Showing posts with label Gauntlet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gauntlet. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
The Nintendo Power Retrospectives - Part 7
This week I'm getting into Nintendo Power proper, with the magazine's first issue.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
199X Dispatch - Forever Munching Quarters
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| See those green blobs? That's why you're dead. |
Nowadays we use the adjective "quarter-munchy" to describe any retro game that (1) allows players to continue playing so long as they keep feeding credits into the machine, and (2) is extra difficult for that reason.
But there's kind of an understanding here, between quarter-munchers and quarter-possessors: keep playing and you will see something new; play even longer, and you might even get good at this. Beat-em-Ups were, by this standard, the pinnacle of quarter-munchery. The best games in that genre made sure to do something new and nifty in every stage.
The original Gauntlet games, however, are the black-hearted demigods of the arcade. Abandon all hope ye who enter here.
When I selected Gauntlet II for this month's experimental "live challenge" I was remembering the fun times I had with the NES port as a kid. This version is somewhat fair AND it supports four players. I now realize that it was, without a doubt, the finest version of classic Gauntlet ever released in any format.
But Gauntlet II, it seems, is no Gauntlet II. It's the Anti-Fun. Here's why:
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