Reviews

Another game with dodgy graphics and sound, just play the thing, it's great. The object is to kill monsters, destroy monster generators, not get hit, eat food and drink, avoiding the poisoned drink, and get to the exit. The treasure rooms are bloody annoying though.

Two player shoot-em-up gaming that seemed to continue for weeks, with add on tapes available. Simple, yet compelling and strangely atmospheric gameplay. We used to keep a roll of sticky-tape permanently by the computer, just for sticking the symbolshift key down on this game (wall cheat). Absolute classic.

In spite of its popularity I never liked this video-game . The graphics are poor ... the bare-black screen says it all . :(

Repetitive and predictable game-play ... the baddies move like zombies .

An overrated game in my opinion .

The many and very poor sequels of the game don´t help either .


If the gunts were playing a football match it may catch some of my atention ... although I´m not 100% sure .

I´m giving this game a 2 and I´m being very generous .

Gauntlet is a great conversion of the arcade game which spawned a whole genre of titles featuring characters running along maze corridors fighting enemies and looking for treasures, keys, food etc.

As in the coin-op, graphics are simple but they serve their purpose quite well; sound is nice, especially on Spectrums with AY sound capabilites; gameplay is frantic and often claustrophobic due to the variety and large number of adversaries. A large number of mazes, each with its different layout, adds even more depth to the game.

A bona fide classic indeed!

I can only give this game a five as it stole many a weekend in my younger teenage years.

For me it brings back really quite fond memories of visiting my school-friend's house in the leafy suburbs and firing this game up on his grey "+2". With only intermittent breaks to watch "Lost in Space" on Channel 4, we would spend an incredible number of hours really, just getting so much into the flow of the game, we practically lived in it. Of course the two-player mode allowed an effectively infinite playing time. And I think I probably suffered a touch of "bleeping sickness" the following day!

After the "deeper dungeons" tape came out, we must have practically played every level on both sides of the entire tape.

Looking back now, the game seems quite repetitive and predictable, but back when you're about 13 or 14 years old, it's just totally absorbing to the point of an unhealthy obsession. Of course later on we had the 16-bit versions and the sequels etc.. but none of them seemed to result in such mammoth gaming sessions as we had enjoyed with the original speccy tape-based version.

But if there is one remark in gaming I will never forget, surely it is that "Blue Elf just shot a food!"

1987 US Gold (UK)
by Tony Porter, Ben Daglish, Bill Allen and Kevin Bulmer

A great game indeed. One of the most addictive games I've ever played.
And despite graphically not being so compelling (I think due to memory limitations), it compensates with a very long and absorbing game, full of levels.
The two player option is also brilliant and one of the reasons for its popularity.
It deserves all the credit WOS users are giving it.
I give it 4,5 stars only due to the graphic simplicity.

Gauntlet is a maze game with lots of blasting action.
But that's not all there is to it.
You have to use your brains, too, in order to find a suitable way past or through the hordes of medievil opponents.
Speaking of opponents, there are quite a range of different ones, ranging from ghosts dashing straight at you up to death who eats away way too much energy if he gets hold of you.
The mazes are constructed with diligence.
You can master their challenges but quick thinking, quick reaction, precision and a reasonable bit of strategy are involved.

All in all - a true classic.
Even the rather simple graphics do not distract at all from the sheer brilliance of the game design.

The 512 levels are, however, only a part of the truth.
The levels repeat themselves if you really get far in this game.
If I remember correctly, there are about 32 different ones.
I recommend the wizard but your experience may be different.

4 different characters to play which entails 4 different strategies to tackle the mazes and enemies.

Once again, a true classic in my humble opinion.

This one's a bit overrated for me. It's fun a few minutes but soon gets repetitive.

Great conversion of the classic Atari arcade. Simple graphics are sacrificed for superb playability and adictiveness.

At first you must select a character to play: warrior, valkyrie, wizard or elf, each one with different strengths and weaknesses.

Advance through tens of mazes infested of ghosts, grunts, demons, sorcerers,... in the search of the exit to the next maze. Collect food, potions or treasures. Find keys to open doors. And kill everything that moves.

The two player game is a cool choice. In a nutshell, one of the funniest conversions for the Spectrum and a classic of the dungeons and dragons genre.

Gauntlet is one of the best Gauntlet clones of the year!
4/5