Gauntlet Legends

Gauntlet Legends, a 1999 hack and slash game for arcades, was both developed and published by Atari Games. It serves as a follow-up to the original Gauntlet from 1985 and its 1986 sequel, Gauntlet II. The game stood out for arcade titles of its time by offering features like passwords and the ability to save characters, allowing players to continue their progress across multiple sessions.

The story involves a corrupt mage named Garm, who once used Runestones to summon a demon called Skorne. Skorne crushed Garm, trapping his soul in the Underworld, and then scattered the Runestones across four realms to prevent their use against him. Players must defeat the boss of each realm to collect four keys, which grant access to a desecrated temple where Skorne can be banished. Along the way, they gather the thirteen Runestones—three from each kingdom and one from the battle grounds in home versions—to pursue and destroy Skorne in the Underworld. The game only ends when a player runs out of health.

A key new feature in the series is character leveling. Players gain experience by defeating enemies and collecting treasure, which increases four primary attributes: Strength (physical damage), Speed (movement and attack rate), Armor (damage resistance), and Magic (potion range and effectiveness). These attributes rise with each level and can also be bought using gold from the Items menu. The classic fantasy characters return, each starting with a higher base in one attribute: the Warrior or Minotaur excels in Strength, the Wizard, Jackal, or Sumner in Magic, the Archer or Tigress in Speed, and the Valkyrie or Falconess in Armor. A password system saves progress for up to four characters, each able to reach level 99 and attributes up to 999.

The first home port arrived on the Nintendo 64 in September 1999 in North America, followed by a European release later that year and a Japanese exclusive in April 2000. It supports up to four players with the Expansion Pak, or three without, and requires a Controller Pak for saving, with Rumble Pak compatibility. The PlayStation port, originally planned for 1999, launched in 2000 for North America and Europe but only supports one or two players. The Dreamcast port, released in 2000, was later followed by Gauntlet Dark Legacy, which expanded on the formula.