Lost Classics: Gauntlet Legends (N64, Dreamcast, Playstation 1, Arcade)

Years ago, there was a game known as Gauntlet. Alongside up to 3 other players, you took control of one of four characters and descended through enemy-infested dungeons. You had to work together in order to takeout the monster generators, secure items, and keep each other alive, but of course there were players who shot and destroyed food as well as douchebags who swiped up all the healing and food items. That was one of the best early co-op games, and it helped lay the foundation for co-op gaming as it is today. It’s dungeon crawling also helped to set the stage for future action RPG games such as Secret of Mana and Diablo. Years later, Midway released a modern-day revamp of the game. Although it was given a graphical face-lift, RPG mechanics, and a storyline, it retained all the co-op fun from years earlier.

Gauntlet Legends sends players on a quest to defeat a demon by gathering 3 runestones. All 4 character classes are back, but this time each color represents a different kingdom, so each of these 4 characters has a unique look depending on what color you’re controlling. There are several special items scattered through the levels, and you can save your character’s progress by use of a password, similar to NBA Jam and NFL Blitz. There are also boss fights, which are new to Gauntlet. After the arcade version, the Dreamcast was the preferred platform to play the game on, as it had a bunch of new unlockable features, while the PS1 version only supports 2 players. A sequel/remake was created for Xbox, Gamecube, and PS2 called Dark Legacy, and a recent attempt at a revamp failed miserably. Even so, before Borderlands, Halo, and World of Warcraft, playing Gauntlet Legends in the arcade was the best way to bring complete strangers together.