Gauntlet Legends is coming to N64 - Miscellaneous - http://maxpages.com/theskank/G_Legends_is_coming_to

More than 10 years ago, Atari Games
released Gauntlet, a top-down shooter
set in medieval times, for the arcades.
Largely unique at the time was the
game's four-player simultaneous mode,
which enabled multiple people to play the
game at the same time choosing different
characters. The game was an
overwhelming success. As is the case
with so many popular games, sequels
quickly followed. First, one year later
(1986), was Gauntlet 2, an update to the
original with more mazes and innovations
than before. In the early '90s, the
franchise made the jump to
home-console, with versions of Gauntlet,
Gauntlet 2 and a special four-player
Sega Genesis version titled, oddly
enough, Gauntlet 4.

Since then, Atari has released Gauntlet
Legends, a 3D update to the classic
series, in the arcades. The game, running
on a 3DFX "Vegas" board, features
hugely improved visuals, new polygonal
3D worlds, new characters, spells,
puzzles, mazes, powerups, bosses and a
"cinematic storyline." And you better
believe it, Gauntlet Legends is coming
home to Nintendo 64 this year.

Players, again, can choose between four
selectable characters including the
Warrior, Valkyrie, Wizard and Archer.
What, no Elf? Nope. Atari Games
replaced the pointy-eared,
"sexually-ambiguous" character class
with a voluptuous female archer. But
don't worry, both classes play identically.
And, as an added bonus, gamers can
also play as hidden characters, including
a cool-looking minotaur.

After the peaceful world of Ataria (how
did they ever come up with that name?)
is overrun by an evil demon, a good
wizard turns to the four characters for
help. But before the demon can be
defeated, players must first find and
retrieve 13 hidden Rune Stones located
throughout four huge kingdoms including
the regions of mountains, deserts, castles
and forests. As luck would have it, each
region just so happens to be inhabited by
loads of evil minions and, for the matter,
end-bosses that range from giant dragons to mutant spiders.

The game plays exactly as the original did, only now it's all in 3D.
Gamers progress through maze-like levels using weapons and spells to
kill enemies. Along the way, treasures and food will be found, as well as
magic and special items. Some notable new powerups include three-way
shots, five-way shots, time-stop, x-ray vision, anti-death aura, levitation,
invulnerability, shrinking, growth, fire-ice-gas breathing and more.

As before, Gauntlet Legends features a four-player mode that enables --
you guessed it -- up to four players to go at it simultaneously. But don't
expect split-screens as Atari has kept as close to the original as possible.
In other words, the entire game takes place on screen, not four.

For the N64 version, Atari told IGN64 that it has every intention of using
Nintendo's recently released 4MB Expansion Pak for a
medium/high-resolution mode and enhanced graphic features. The game
will also use Nintendo 64's Memory Pak for a unique save procedure.
Players can save their customized characters (including experience points
and so on) to a Pak and then incorporate them into a friend's game,
whereupon they will be able to join up in an already existing party. The
simple procedure opens up a whole new realm of interactivity between
Nintendo 64 owners and one that Interact's soon-to-be-released
DexDrive will likely thrive upon.

Outlook
We were able to play a 37% complete version of the game. Despite the
lack of audio and the pre-alpha's glitchy nature, the game engine thrilled
us with super-sharp graphics, detailed textures and an incredible amount
of characters on screen at the same time. Better yet, neither the multitude
of enemies nor the game's still rudimentary but impressive special effects
managed to knock down the silky-smooth framerate at any point. A very
promising arcade to home conversion.

Luke "Yoda" Rendar
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Page Updated Thu May 27, 1999 6:20am EDT