Gauntlet is one of the most influential franchises in dungeon crawling history.
Here’s a look back at the games that started it all!
Arrowhead GamesGauntletremake arrives today, just shy of three decades after the release of the 1985 arcade classic.
Pro tip: Youre going to need to a lot of quarters.
Logg is well-known for other popular titles from the era likeSuper Breakout,Asteroids, andCentipede.
Having his name on the game was likely a factor in its early success.
No lawsuit was ever filed but later releases ofGauntleton the NES after 1987 removed Loggs credit from the game.
Regardless of its origins, it wasGauntlet, notDandy, that would change the way people played arcade games.
The game followed typical fantasy archetypes.
Players were able to play as either the Warrior, Wizard, Valkyrie, or Elf.
Gameplay featured a top down camera.
But what was really unique aboutGauntletfor the time was the set up of its arcade cabinet.
To accommodate four players, the cabinets panel was wider than the typical arcade cabinet back then.
The original game was arguably tougher than the game releasing this year.
Playerss lives were slowly drained even if they werent being attacked.
That is, of course, whereGauntlets infamous food items came in.
You either needed a constant influx of food or a huge roll of quarters to keep yourself progressing.
Hows that for PvP?
The chaos ofGauntlets multiplayer caught on quickly.
The unique, wider cabinets with multiple joysticks would soon become an industry standard for many other games.
Warrior Needs Food, Badly!
Call it the but then I took an arrow to the knee of 1985.
As players progressed through the action, they would hear a narrator calling out instructions or warnings to them.
Warrior needs food badly!
A second favorite voice prompt was often Remember, dont shoot food!
Yeah, because telling gamers they shouldnt do something is going to go well.
In 1987,Gauntletwas ported to the NES, but in some ways it was a brand new game.
It featured 100 new levels and added a storyline featuring a quest for the Sacred Orb.
Gauntlet IIhad one additional unique quirk that was just as loved and hated as shooting food.
InGauntlet II, it was possible for a player to become It.
This caused some players to intentionally attempt to kill their friends in a frantic game of It Tag.
So thats going to be fun.
Later Years
1991 saw the release ofGauntlet III: The Final Quest.
This was the firstGauntletto feature an isometric view as opposed to just top down.
InLegends, players could level up their characters, which was a departure from past games.
You could argue thatLegendswas influenced in some ways by the originalDiablo, which had released two years prior.
Neither game was particularly well received.
This is Arrowheads way of paying homage to the art of pumping quarters into the arcade cabinet.
So play nice, kids.
We hope you enjoyed this look back at one of the most influential arcade games of all-time.
Stay tuned for our official review of the series newest outing later this week!
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