Rising Star digs up Dungeon Explorer for DS and PSP
Like Gauntlet, but not quite
Say Gauntlet to gamers of a certain vintage, and despite all the ways in which Midway has since tried to besmirch the experience, their eyes will flicker with the happy memory of all-action battles in which different characters – Warrior, Wizard, Valkyrie and Elf – meshed in an almost perfectly co-operative manner, while a booming voice shouted out, "Remember don't shoot the food" or, "Valkyrie is about to die".
Sadly, Dungeon Explorer isn't Gauntlet, but the top-down, multiplayer dungeon slash-and-hacker comes pretty close. Recently re-issued on the Wii's Virtual Console, Dungeon Explorer was originally released on the NEC TurboGrafx-16, before being remade for the Sega CD. Now publisher Rising Star is bringing it to European handhelds.
Few specific details have yet been announced about these new handheld versions. Presumably the original characters – Fighter, Thief, Warlock, Witch, Bishop, Elf, Bard, and Knome – will be available, and special classes such as the Princess unlocked by playing the game.
A question worthy of more speculation is how many players the game will support. Both the original version and the Virtual Console version enabled five players, something that should be technically possible on DS and PSP.
There's plenty of time for revelations – Dungeon Explorer isn't due to be released until February 2008.
