Mage Gauntlet Review

Mage Gauntlet is a fast-paced action RPG with an excellent 2D-pixel art style and a fittingly retro soundtrack. Its lengthy main quest follows the adventures of plucky adventurer Lexi as she battles her way through crypts, caves, orc-infested forests and plenty of other fantasy environments. The virtual button controls work like a charm. To move Lexi, players simply have to drag in any direction on the touch screen. Mashing an "attack" button swings her equipped weapon, and at any time the action can be paused to cast magic spells.



Mage Gauntlet's developers name 90s action RPGs like Secret of Mana and Zelda: A Link to the Past as their primary influence, and it shows. The fast-paced combat feels great, and it's not uncommon for later stages to throw a couple dozen enemies at you at once. But unlike those SNES classics, Mage Gauntlet is essentially all combat, all the time. There is no puzzle-solving; leveling and equipment options are equally light. This makes Mage Gauntlet feel a little bit more like a gameplay gauntlet than I would prefer. Fighting off the enemy hordes is satisfying at first, but over time it begins to feel a bit repetitive.



Mage Gauntlet packs a ton of content into a tiny $2 download – at one point I thought the game was winding down only to realize I was halfway through. The action always remains silky smooth, even with a screen full of zombies, and controlling Lexi through the zombie horde is a cinch. Genre fans should snap it up immediately. But despite the rock-solid combat, Mage Gauntlet lacks a quest system, item shops, towns, an overworld --most RPG staples have been excluded, presumably to "streamline" the experience. Gamers that don't have fond memories of action RPGs from years past might find Mage Gauntlet to be a bit of a grind.

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