Throwback Thursday: Gauntlet Dark Legacy

Throwback Thursday: Gauntlet Dark Legacy

Robert Knuckles

“Co-op Classic”

Time for another Throwback Thursday Classic game and it's a game that is very underrated in my opinion. The game is called Gauntlet Dark Legacy, which is the expansion pack of the arcade game Gauntlet Legends. Dark Legacy was developed and published by Midway Games. It was released for the PS2, Gamecube, Xbox and the Game Boy Advance but we’ll talking about the platform systems.

Dark Legacy is a hack and slash dungeon crawl game that’s up to four player co-op. Players can choose between a warrior that has the best strength, wizard that has the best range and powerful magic, archer that has the best speed and valkyrie that has the best defense. New to Dark Legacy are the dwarfs, knights, sorceress and my favorite the jester. Players can also choose the colors of red, blue, yellow and green for their characters.

The story in Dark Legacy is basic. An evil mage named Garm used the power of the runestones to summon the evil demon Skorne to control but Skorne rebelled and killed Garm. Skorne released his minions and scattered the runestones across the eight realms. No one has dared try… until now.

Players will travel across eight realms with either five or six levels with a boss being the final level. Players shoot out projectiles to defeat enemies. They can shoot fast and slow attacks and use them as a combo. Players can use their turbo a special attack that cost players their meter and can use it to defeat enemies that are surrounding them. Enemies come out of generators that players have to destroy to stop them from reappearing. Players also collect many items on their adventure. Players can collect treasure that they can use to buy items at the end of each level. Items in this game are really fun to use and there are a lot of them. There are items such as the hammer that players can use to make the ground shake and kill enemies at a far distance, some items give players three way shots there’s even an item that turns players into a chicken called Pojo, a chicken that can shoot fireballs but one of favorites is anti-death. There’s annoying guy called death. Death dressed in red drains the player's health and Death dressed in black takes a player’s level but if players have anti-death they can use it to gain health or gain a level from death.

The realms are also pretty cool. The Sky Realm has players travel across spaceships while the scenery can look pretty good but the Dream realm might be my favorite. Now when players go to these worlds they’ll have to collect 13 runestones. There are sometimes one or two runestones in certain realms. Players will have to collect all runestones to complete the game.

 There are some console differences that I experienced. In the Gamecube version players that gain items don’t have them at the start. You have to go through your inventory to activate it and also in the Gamecube version players can’t see the bosses health which would be helpful to see how close they are from dying.

In the end I think Gauntlet: Dark Legacy is a fun game. It’s one of the best co-op games I’ve played. Now granted it might not a be a favorite from a lot of people and the presentation isn’t the best either but gameplay takes that away. Now it’s not the best game but it’s fun especially if you play it with the right people. Playing this by yourself is okay but playing it with your friends is even better.

Throwback Thursday Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time

Throwback Thursday Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time

Robert Knuckles

“Another Arcade Classic”

Back with another Throwback Thursday game and that’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. Last week I talked about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Arcade game and today I’m going to talk about it’s sequel Turtles In Time.

Turtles In Time was released in arcades in 1991. Some of the arcades featured two joysticks for players to pick their turtle where some featured 4 joysticks where players had to put their quarter in certain slots to play as a certain turtle.

The Story in Turtles In Time is pretty simple. April O’ Neil was reporting live until Krang took the Statue of Liberty. The turtles set out to get the Statue back and fight the evil Shredder and Krang but as they go on their adventure Shredder throws them in time portal hoping they won’t be able to return home.

The gameplay in Turtles in Time follows its predecessor but with a few tweaks. It’s still a side scrolling beat em up game where players get to the end of the level and fight a boss at the end. Turtles are now able to slam the Foot Ninjas on the floor left to right. The Turtles are able to throw the Foot Ninjas on to the screen pretty much breaking the fourth wall. Players have the ability to run and do sliding attacks. There’s also a Pizza Power box where the Turtles do a spinning special 360 attack killing enemies in one hit. There are some pretty interesting levels in this game. Players will travel in the Dinosaurs, Pirates, Old West and Futuristic worlds.

Turtles In Time was rereleased on the SNES in August 1992. It was called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time. It featured two players but a couple of changes were added. A couple of sound animations were changed. Sewer Surfing featured The Rat King as a boss, Technodrome is the next level after Sewer Surfing and players have to fight Shredder in a machine but can only hit him by throwing enemies at him. Cement Man is replaced by Slash who is freaking annoying. Bebop and Rocksteady return as bosses and players fight Super Shredder as the Final Boss

This game is also unlockable in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare with complete different music. Turtles in Time was remade in HD for the PS3 and Xbox 360 as Turtles in Time Re-Shelled but we won’t get into that…

Turtles in Time is another classic arcade. People can make the argument that Turtles is better than it’s predecessor and I don’t blame them. I feel as though Turtles in Time is a bit shorter and could’ve added a few more levels. That’s my only grip with the game but I still love this game. I actually played this game on the SNES first. I was always thinking if this game had an arcade version that’s up to four players and I was right. Like I said when you play a Ninja Turtles game it’s a rule to have four player co-op. You can still find this game somewhere in the arcades. I wish that players could download the original on the current game systems but only time will tell.

