Gauntlet Legends is the fifth game in the Gauntlet series and the first to take Gauntlet the full 3D route. It was a joint venture between Atari Games and Midway Games and was initially released into arcades in 1998.

The game uses 3DFX technology (ie. early graphics accelerator cards), and hard drives, and mixes pre-rendered cut scenes with real-time polygon-based action.

Up to four players can play cooperatively, each choosing one of the classic fantasy characters from the original Gauntlet (Warrior, Wizard, Valkyrie, and Archer). Before starting, you choose a (three character) name, and a (three digit) password. The name/password combo allows you to continue a character at a later date, which is an interesting feature that I haven’t seen used in an arcade game before.

Gameplay is similar to the original: enemies pour out of generators, so it’s a good idea to destroy these as a priority. Pushing into enemies will attack them hand-to-hand, or you can throw magic or weapons at them from a distance.

Energy levels for each character drop whenever they take damage, and putting more credits into the machine will buy you an energy top-up. You can also collect food items for free top-ups. Keys are needed to open locked doors; chests contain gold, potions, or rare items. With the gold you collect, you can buy power-ups in-between levels. Potions are used to kill ‘Death’, when you encounter him, or destroy multiple enemies at once.

Occasionally you’ll also come across larger enemies that require more damage to defeat than regular bad guys.

The basic aim of each level is to fight your way to the exit, and eventually make your way to a boss battle at the end of each of the four different sectors (Mountain, Castle, Forest, and Desert). The ultimate aim of the game, though, is to collect three rune stones in each sector (so twelve in total), that you must use to defeat the evil demon, Skorne, at the end of the game.

One new aspect to the gameplay in Gauntlet Legends is the ability to earn experience points and to level-up your character, increasing their stats as you progress.

While Gauntlet Legends looks like a fun prospect on paper, I have to say that I didn’t much like the presentation, and also the gameplay isn’t as captivating as classic 2D Gauntlet, IMHO. Gauntlet Legends looks extremely dated, and playing it now isn’t anywhere near as interesting as it would’ve been back in 1998, when it first came out.

Gauntlet Legends was also later released for the N64, PlayStation and Dreamcast.

More: Gauntlet Legends on Wikipedia