Gauntlet Legends - Nintendo 64 Review - HD

[Music] ever since the classic days of arcade gaming developers have been working hard to attempt and make direct ports of their arcade hits for home consoles in the late 80s and early 90s this became easier as home console Hardware increased in power by the late 90s though the entire scene had changed with home console gaming a bigger industry than arcades many developers instead made games for home consoles the stalwarts of the arcade scene were still around though Midway perhaps being one of the most prolific arcade game manufacturers of the time often created an arcade game and an attempted to ported to consoles with varying success in 1998 Atari had resurrected the gauntlet franchise to bring the first new arcade release in 12 years from the series it achieved moderate acclaim and keen to cash in on the rebirth of one of the all-time classic co-op games work soon began to make home console versions of the game the first home console version was indeed the n64 one landing on store shelves in late 1999 it was the perfect title to land on the console which was built with multiplayer gaming in mind what's interesting about gauntlet Legends is that whilst all home console versions share the same title they all have their own unique features items levels and in the case of the Dreamcast version a totally unique game engine the story of the game goes something a little like this an ancient mage summons scorn a powerful demon from the underworld scorn being the all-powerful demon hears breaks free from the shackles and kills the mage who summoned him now with his freedom he seals the summon his tower and takes control of the four realms and with the fate of the world resting on your shoulders is up to you to venture into the four realms do battle with hordes of evil beings to collect the rune stones and activate the obelisks to have the total final confrontation with scorn himself in a true Dungeons and Dragons fashion you have a choice of character classes the players when tackling these dungeons firstly you have the warrior class who are great at hand-to-hand combat they are the most powerful class but they're also weak in magic and slow in comparison to the other classes the archer class are great with long range for fighting but when it comes to hand-to-hand they're weak and serve playing with this class you want to keep your enemies at a distance and take them down with potshots they were also one of the faster classes so they come in handy when you need to dodge attacks or quickly run ahead to hit switches the valkyrie class is a jack-of-all-trades and perhaps the most rounded class whilst they're equally good at hand-to-hand combat and range attacks it's that armor which puts them ahead of the other classes ask this class upgrades quite quickly and easily it's perhaps the best class for newcomers to the game and finally you have the wizard class this class is weak in most forms of combat but when it comes to spells and magic this is by far the strongest class they come in handy later in the game when you have huge rooms of enemies you need to declare out quickly when you reach a level 100 with this character their attacks are ridiculously powerful when out of balance with what the game can throw at you in a nice addition you can also choose a color for your character and there are also modifications to unlock to get these you need to find the secret bonus exits and collect tokens in the bonus stages now back in the mid-80s when the first gauntlet hit arcades the gameplay was simple and addictive I can slash your way through various dungeons hitting switches finding secrets and reaching the end point to move on to the next level nothing has really changed with the basic formula of the game and so if you've enjoyed the original and you feel right at home here not all of the levels take place in dungeons though but the game sometimes ventures out into outdoor areas and the like that's perhaps one of the game's strengths not only does each world feel unique each level does - and there are plenty of them one level you could be raiding a castle on the next you could be in an underground cave surrounded by snow and ice the whole art design of the game is superb and it generally feels as if you're entering a new world each time you play what also impressed me was the sheer amount of different enemies sure they all fall into the same categories but mostly having unique enemies really helps to keep the game feeling fresh as you clear one level you'll be looking forward to moving on to the next one to see what new visual treats you'll get the graphics do a good job - just don't be expecting near arcade perfect visuals though if we're honest though we do know that the n64 was by no means powerful enough for that but thankfully the basic look of the game remains intact and you may have noticed that the expansion pack logo on the front of the box Atari actually made a good use of this instead of just pumping all of the extra power into the resolution the expansion pack also helps to keep the framerate solid this is especially impressive when you get later into the game and there are some moments where the screen can literally be filled with enemies all moving and attacking you when I was younger I used to play this co-op with my brother and yes the more characters you do add below the framerate will go but you'll be having so much fun you'll most likely have your gameplay experience unchanged by this another slight dip from the arcade version is the level of animation again to work around the power restraints the characters have far less frames but generally everything looks well thankfully though the studio tried to keep some of the more