Gauntlet: Dark Legacy

Gauntlet is a classic game.  First released in 1985, Gauntlet became popular due to its style of hack-and-slashing.  Featured in arcades, the purpose of the game was to run through levels, killing any monsters in your path by pressing the "attack" button, until you reached the end of the level.  Though this may seem boring by some, the fact that your health drained (even if you were not being attacked) added to the excitement and desperation.  

Eventually, the developer of Gauntlet, Midway Games, created a Gauntlet game for consoles, named Gauntlet: Dark Legacy.  Dark Legacy expanded upon the original arcade Gauntlet by adding more characters, expanding the levels, and more attacks.  It made Gauntlet bigger and better.

Four Jesters, all with different colored outfits.

One of my favorite features about Dark Legacy was the character customization.  There were 8 different characters to choose from, ranging from Dwarf to Jester to Sorceress to Archer.  In addition to the characters, each character had a different selection of outfits to choose from (see picture above).  That way, even if you and your friend chose the same character, you could choose different outfits to ensure you don't get confused of who's who on the screen.

In addition to character customization, you could also add your own name to give it a personalized touch.  But, by entering certain names, you could unlock special things.  For example, entering the name 10000K would give you 10,000 Gold, which you could use to buy Power-ups and other items from the Shop that would help you move through a level quicker.  Each time you exited the shop, the money reset.

The Shop was where you could purchase items and power-ups.

As for the Gameplay, I liked it a lot.  Yes, the killing sometimes got repetitive, and sometimes I got lost in a level and had no idea where to go, but overall it was very enjoyable.  What made it even more enjoyable was playing it with a friend.  Gauntlet is one of those games where playing with a friend makes it 10 times more fun.  Playing by myself and leveling up my character is cool, but exploring the levels and finding treasure with a friend is that much more fun and satisfying. 

Fighting a Dragon in a level

At the end of each set of levels, there is a Boss battle.  These were pretty hard, especially if you didn't use name cheats.  Below is a picture of a Dragon boss.  Not only did the bosses have an insane amount of health, they also had attacks that did a lot of damage.  If you didn't prepare and stock up beforehand, prepare to die quickly.  They are called Bosses for a reason.

A Boss battle in Gauntlet

My lasting memory of Gauntlet is playing with my cousin, both of us choosing the name 10000K, and rampaging through the levels, massacring everything that moved.  It was glorious fun, because it made me feel powerful, that me and my cousin with our Super Power-ups could take down a Boss in about a minutes time.  We never did Beat the game, but it doesn't matter to me.  I know that no Boss would be able to take us down, not with the help of our 10000K trick.