Kixx
£3.99 cassette

Once you could walk into an arcade and guarantee seeing a four player Gauntlet machine. For some reason no one ever wanted to control the elf, Lord knows why 'cos he's the fastest character (being a little squirt with a pillocky name like Questor probably had a lot to do with it.

Now Kixx have re-released Gauntlet, The Deeper Dungeons and Gauntlet 2 on one compo, so the scraps over who plays which character can start all over again!

For those unfamiliar with the Gauntlet plotline, a party of three heroes and one heroine are lost in a maze of dark and dank dungeons. Thor the Warrior, Thyra the Valkyrie, Merlin the Wizard and Questor the Elf must battle their way to freedom past stacks of weirdos.

Some, like ghosts, grunts, demons and lobbers, are easy peasy to splatter. But the likes of sorcerers, acid puddles and me 'old mate 'Desmond' Death to take more than a few potshots to conquer.

But beware, 'cos contact with the phantasmagorical denizens lowers old energy level. Food and drink (but no fat chef) are scattered around the place so pick 'em up quickly to give your health a boost.

To escape the nasty old spooksome dungeons, the fab foursome (liar - Thyra looks nothing like Ringo Starr! - Ed) collect the keys lying around and find the exit tiles lurking in each dungeon. These lead to the next or a later level (usually specified), but some move around and others are red herrings, painted tiles that are a right pain in the posterior.

I loved the arcade versions of both Gauntlet and Gauntlet II; indeed, at the time of review Gauntlet received a wopping 92%. But time has sadly taken its toll, and in the light of the isometric splendour of Gauntlet III this package is rather dated.

But three games for four quid is still good value if you missed them first time around. Hack yourself a slice of coin-op history!

Kixx
£3.99 cassette
021 625 3388
Reviewer: Craig Broadbent

This is the latest of the miscellaneous scrapings from US Gold's budget arm and particularly sharp readers may have noticed a cunningly disguised link between these titles. As all three games are effectively the same game, I'm going to chuck the age long YS custom of taking you through each game separately out of the window (crash! Tinkle! Whoops, there goes the greenhouse!) and review them all together.

Gauntlet, as you may remember if you're reaaally old, caused a bit of a stir back in, ooh, 1986. Since then it's kept hundreds of schoolkids glued to the screen with a fellow grunt-basher rather than doing their homework. I know, I was that schoolboy. There was nowt better than battling through endless ghost-filled dungeons with the help of my mate Ken, and then sneaking through a wall to get the potions with the help of my mate Symbol Shift. I can't really believe that there's many people who haven't ever experienced Gauntlet, but just in case. It's a nice creamy blend of Dungeons and Dragons with a shoot-'em-up stirred in. The graphics are nice and crisp, the sound effects are adequate and it's incredibly addictive. It was also a Megagame and I'm still playing it to this very day.

With Multimixx 4 not only do you get Gauntlet at a budget price, you also get Deeper Dungeons and Gauntlet 2 thrown in. These two games basically provide more screens for Gauntlet. Several years after the original game came Gauntlet 2 with the unexpected bonus of some new features such as the it monster. The little monster can be fun when you're playing with a friend cos when it catches the other player they're it and all the monsters go for them and not you. Added attractions include acid puddles, forcefields, stun tiles and different kinds of amulets.

Unfortunately, these aren't really enough to make it seem like you're not still playing Gauntlet. There's no real point to the game, basically all you have to do is keep on going 'til you die or get too bored. Your best bet is to play with a friend, then you can start shooting each other after a while!

Gauntlet is undoubtedly the best game of its genre and if you're the kind of Speccy games-player you make out to be then you should have it already. Should you get bored of it then the other two games act as add-ons. I suppose it's quite a good buy but, six years on, Gauntlet is still a game worth having, even if it isn't quite up to Megagame status.

Label: Kixx
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Big Al Dykes

"Sword and sorcery again", I said as I got out my wizard's costume and a big sword and prepared to do battle with the minions of darkness. "Don't be so ridiculous", said Tina as she got out her broom handle and hit me with it. Another day passed by uneventfully in SU Towers.

Gauntlet is quite an old game and it shows, but don't be fooled by appearances, it's still a fun bash. The basic idea is to wade into armies of nasties including ghosts, demons, grunts (big club wielding nasties), stone throwing lobbers and various sorcerers, picking up food, magic potions and treasure and surviving as long as possible. You can play as any of four characters and the game has a two player option which is by far the best way to play it.

The other games are, The Deeper Dungeons, a gauntlet add-on, giving even more exciting levels and Gauntlet II, basically the same as the first but with updated enemies and dungeons.

The game is played from an almost vertical viewpoint and you can see quite a lot of the dungeon and the enemies around your character. Graphics are very basic, the bad guys can only be identified by their vague shapes, colours and their fighting characteristics, make no mistake though they are identifiable. Sound is also basic but to be honest when you have a game with over one thousand different playing screens you can't go wrong. Multimixx Four is worth a look.

GARTH:
The gun pumpin' action makes a worthwhile shooty and the animation whilst slightly jerky, scrolls quickly and keeps the game moving. I especially liked the way that you can crawl.