PlayStation 2

Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows

There are few game series in video game history that have stood the test of time. Some of them have been games I grew up playing from my days in arcades and with an old Atari computer. One such series is possibly one of the best known 4-player action games in gaming history; Gauntlet. Created in 1985 by Atari, Gauntlet was a very unique and addicting game. Up to four people could play at once, mixing the fantasy of Dungeons and Dragons with some good old fashioned 2-D button mashing fighting and shooting action. There were four classes of characters that you could choose from, each with their own special powers, strengths, and abilities. You had the Warrior, who was a strong fighter. The Valkyrie who was not quite as strong a fighter as the Warrior, but had some magical abilities. The Elf was more magic than hand-to-hand, but also was adept with a bow and arrow.

"Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows" segue fiel ao clássico de 1985, o que pode ser ótimo para os fãs da série, mas os outros jogadores podem se cansar rapidamente com a repetição das lutas. É verdade que há uma satisfação em exterminar num piscar de olhos uma quantidade massiva de oponentes e fazer um combo de 50 acertos. Talvez, para os não-fãs seja um game apenas para um fim-de-semana, sozinho ou com amigos, já que a aventura é bastante curta. E os neurônios cansados agradecem.

Seven Sorrows won't win any awards for depth or creativity, but it is a worthwhile hack and slasher that will most likely please fans of the original. Length and difficulty are issues though and you'll really have to decide if this is a renter or a purchase. If your parents have run the Gauntlet back in the day, nothing would be better than firing this up and having at it with them by your side. Unfortunately one missed opportunity is a playable version of the original Gauntlet which would have given many people extra incentive to purchase Seven Sorrows. Maybe next time.

When the original Gauntlet came out, gaming was all about fast-twitch action, and it tops at providing it. Since then, role-playing has ruled the day, with games like Diablo and Baldur's Gate reigning supreme. Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows tries to walk the tightrope between both philosophies -- action and RPG. While it missteps often, the draw of its multiplayer is enough to keep it from coming crashing to the ground.

Thanks to the wonders of Xbox Live Arcade, we've been able to go back in time and play the original Gauntlet on the 360. The premise of the game was almost too simple: select one of four warriors with varying attributes of speed and strength, then mash the heck out of your buttons until you conquer the evil hoards. In the arcade, Gauntlet was one of the first titles that you could play with four players, and, with friends, Gauntlet was one of the all-time great quarter-suckers. There was no story. You would just grab a friend and mash.

The mere mention of Gauntlet floods brains with memories of funneling quarters into arcade machines for just a bit more health. No game has truly captured the magic of the original, but Seven Sorrows comes the closest, even if it is ultimately less than legendary.

This series is a byword for the brand of mindless co-op action that it started back in the arcades 20 years ago. But you don't have to go back that far to see this game's immediate influences. Seven Sorrow feels like a mediocre action title from five years ago - complete with bad story, forgettable boss battles and enemies, little character development, and basic action gameplay.

Midway, one of the gaming industry's elder statesmen, has steadily amassed quite a collection of bona fide classics -- think Spy Hunter, Robotron 2084, and Rampage. This type of pedigree helps make Midway Arcade Treasures one of the best retro collections out there (and is the reason why you see Smash TV, Gauntlet, and Joust for sale on Xbox Live Arcade), plus it's given Midway plenty of fodder for remakes.

While the game is breezily enjoyable, like watching Die Hard for the eight time, the pleasure it dumps in front of gamers is composed entirely of nostalgia and the company of good friends. I guess that Seven Sorrows doesn't get in the way of you having a decent time, which if one were being kind, would be a second feat achieved...but just barely.

Seven Sorrows isn't a terrible game - in fact you'll probably enjoy it as a rental. The hack n' slash genre has evolved quite a bit over the years, so people have come to expect more out of a game like this. If you can pick it up for under $20 it's worth a look, but otherwise it's just not worth a purchase.

La modernité ne semble décidément pas réussir à Gauntlet qui, dans ce nouvel opus, ne parvient toujours pas à nous satisfaire. Même s'il s'échine à rester fidèle à l'esprit d'origine, ce titre n'en reste pas moins un hack'n slash conventionnel qui vaut surtout pour son mode 4 joueurs.

Gauntlet first appeared in video game arcades about 20 years ago, and its addictive hack-and-slash action was well worth the 25-cent price of admission. Featuring a memorable assortment of heroes and monsters as well as one of the first successful implementations of four-player cooperative gameplay in an arcade game, Gauntlet quickly became a classic. It's gone on to influence countless similar games, such as the hugely successful Diablo series and various Gauntlet spin-offs and sequels. The latest of these is Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, a short, forgettable game that seems content merely to copy the design of its ancient predecessor rather than introduce any noteworthy twists or updates to a formula that's been driven into the ground over the years. Four-player cooperative play just doesn't do much to help alleviate the monotony of this game's flat, simple action.

In the end, Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows is hardly worth its $50 price tag. It feels much more like a budget title that was put together rather quickly. There,s really nothing here to draw the crowds other than its slightly enjoyable co-op play. Otherwise there are plenty of better hack-and-slash action titles out there that do the exact same thing much better and at a much cheaper price. Fortunately, the anguish of playing Seven Sorrows is quickly forgotten.

Though Seven Sorrows adds a more sophisticated combat system to the expected arcade-style action and role-playing elements, extensive testing on The A.V. Club gaming couch suggests that simply pressing the same button over and over again yields virtually the same results as skillfully deployed multi-button deathblows.

Maybe Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows has problems with its simplicity. It's hard to figure out how this is a $50 title, and its arcade roots place it firmly in budget territory. Sadly, that's not what the price sticker indicates, and as a full purchase, it's hard to justify this repetitive experience unless you're sure you can find extra players to take the brief journey with you. Otherwise, only die-hard hack n' slash fans should give this a spin.

Towards Blackpool, the late eighties. Like any other child of the time, the usual holiday was a trip down to a dismal beach resort that, nonetheless, I'd look forward to with a feverish anticipation - because I knew as soon as I got there, they'd give me a cup full of 10p pieces and set me loose in the amusements. And one day, wandering one of the many arcades that lined Blackpool's seaside strip, my cash reserves dwindling, I finally found a live Gauntlet machine. 10 pence a go.

Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows reworks a couple of the shortcomings of its predecessor, but has gleaned nothing from its ancestry. The winding dungeon crawl the franchise defined long ago has been replaced with a lifeless linear action game's dash, one which will hopefully get back on the track its forefathers fought so hard to gain. Someone, it seems, shot the food again.

Whilst waiting for Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows to load, I casually glanced at my desktop calendar, and somewhere in my subconscious the date - 13th March 2006 - was stored. After 20 minutes or so of playing Seven Sorrows, and somewhat bewildered, I checked the calendar once again, and then on the web to see if this game really had only just been released and wasn't in actual fact something that was stuffed down the back of the sofa at Midway headquarters and only recently found. Sadly it wasn't; this really has only just been made, and how those with fond memories of the original title (as well as fun in general) may well wish it hadn't been.