Gauntlet
Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Tengen
Publisher: Tengen
Release Date: 1987
Atari's arcade smash Gauntlet was one of the best examples of multiplayer gaming in its heyday. The arcade version allowed for up to four players to participate in top-down fantasy hack and slash action that gobbled up quarters like Pac-Man did pellets. It seemed only natural that such a successful game was ported to Nintendo's flagship console.
After reverse-engineering the NES's protection scheme and manufacturing their own cartridges, Atari subsidiary Tengen released a number of arcade ports, Gauntlet among them. I distinctly recall seeing the game's preview in the inaugural edition of Nintendo Power Magazine, dreaming of the day when the local video store would become the first in my area to start renting video games.
When that morning finally arrived, my mother and I drove up to the store only minutes after they opened. I couldn't have been more excited to get my hands on Gauntlet for my NES, or more devastated when I discovered that every single copy of every game had already been rented! In twenty minutes, eager gamers (and, more likely, their less-eager parents who drove them to the store) snatched up literally NES game the store was offering - all but one.
That day I went home with Deadly Towers, deciding it was better than going home empty handed. The box looked cool enough, depicting an armor-clad warrior, so perhaps it would sate my appetite for swords, sorcery, and monsters. Anyone who has ever played Deadly Towers will understand how gravely mistaken I was in that belief. Not only was it not Gauntlet, it was about as far from a good game as anything could get.
Upon returning the dreadful thing to the store, however, I was pleased to discover a newly returned copy of Gauntlet itself and my dreams came true! (Hey, I wasn't even 10 yet, so my dreams weren't exactly lofty.)
I was shocked to discover that the NES version of Gauntlet wasn't entirely faithful to its arcade counterpart. Though the basic gameplay elements remained the same, the NES version featured light RPG elements, allowing your chosen hero - the lumbering and powerful warrior, the speedy elf, the well-balance valkyrie, and the weak magic-user - to level up in a sense by collecting treasure.
This is one of many changes in the NES version, and one I've always felt was for the better. Apparently Midway felt the same because years later they would incorporate these elements into their Gauntlet Legends games. Coupled with a map screen and enemy-free treasure rooms, these changes added a much-needed single-player progression element to the game. To help players in completing the game - a daunting task to be sure - a password feature was also added.
Absent, however, is the arcade's four-player gameplay. Due to the limitations of the NES hardware, only two players could play at the same time. This was still great fun, but it didn't quite match the feeling of playing the arcade cabinet with three other friends or strangers, dropping in quarters just to stay alive.
Staying alive is, of course, a tricky prospect in Gauntlet, as you're deluged by waves of ghosts, grunts, and the dreaded Death himself. Similar to the arcade version, traps can freeze your character in place (but will also sometimes open hidden passageways), and your health is constantly ticking down. The inability to insert coins for more precious life meant the NES version of Gauntlet had a more strategic element, that forced players to try and trap enemies behind blocks and take them out from angles and distances and this is increased two-fold with a second player.
The NES version also lacks one of Gauntlet's most beloved trademarks. Gone is the digitized voice that offers helpful hints and warns of imminent death, though the grunts of your character do remain, albeit in a far more muffled form. The graphics are also noticeably inferior to the arcade version, which was par for the course in those days.
Despite the technical inferiority, the NES version of Gauntlet's 100 levels, two-player simultaneous gameplay, and some welcome additions to the formula, by way of increasing character statistics, make it my preferred version of the classic quarter-muncher. It may not look very pretty, and it's nigh impossible, but it sure is fun to try.
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