memorable enemies tact and so when you reach the various Gollum guardians or end of level bosses things do look a lot more fluid and speaking of the bosses just as they should be these are some of the most memorable battles in the game the bosses are gigantic beings of pure fantasy and when teaming up with friends they can take a great deal of time to take down in a very cool twist when playing the game you can also unlock legendary weapons that aid you in these boss battles for example if the Crimea is giving you a hard time and you're able to find a legendary weapon for that world hidden in the previous levels instead of the battle just starting unless they'd be treated to a cutscene where you'll use this weapon to weaken the boss from the get-go it's an incredibly cool touch and it really makes you want to explore every nook and cranny in the world to find as much as possible in 64 version of the game is also the first one to feature some nurse door where you can buy and sell items and power-ups this is a great feature as throughout the game you'll amass a huge horde of equipment and not all of it will be useful for your gameplay style so instead you can sell what you don't need buy the gear you want and it makes for a much more enjoyable experience once you have completed a level you're also able to re-enter it this time though the number of spawn points will often have doubled which gives the game a huge amount of replayability the enemies become tougher and with more and more of them on screen to battle through it's almost like having a hardcore mode without this title the sound 2 is one of the game's strengths using factor 5 musics audio compression the game actually contains a fair amount of decent sounding voice samples of course gauntlet wouldn't be complete without hearing the timeless blue warriors about the dye line but each level is introduced and what you can tell it's heavily compressed is still great to have this on an n64 cartridge the rest of the game's music is very fantasy inspired and it contains a standard organ music and drum samples if you play this with a good surround sound system one thing you'll love is the amount of bass the game has when playing I found it very satisfying to hear deep rumbles every time I smash through a spawn point or unleash the magic spell there are some minor problems to the game however firstly the camera can at times be a little bit tricky to get used to its known to throw itself all over the place turning twisting zooming in and out which can make you lose your sense of direction there are also times when due to the amount of on-screen action there's moments of clipping and your character can get stuck for a moment or two again these are minor gripes and when the rest of the game is so fun to play these really are easy to overlook perhaps the biggest problem with the game though is that whilst its one of the funnest n64 games to play no single-player campaign can ever be as fun as having three other friends with you all on the same screen battling away and fighting over loot to pick up whereas some arcade games take away the need to be standing in an arcade to get the full game experience gauntlet legends perhaps works best in that way some of the most fun moments you can have and not when the game is offering you something it's the discussions arguments and fights that take place outside of the game content that really helps to make this title stand out it's hard to review gauntlet legends without thinking about my experience of playing Diablo when I first played Diablo 2 on PC it was an awesome game and like many people I spent countless hours of my life loot hunting and delving deeper into the world it contained when Diablo 3 arrived although the actual game didn't seem as fun the online multiplayer aspect will superb and just joining up with some friends online gave me the same experience I had when I first started playing go on the legends back in 1999 and that's one of the reasons why gauntlet Legends is a game that will divide opinion there are some people who really dislike this game and find the gameplay repetitive the grinding aspect a chore and will likely lose interest in it very quickly but then there are others like myself and vintage video game geek who adore the fancy Dungeons & Dragons style gameplay and get a real kick out of trying to find all the secret items pathways and gear it's not for everyone but if you can muster up three friends to play this through it is perhaps one of the best multiplayer games on the console up there with gold and iron Mario kart 64 and that's why for today's topic of conversation I want to know why you think the n64 didn't get a huge amount of co-op games sure we had perhaps the best selection of multiplayer games but when it comes to working with friends the scene is entirely different do you think it's because of the rise in the deathmatch mode or do you think that gamers just preferred the sense of competition rather than helping one another so as always let me know your thoughts in the comment section down below and until next time

Channel: N64 Glenn Plant

Views: 198,423

Keywords: Gauntlet Legends (Video Game), Gauntlet (Video Game), Gauntlet Dark Legacy (Video Game), Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows (Video Game), Nintendo 64 (Video Game Platform), review, prototype, arcade, lets play, guide, Nintendo (Video Game Developer), Reviews, PlayStation (Video Game Platform), Dreamcast (Video Game Platform), music, theme, song, soundtrack, intro, ending, desecrated temple, secrets, final boss, longplay, speedrun, rom, download, emulator, bosses, 4 player, multiplayer

Id: hNOMs3BJTxA

Length: 10min 26sec (626 seconds)

Published: Fri May 01 2015