Gauntlet Legends
Gauntlet Legends is an arcade game released in 1998 by Atari Games and Midway Games. It is a fantasy themed hack and slash styled dungeon crawl game, a sequel to 1985's popular "Gauntlet" and 1986's "Gauntlet II" and marks the final game in the series to be produced by Atari Games. Its unusual features for an arcade game included passwords and characters that could be saved, enabling players to play over the course of a long period. The game was given an expansion called "Gauntlet Dark Legacy", which featured new characters to play and new levels . Gameplay. In ages past, a corrupt mage named Garm used a set of Runestones to summon a demon named Skorne. However, Skorne crushed Garm and imprisoned his soul in the Underworld. Skorne, fearing the power of the Runestones, scattered them throughout the four realms, so that they could never be used against him. The player(s) must defeat the end bosses of each of the four kingdoms to obtain the four keys which allow access to the desecrated temple and be able to banish Skorne to the Underworld. While traveling through each realm, they must also collect the Thirteen Runestones from  where they have been scattered. The complete set of Runestones allows them to pursue Skorne to the Underworld in order to finally destroy him. The players must find three rune stones on each kingdom in order to defeat Skorne in the Underworld (in the arcades only), and of course one from the battle grounds (home versions only). The initial arcade version had a contest by which the first 500 players to complete the game and send in the supplied validation code would win a free "Gauntlet Legends" shirt. This game will not end unless the player runs out of health . A new aspect of the "Gauntlet" series is established in "Legends": the ability to level up the player's character(s) as the game is played, increasing their abilities through experience earned by slaying enemies and acquiring treasure, similar to the character progression methods in many role-playing video games. The four primary attributes are: Attributes increase with each level attained; increases can also be purchased from the Items menu with gold acquired in gameplay. The stock fantasy characters from the original "Gauntlet" return for "Legends"; as before, each has greater starting ability in a single attribute than their fellows. Character  progression is saved through a password system; a player can progress all four characters to a maximum level of 99, and each of their attributes to a maximum of 999. Ports. The first home console port of "Gauntlet Legends" was released for the Nintendo 64 on August 31, 1999 in North America. This port saw a European release by the end of the year, and it was the exclusive platform for the Japanese release in the following year. It can support up to four players by using the Expansion Pak, or up to three when using the standard Jumper Pak . It requires a Controller Pak to save game progress, and it is compatible with the Rumble Pak. The PlayStation port was released in 2000 for North America and Europe. Unlike the other versions, this release only supports one or two players, as it omitted multitap support. The Dreamcast port was also released in 2000 for North America and Europe. It incorporated much of the features from "Gauntlet Dark Legacy". Reception. In Japan, "Game Machine" listed "Gauntlet Legends" on their March 1, 1999 issue as being the sixth most-successful dedicated arcade game of the month. Greg Orlando reviewed the Dreamcast  version of the game for "Next Generation", rating it three stars out of five: "Four controllers and one "Legends" make for party-game excitement of the highest order". "Gauntlet Legends" has received average reviews on all ports and releases. According to GameRankings, "Gauntlet Legends" received a 73.55% for the Dreamcast version, a 71.13% for the N64 version, and a 60.44% for the PlayStation version; for the same version, Metacritic only gave it a score of 59 out of 100.