I picked this up at the recommendation of a retro game reviewer I follow, and was not disappointed. The game features several modes, including a perfect port of the arcade version of the original Gauntlet. The mode I played was the main reason I picked it up: the Quest (aka, campaign) which was built just for this version.
On the surface, it's pretty straight forward: clear four towers that are locking the final castle, and then tackle the castle. Each has ten levels of monster and loot-strewn mazes to clear, for fifty levels and five bosses. Gain XP and gold and improve your stats and gear along the way. The home base is just a shop with the entrances to the towers and castle collected, and there's only a handful of items and gear to find along the way.
In execution, the game takes a threadbare premise and makes the most of it by focusing on what matters most: the dungeon designs. From the first tower, it's clear they are deviously designed and often challenging to figure out. You don't clear one level at at time - often you have to enter a level from several different entrances, some from above, some from below, to hit all the secret blocks that clear it out. Clearing stages is rewarded: enemies disappear, and there's a shortcut path on every dungeon so you can zip quickly to the levels you're working on. It creates a sense of progress as each level gets cleared out.
The soundtrack is an absolute stunner, one of the best on the Genesis. Both in composition and in how it uses the Genesis synthesizer, every track is terrific. Walking into the first dungeon and getting hit with this put a big grin on my face: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0-mkukUH5k
On the downside, the stages are lacking in variety. Once you clear the first dungeon, you've seen every enemy and setup the game has to offer. Each of the five dungeons are differentiated by music, monster difficulty, tile palette and different types of trap tiles in each (some slow you down, some cause sliding, etc.). Still, the dungeon designs and music are the star here and kept me going through some very challenging levels, and intense boss fights.
The password system takes a couple minutes on either end of a play session to enter and then write down, but that's retro gaming for you. I did not mind.
All in all I had a blast with this. Clear time for the Quest mode, in single-player, was just over 13 hours.
On the surface, it's pretty straight forward: clear four towers that are locking the final castle, and then tackle the castle. Each has ten levels of monster and loot-strewn mazes to clear, for fifty levels and five bosses. Gain XP and gold and improve your stats and gear along the way. The home base is just a shop with the entrances to the towers and castle collected, and there's only a handful of items and gear to find along the way.
In execution, the game takes a threadbare premise and makes the most of it by focusing on what matters most: the dungeon designs. From the first tower, it's clear they are deviously designed and often challenging to figure out. You don't clear one level at at time - often you have to enter a level from several different entrances, some from above, some from below, to hit all the secret blocks that clear it out. Clearing stages is rewarded: enemies disappear, and there's a shortcut path on every dungeon so you can zip quickly to the levels you're working on. It creates a sense of progress as each level gets cleared out.
The soundtrack is an absolute stunner, one of the best on the Genesis. Both in composition and in how it uses the Genesis synthesizer, every track is terrific. Walking into the first dungeon and getting hit with this put a big grin on my face: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0-mkukUH5k
On the downside, the stages are lacking in variety. Once you clear the first dungeon, you've seen every enemy and setup the game has to offer. Each of the five dungeons are differentiated by music, monster difficulty, tile palette and different types of trap tiles in each (some slow you down, some cause sliding, etc.). Still, the dungeon designs and music are the star here and kept me going through some very challenging levels, and intense boss fights.
The password system takes a couple minutes on either end of a play session to enter and then write down, but that's retro gaming for you. I did not mind.
All in all I had a blast with this. Clear time for the Quest mode, in single-player, was just over 13 hours.