Gauntlet II for Gameboy is the black & white port from NES and other systems. For those not familiar with Gauntlet, the premise is simple. Choose a class (warrior, valkyrie, wizard, or elf) and make your way through about 100 levels of mazes and monsters, all while unlocking doors and finding treasure, and keeping your health up.
Each character has it's own strengths and weaknesses. The wizard is poor in battle, but his magic power is unmatched. The warrior is quite the opposite. The valkyrie and elf are versatile fighters, and decent spell-casters.
In Gauntlet, power-ups help you make your way through mazes. These include power-ups like temporary invulnerability and reflective shot, which allows your shots to reflect off of walls to hit foes. Food, keys, and magic are all at your disposal, but poison, acid tiles, fake exits, a ticking health timer, and the infamous Death (which cannot be killed by regular attacks) all stand in your way of escape. Bonus rooms are granted by meeting certain level requirements, which may be hinted at in the intro to a level.
Amazingly, this Gauntlet II game keeps all the levels, and is just as difficult as the console versions. Even the voices (Elf shot the food!) and sound effects are here, even if a bit lacking in quality. There is no music though. The graphics are another issue. While Gauntlet was never big on graphics in general, the Gameboy version's black and white graphics certainly don't help, and neither does their size (which is small). Controls are accurate, but slow. All the gameplay from the consoles is still here though. If you've never played Gauntlet before, or aren't into challenges, this game is not for you.
Basically, Gauntlet II for Gameboy is a good port of the classic Gauntlet games with some drawbacks. Overall though, for Gauntlet on the go, the Gameboy version is sure to satisfy.
