Gauntlet

98 - Gauntlet

Year: 1985
Platform(s): Arcade
Designer(s): Ed Logg
Developer: Atari
Publisher: Atari

"Featuring four-player co-op hack-and-slash action, classic fantasy characters, and a melange of monsters, Gauntlet immediately attracted 20-sided dice-throwers and those who would never be caught dead playing Dungeons & Dragons. Throw in a massive assortment of randomly selected mazes, non-linear gameplay, and a baritone narrator full of classic gaming one-liners, and you've got the blueprint for an all-time great arcade cabinet. The complete lack of a storyline, enemy bosses, or a clear goal (besides killing monsters and finding exits) somehow didn't detract from Gauntlet's allure. That's because Atari deftly injected immediacy into its dungeon crawler: As your health ticked down with every second, and black-robed Death clawed at your back, Gauntlet was all about pure survival. And with three friends battling by your side -- sharing food, luring monsters into kill zones, and finding exits -- survival was all the reason you needed." - GameSpy

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