I'm sure we all remember those trips to the arcade and the hours spent playing Gauntlet Legends. Now Midway has made a port of one of the most fun multiplayer games around. Gauntlet: Dark Legacy is all that you could ask for and more in a Gauntlet port, but it's still a port. The Gauntlet series seems to lose something once it hits the console.

Believe it or not there is a storyline behind this button-mashing fiesta. The evil mage Garm grew jealous of his older, more powerful brother, Sumner. Garm used the power of the runestones to free a powerful demon named Skorne and his massive army which he hoped to use to take over the realm. But Garm could not control Skorne and he was killed as Skorne's dark army began its infestation. Skorne hid the eight runestones throughout the eight realms so that their power would never again be used against him. Now, Sumner is calling forth the eight strongest warriors throughout the realms to aid him in finding the runestones. Nothing particularly good or bad in a storyline, and you can find that all out from watching the short cinema before the game. There's no further storyline development. But, no one really plays a game like Gauntlet for the storyline. That's like playing Resident Evil for the crappy controls.

The sound is pretty poor at times and often all you'll hear is random grunts and groans. The best feature on the soundtrack would have to be the classic voice that pops up every now and then to let you know "Blue Wizard needs food badly," or "Red Knight is about to die." I'll never grow tired of hearing that voice.

The problem with Gauntlet is that running around for hours and hours killing monsters can only be fun for so long. Placing Gauntlet on a console really took away the urgency that one felt playing it in the arcade. The challenge to the game has always been to get as far as you can with the stack of quarters you've got in your pocket. There was a race to make your character the strongest so that you'd be able to continue on to fight another day without losing another 25 cents. Now that's gone and the new challenge is to stay awake through the same old levels. Sure, there's different enemies and items, but it all seems the same half the time, and someone can practically beat a level with their eyes closed by just walking around pressing X a lot. The single player mode is a horribly slow experience and not something I care to think about. Gauntlet really is a multiplayer game and if you don't have a lot of friends then I don't recommend you buy it. With four players competing for the treasure, potions and most kills, Gauntlet is a much faster paced game and has a new level of excitement. Sure, it's a bunch of button mashing, but believe me it's fun.

Gauntlet Dark Legacy is one of the better ports of an arcade game on recent consoles, but if you really want the Gauntlet experience then I suggest going to the arcade. Dark Legacy is worth buying if you've got a lot of friends to play along with you, or if you have trouble getting to sleep at night. Despite its flaws it's a fun multiplayer game filled with non-stop action and lots of new additions that Gauntlet fans will love. Got some gamer friends coming over soon and some time to kill? Rent Gauntlet Dark Legacy.