Gauntlet Legends & Gauntlet Dark Legacy

[Restart_Point]

I finally got around to giving both these games some thorough attention and so far im enjoying them a lot!
I just completed Legends on Dreamcast and just started Dark Legacy on OG Xbox. From my reading these are the best two versions respectively
They are dumb action games in short digestible stages accessed via a single hub area, that you can dip in and out of at your leisure, with light RPG leveling-up and simple, quite linear exploration / puzzle elements, but extremely addictive in that arcade way that made the original Gauntlet a huge hit.
Check'em out if you haven't, there's a fair amount of shmup-ness to them imho, with your projectile attacks (be they magic bolts, arrows or axes etc) firing at bullet rates holding down the button, they have a fair amount of Ikari Warriors / Pocky n Rocky etc overhead shooteryness to them, and your potions are basically smart bombs. Excellent music too!

P.S. The next game "Seven Sorrows" is more or less a different genre, where they clearly went after set-piece God Of War combo action and imho its a pretty bland generic example of that genre, unfortunately

[it290]

I played the hell out of Legends in the arcade and on the Dreamcast back in the day. Love these games and they're probably my favorite incarnations of Gauntlet (though the 2016 one is a lot more skill based and gets slept on). IMO the best way to play is the Gamecube ver via emulation — you can use codes to enable 60fps and widescreen, which is pretty awesome.

[Austin]

I enjoy both Legends and Dark Legacy, but generally prefer Legends (particularly on console) as it is far less bloated. I have a major soft spot for arcade Legends especially as it was one of the first arcade games I sunk a lot of time into after getting my driver's license. The arcade I would go to had the health-timer turned off, so you could skillfully play your way through the game without having to credit feed like crazy. I played it so much I was eventually able to get up to and through most of the final level on one credit, and then made it a goal to get the top spot on all four main character high score boards (which I eventually did.. not exactly the best use of my time, but it was fun while it lasted).

I've since played through just about all the console ports. Legends on Dreamcast is my favorite of the home versions as it resembles the original arcade game more than the later Dark Legacy conversions, and it only has a few Dark Legacy stages thrown in (whereas a version like the N64 one has two full worlds of Dark Legacy stages at the very least).

Dark Legacy itself on console is a lot of fun too, but like I said, it gets particularly bloated with all the extra collectibles (not just rune stones and obelisks, but now these colored crystals). Some of the worlds/stages are also just more tedious in nature as opposed to the base four worlds found in arcade Legends.

I remember trying Seven Sorrows years later and was actually enjoying myself. However, the kicker was when I went to reload my game and it only retained the stage I was at, not my character level, and so it was basically impossible for me to progress at that point (this was a few hours into the playthrough). I do not know if that was just a glitch or if it's normal game behavior, but I haven't gone back to it since. I still have a copy and probably should give it another try.

[MJR]

I used to play the heck out of Gauntlet Legends, and I also loved Dark Legacy on PS2. I did try quite extensively every home version that was around at the day, but my favourite home versions of Legends, for some reason, is the N64. N64 version somehow has balance and challenge feeling just right; not too hard or too easy but just stop on.

I noticed from the credits that Ed Logg, the original programmer on Gauntlet, was involved with N64 version. N64 version also uses the extra memory add-on.