Gauntlet II1991

"Recreated for Game Boy Advance, Gauntlet Dark Legacy is an action-adventure videogame that continues the time-honored “hack-n-slash” style of gameplay where players embark on a mythic quest to save the world. Using a force of special weapons, exotic magical powers and deadly combination attacks, players slay hordes of evil minions and hideous creatures – such as Golems, Dragons and Chimera – while searching for treasure, evading traps and solving the many mysteries of Gauntlet Dark Legacy." "Gauntlet Dark Legacy Nintendo Game Boy Advance Key Features: - Awesome Action – Gamers embark on a quest to collect the mythic 13 rune stones and battle the evil wizard Garm - Nine Power-ups – Use Speedboost, Invulnerability, the Anti-Death Halo and much more while battling dragons, gargoyles and other creatures from the underworld - 27 Dangerous Levels – “Hack-n-slash” through the Warrior King’s Mountain Realm, the Desert Realm, Dwarves Ice Caves and many more"

The game has 16 levels, though many are quite short. Much like Capcom's Knights of the Round, King of Dragons features an role-playing video game-like level advancement system. Points scored for killing monsters and picking up gold count towards experience, and the character gains levels at regular intervals. With each level, the character's health bar increases, other attributes such as range improve, and the character also becomes invulnerable for a few seconds. Along the way, different weapon and armor upgrades for each character may also be picked up. King of Dragons features a simple control system that consists of a single attack button, and a jump button. By pressing both buttons, the character unleashes a magical attack that strikes all enemies in screen (its strength varies according to the character used) at the expense of losing energy. The fighter, cleric and dwarf can also use their shield to block certain attacks by tilting the joystick back right before the impact. This is one of the many Capcom games to feature the yashichi power-up item. There are three such power-ups hidden throughout the game, each giving the player an extra continue.

The players, up to four at once in the arcade version, select among four playable fantasy-based characters; Thor the Warrior, Merlin the Wizard, Thyra the Valkyrie, or Questor the Elf. Each character has his or her own unique strength and weaknesses. For example, the Warrior is strongest in hand-to-hand combat, the Wizard has the most powerful magic, the Valkyrie has the best armour and the Elf is the fastest in movement. Upon selecting a playable character, the gameplay is set within a series of top-down, third-person perspective mazes where the object is to find and touch the designated exit in every level. An assortment of special items can be located in each level that increase player's character's health, unlock doors, gain more points and magical potions that can destroy all of the enemies on screen. The enemies are an assortment of fantasy-based monsters, including ghosts, grunts, demons, lobbers, sorcerers and thieves. Each enters the level through specific generators, which can be destroyed. While there are no bosses in the game, the most dangerous enemy is "Death", who can not only drain a character's health, but is difficult to destroy. As the game progresses, higher levels of skill are needed to reach the exit, with success often depending on the willingness of the players to cooperate by sharing food and luring monsters into places where they can be engaged and slaughtered more conveniently. While contact with enemies reduces the player's health, it also slowly drains on its own, thus creating a time limit. When a character's health reaches zero, that character dies. The character can be revived in place with full health by spending a game credit (i.e. inserting a coin) within a certain short time window after it died. This allows even the least proficient players to keep playing indefinitely, if they are willing to keep inserting coins.

Shadow over Mystara is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up with role-play elements that make it stand out from other similar games released at the time. In addition to the original four heroes found in its predecessor, Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (Cleric, Dwarf, Elf and Fighter), Shadow of Mystara adds a Thief and a Magic-User to the selection. Furthermore, with the inclusion of two separate versions of each character's sprite set, the game allows up to two players to select the same character (in Tower of Doom each of the characters could only be selected once), effectively giving the game 12 "different" characters to choose from. The two Clerics and two Magic Users also have subtle differences within their spell books. The controls are using four buttons: Attack, Jump, Select (brings up a small inventory ring around the character allowing the player to choose what item is set in the Use slot) and Use. The Cleric, Elf and Magic-User also have two extra rings for their spells, with the Jump button used to switch from ring to ring. While the game uses the same kick harness as the previous game, the Select and Use buttons are reversed. Shadow over Mystara also introduced a selection of special moves which are executed by moving the joystick and tapping the buttons in certain combinations, in a way similar to the Street Fighter series. The characters (except for the Magic-User) have a Dashing Attack as well as a Rising Attack which can be used to combo monsters or even juggle them in the air. Most characters (again, with the exception of the Magic-User and also Cleric) also have a Megacrush, a move common to nearly all of Capcom side-scrollers, which damages all enemies standing close enough to the character but in turn also damaging the player themselves.

The gameplay is very similar to the original Gauntlet, a topdown dungeon crawl supporting up to four players. The biggest difference from the original game is that players can choose identical classes, instead of being limited to a particular one for each joystick; each player is differentiated by color. Thus, instead of having a "warrior", "wizard", and "valkyrie" (for instance), in Gauntlet II there could be a "red wizard", a "blue elf" and a "green warrior". In addition to the new "class" system, new level designs were added, including the possibility of encountering them in altered ways by having the play-field turned in steps of 90°. Other new features included the enemy "It", which upon contact would make a player "It" and draw all enemies towards him/her. The only way to release this curse is by touching another player or entering the exit, turning any level containing "It" into a fantasy filled game of tag. Other notable additions include the ability to ricochet shots off walls by means of a special pick-up, acid puddles that caused large, predetermined amounts of damage and a large dragon which would occupy multiple squares and require multiple hits to destroy. New level elements were also added, adding more variety to the original game. These included "all walls are invisible", "magic walls" which changed into monsters or items when hit, "stun tiles" which stunned the player, and fake exits. Another challenge in the game is the possibility to find a "secret room". This can be found by completing specific achievements within the level (e.g., "don't be fooled", means that you must find the real exit first). The secret room contains items such as food and magic potions (extra shot power, extra shot speed, extra magic power, extra speed, extra armor and extra fight power). This sequel was also the first to feature what is now known as the Gauntlet theme tune, which resembles a simplified Baroque fugue.

Mazeman is a game that will challenge you big time thanks to its frantic pace: enter the maze and look for the key while avoiding all kinds of dreadful monsters. Lots of unlockables, monsters, levels, power-ups and collectibles await you in this beautiful endless stream of pixel art mazes filled with some awesome arcade vibes!

Gauntlet III is an action-based dungeon exploration game. Like in the predecessors you empty areas infested by all kinds of enemies while running for the exit. Like this was rather a straight forward thing in the first two games, it's not that easy to finish a level anymore. While you only had to run until you find the exit (and besides killing hordes of enemies you probably find some keys to unlock doors leading to deeper dungeons) you might have to solve a few "quests" to proceed to the next level in this installment. These "quests" are very basic, for example you have to find object A, then bring it to B, advance to C and finally go to D to uncover the exit. While the first two games had a top-down view, Gauntlet 3 has an isometric perspective. The old four characters (warrior, wizard, elf and valkyrie) are ready for action again and this time they get backup by four new characters which include the Lizard, Neptune, Stoneman and the Iceman.

The console version of Soul Edge adds more content to the original arcade game such as new characters and additional game modes. Added features - The inclusion (besides the standard "Arcade" mode) of "VS", "Survival", "Team Battle", "Time Attack" and "Training" modes. - A new RPG-styled mode called "Edge Master Mode". - Seven extra weapons per character, which have different designs and statistics. - The original ten selectable characters received a new PlayStation-exclusive costume.