Posted by Devin de Gruyl on Mar 18th, 2009
Graphically, I have to say that this is one of the least attractive NES games out there. And don’t forget, I’ve played everything Active Enterprises made! Other than a nicely-rendered Morak on the game select screen, there is very little here that is particularly pleasing to the eye. A thick black border on some walls, bland and distracting floor patterns, really nasty image breakup when the screen gets too busy (which is often), doors that appear as lines on the floor rather than the pseudo-isometric walls of most other versions. and screens that appear to contain no more than five colors in total make this Gauntlet look decidedly amateurish. Worst of all, the design of some of the walls sometimes makes it impossible to determine if they can be shot or not!
Now, as a retrogamer I should be the last person to suggest that “graphics make the game,” and any title regardless of age can overcome bad visuals if the gameplay is there in spades… but still, a little effort should be spent. When your commercially-released game looks like a student project in a class that taught out of back issues of COMPUTE!’s Gazette, there’s just no way I can put a positive spin on that. Even at the time it was released, this game was ugly.
The music isn’t much better, with only about four ill-fitting, tired-sounding melodies that loop endlessly and tiredly throughout the game. Sound effects seem to have been added as a total afterthought; if you loved Gauntlet‘s snide narration (“Elf needs food, badly!” or “I’ve not seen such bravery!”), you’ll find absolutely none of it here. The only digitized speech are some gasps and “Ahhhs” that sounded like they were recorded at the bottom of the ocean. Everything else, from the bleeps and boops that accompany item collection to the almost-indetectible “whump” of an enemy scoring a hit on you (thus making it that much harder to determine if you were in fact hit), is about as inspired as a $1.98/lb. romance paperback.
Should you play it today? That depends entirely on what you’re looking for. If you’re up for a serious challenge, and/or have mastered the arcade Gauntlet and would like something in the same vein, you could do worse than popping this cart in your NES. Get past the utterly horrid audiovisual presentation and you’ll find a worthy test of your hardcore gaming abilities, no question there-just be prepared to take copious notes and write down a lot of passwords. On the other hand, if you’re sensitive to games that might just veer on the side of “unfair,” and if screenshots are often enough to put you off of a title before you even play it, you may want to just keep moving. Ultimately, despite a few good ideas, there is very little here of any consequence, and certainly nothing that wasn’t done in other NES games, and better besides. And if you’re a diehar fan of the original arcade Gauntlet, you will definitely want to steer clear of this one, as it will only irritate you. For the latter group, I would recommend as an alternative hunting up a copy of Mindscape’s Gauntlet II cart, which is not only a straight-up port of the arcade sequel (more of the same, really, though a few new gameplay elements were added) but also allows for full four-player experience through an adapter. Or find a copy of Midway Arcade Treasures 1 for more modern consoles, which includes a full emulation of the original Gauntlet as well as about 20 other Atari/Williams/Midway titles.
I’ll give Tengen credit for trying, but in the end Gauntlet just doesn’t hold up to modern scrutiny in this form. At least, not in my opinion. Feel free to share yours below.
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