Gauntlet Dark Legacy is the sixth title in the Gauntlet series, and is an expansion of the previous game, Gauntlet Legends. It was developed by Midway Games West and was first released into arcades in 1999.

Dark Legacy adds five new levels (Sky; Province; Ice; Dream, and an unlockable fire level – each divided into multiple parts, and with a boss battle at the end), and four new character classes: Dwarf, Knight, Jester, and Sorceress, as well as retaining the levels and characters from Gauntlet Legends.

The new levels are reasonably interesting, and the new characters are… erm, different (although they all play fairly similarly, to be honest), but the gameplay and presentation are more or less the same as seen in Gauntlet Legends. Dark Legacy uses the same game engine; the same controls; the same digitised voices, and the same character panel at the bottom of the screen. It also uses the same name entry/password system that allows you to continue playing the same character if you return to the game later, which is a good thing.

Like Gauntlet Legends, Dark Legacy hasn’t aged particularly well. If you play the game with friends, you’ll probably have some fun with it. Graphically, though, the game is lacking, IMHO.

If you want a better experience playing Gauntlet in 3D, I would skip Legends and Dark Legacy and try the next game in the series – Seven Sorrows – instead. I think it’s a much better game than those.

Gauntlet Dark Legacy was also released for PS2, GameCube, XBox and Game Boy Advance.

More: Gauntlet Dark Legacy on Wikipedia