I loved Gauntlet as a kid, despite the fact that it was the first game that seemed crafted to suck quarters directly from your pocket and into the machine. Health that constantly cycled down as you played didn't seem quite fair when you were 14, but where else were you going to get your multiplayer fix -- Rampage? I don't think so. We're not talking about Gauntlet however. We're talking about Nightcaster, a game that only bears a resemblance in style and gameplay, not in title. Like Azurik, Nightcaster's one of the more obvious genre slots for Microsoft's launch package, emulating large aspects of the game Gauntlet in the same way that Azurik takes pages from Soul Reaver's... reaver. But that's okay -- it's a launching pad for a game that gives you a dual analog reason to fight off darkness and evil, while putting four different schools of magic into your pocket to test out on all manner of beast. There's no warrior here, there's no valkyrie, just a little boy named Arran who's managed to get himself into a world-saving predicament.
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