Blue Valkyrie Needs Food Badly

Gauntlet is such an awesome series. I love dungeon-crawlers in general, but Gauntlet just does it right. From the original Gauntlet adventures, to it's first venture into 3D Legends, all the way to causing Seven Sorrows. The journey's Gauntlet games guide us on are never boring.

Sure, Seven Sorrows tried too hard to become an RPG and a fighter with it's buffed up exp. and "combo's" that were... pointless. It still had some fun. And I can concede that Dark Legacy was just a fleshed out version of Legends. At the end of the day though Dark Legacy is an amazing experience jam packed full of content for a group of dungeon delvers to explore. Legends is really the victim in this scenario. In theory it should still hold some merit, but after playing Dark Legacy it just feels pointless. It almost feels like a demo to the sequel, but I digress.

Gauntlet started as a simplistic 2D overhead dungeon crawl, where each step drained health, and each food item and attack had to be quickly utilized yet well thought out. Each hit could be your last. When the game was ported to home consoles however this "feature" was removed. Arcade machines were notorious for being overly difficult just to force an early death in order to secure more of our precious quarters. It could be argued it was added a slight breath of strategy to the game, but really it was just a horrible tactic to steal your pocket change.

Gauntlet Legends followed much the same pattern as it's earlier breathen, wherein the arcade port had your health draining away while the home port only took health away when damage was dealt. While much easier to beat due to a "constant" health bar, it added a lot more frustrating obstacles and enemies, in my opinion. Though truthfully the majority of my experience comes from Dark Legacy.

I've played Gauntlet and Gauntlet II, and I now own Gauntlet Legends and am playing through it. I've beaten Dark Legacy at least twice and I've played the beginning of Seven Sorrows, up to this forest area place. So my experience spans from the humble beginnings of the Gauntlet franchise up through it's, sadly, inferior almost RPG hybrid Seven Sorrows installment.

I almost always choose a blue Valkyrie, I don't really know why, I just like that character the most. I'll probably write something more about Gauntlet Legends or Dark Legacy, but an overview will suffice for now.

-Blue Valkyrie has died...
Adam