Throwback Thursday Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade Game

Throwback Thursday Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade Game

Robert Knuckles

One of my favorite days of the week.. Thursday! So you know what that means time for another Throwback Thursday game. Today I’m going to talk about an arcade classic and that's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Arcade Game. This classic game was released for the arcades in 1989. It’s a side scrolling beat’em up game that features the classic 80’s series of the Ninja Turtles. The most common place I found this arcade classic were at a couple of Chuck E Cheese's.

This was one of the first of many arcade games where up to four people could play and work as a team. The arcade featured an eight-way joystick with an attack and jump button. Players could play as any of the four turtles. To play as the leader Leonardo players would have to insert their coin in the first slot, to play as the party animal Michelangelo players would have to insert their coin in the second slot, to play as the smart scientist Donatello players would have to insert their coin in the third slot and if players want to play as the cool and rude Raphael players have to insert the coin in the fourth slot. Each turtle does play a bit different. Leo is the average with balanced speed and attacks, Don has slow attacks but has the greatest reach and Mikey and Raph have fast attacks but low reach. Players can perform the turtles special attack by pressing the attack and jump button simultaneously.

The story is pretty basic. The story starts off with a fire in April’s apartment and the turtles must save her they must also stop the evil Shredder. The turtles battle the robot foot ninjas in every level and at the end of each level they’ll fight familiar bosses like Bebop, Rocksteady, Krang and of course Shredder.

They did manage to import the arcade version of this game to the NES titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II The Arcade game that only goes up to 2 players. It’s a lot more difficult than the arcade machine. It does add two new levels and new bosses.

You can also download this game through Xbox Live Arcade but I’m not sure if it's still available to download. You can also play this game through Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus as a hidden bonus game but it only has altered music and has most of the voice clips edited out.

In the end this arcade game is a classic. What I really love about this game is that four people can work as a team just like in a show. The Turtles are always working together and that’s what makes their brotherhood so strong. In my opinion anytime you make a Ninja Turtles game you need to make it co-op. Playing it by yourself is fun but playing it with four people is even better.

Throwback Thursday Kingdom Hearts II

Throwback Thursday Kingdom Hearts II

(Warning do not read this if you are new to the series and haven’t played the first two.Spoilers.)

“Sanctuary”

Back with another Throwback Thursday game classic and thats Kingdom Hearts II. Kingdom Hearts II was developed and produced by Square Enix. It was released in America on Mar. 28, 2006 for the PlayStation 2. So Kingdom Hearts II has been out  just about over a decade ago. It’s crazy to think that. So let’s dive in and talk why this game is so great.

Kingdom Hearts II story takes place after Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories. The story still focus on Sora, Donald and Goofy as they wake up from their sleep in Castle Oblivion to regain their memories and still continue to look for King Mickey and Riku. The three encounter new enemies called Nobodies. When a heartless is created they lose hearts leaving an empty body without a heart creating a Nobody. They really don’t exist and pretend to have hearts. Another new enemy is a group called Organization XIII. They are powerful forms of Nobodies. Each member has a specific element power. Unlike the Heartless Nobodies can actually think and they have a plan. They consist of 13 members. Sora, Riku, Donald and Goofy have already faced some of the members in Castle Oblivion in  Chain of Memories but fans of the series already know this. Throughout your adventure you will come across returning Disney and Final Fantasy characters from the first game. Beast, Aladdin, Jack and others reunite with Sora but you also team up with new characters such as Mulan, Jack Sparrow and Final Fantasy’s own Auron.

The gameplay in Kingdom Hearts II is still an action hack and slash RPG game. Players still have the command list on the bottom left. A new feature that I really loved is the Reaction Command. Specific attacks on enemies are made when you see the Triangle button on top of them. Sora performs these cool attacks and sometimes you’ll need to do these reaction commands to defeat bosses. Now sometimes I feel as though these reaction commands can make fights more easier but granted I still love the command.

Sora, Donald and Goofy still level up and learn new moves. Abilities return as well and once again they are really useful.

Another new feature is the Drive Gauge. It’s a new meter next to Sora that once it’s filled up Sora transforms into his Drive Form. He’ll bond with either Donald or Goofy or sometimes both. Sora will have two Keyblades kicking butt with new attacks called Growth Abilities. Like I said Sora will bond with either Donald or Goofy. The person that Sora bonds with disappears for a short period of time but if Sora bonds with Donald and Goofy both characters will disappear. There are multiple Drive Forms that players can unlock. Drive forms can really help out when the player’s health is low because it fill their health but in Drive Form players can’t heal themselves.

The Drive Gauge are also used for Sora to use Summon. Summon return in Kingdom Hearts II. Summons allow Sora to summon a Disney character to help them in battle.

Another cool feature that I don’t think gets talked about is that players can go back to worlds and have a second story segment which is really cool.

In the end Kingdom Hearts II is a very fun game. The story gets really depth and still continues to add suspense. There is a lot of things to do in this game. I love the new abilities especially the Reaction Command and the Drive Forms. Now many gamers question that Kingdom Hearts II is easier than the first one. I believe that Kingdom Hearts II was the first game out of the series to do an Easy mode. This is definitely one of the top PS2 games in my opinion and I love everything about it. It will be tough to find this game on the  PS2 but you can play Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix on the PS4 with the 1.5 and 2.5 collection. I recommend players that want to get into the series should buy that. Be sure to look out for my review on Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix on the PS4 coming soon! And be sure to look out for Kingdom Hearts III in the future!!