. Gauntlet is one of the best arcade games, and the Atari ST has another winning conversion under its belt. It's pure retro gaming gold and I love it!!

Stop whatever you're doing and download this wonderful game from Klaz' Hideaway (both hard drive & floppy versions). Klaz has implemented support for faster Atari computers and my own Mega STe (16MHz) delivered a far better framerate! Which transforms the game completely - it's now mind-bogglingly ACE!!