I am lucky enough to have grown up with video games. The first cartridges I ever owned for the original Nintendo Entertainment System were Ninja Gaiden, Super Mario Bros., and Mega Man 2. Aside from being 8-bit games created by iconic developers and studios, these 2D side-scrollers share another feature: they are all brutally difficult.
A vocal minority of gamers feel that games today are too easy. Regenerating health, infinite lives, and overpowered main characters are the usual targets for their aggression. Dark Souls has become the poster child for difficult games as it demands caution, patience, and skill.
To all you gaming masochists out there: Today is the day for you to put your money where your mouth is. Gear Gauntlet has been released, and it’s got your number.
Gear Gauntlet is a 2D, side-scrolling, puzzle game that is incredibly unforgiving. I am usually not the biggest fan of difficult games. I like to enjoy my minimal time with games, and replaying the same level over and over again is not a draw for me. However, I was excited for Gear Gauntlet after watching the release trailer. The developers, Drop Dead Interactive, were proud to announce that this game has no story, no bad guys; you just play. My only worry was that the experience would feel stripped down or too minimal. That is not the case.
The gameplay is very simplistic in its chaos. You play as a small gear that has to—surprise—run a gauntlet. You begin every level by moving to the right. Soon you meet blocks that correspond to the colors of the Xbox One’s face buttons. When you meet a green block, you must hold down A to smash through them. Each face button has a matching block color that stops your path if you do not press the button in time. You also move your cog up and down to choose one of multiple branching paths. Each path has separate obstacles and collectibles.
Even though there are many ways to finish the level, there is only one right way. As you progress through the levels, you collect coins that have different values. There are bronze, silver, and gold coins. There is also a hidden gear in each level that gives you a bonus when you collect it.
So how does this all wrap up? The first time you play a level, you will inevitably die as you pick the wrong path and get stuck on blocks or get chewed up by wall saws. Upon your death, you instantly teleport back to the beginning of the level, or to a checkpoint that you have reached. Once you get the path down, you must collect every gold coin and the secret gear without dying. Unless you execute each of these elements flawlessly, you will likely be greeted by a giant “F” ranking at the end of the level.
This is why Gear Gauntlet is brutally hard, and also one of my major issues with the game. The game uses the Japanese style of score ranking with “F” being the lowest score and “S” being the best score. The problem is that the “F” ranking doesn’t stop you from progressing. I finished the entire game getting the worst rank in just over an hour. If your only goal is to reach the end, there is not really anything keeping you from doing so; if you want to get all of the achievements, however, you will have to replay every level over and over again while memorizing every path and pattern and employing split-second reflexes. I was unable to obtain even a single “S” ranking in my first 10 hours of play. Collecting every gold coin, the secret gear, and doing it without a single death proved too much for me. So again, the difficulty is brutal if you are a completionist.
The mechanics of Gear Gauntlet are perfect. Every death felt like it was my fault. Although the salt did rise on many occasions, I learned and improved. The repetitive nature of these levels calls for an earworm soundtrack like Mega Man or Tetris to help keep players engaged, and unfortunately, Gear Gauntlet’s is just not that impressive. The visuals, on the other hand, are stunning. While the foregrounds are mostly just blocks and gears, the backgrounds are vivid and stunning. My eyes never got tired from looking at the same screens for hours at a time. My final complaint is that the game is a little short. There are only 4 worlds with 10 levels each. There may be bonus levels if you get all “S” rankings, but I can neither confirm nor deny their existence as only 1% of the population may ever see them.
Summary
Gear Gauntlet reminds me of a mixture between Super Meat Boy, Marble Madness and Tetris. The developers knew exactly what kind of game they wanted to deliver and knocked it out of the park. The hardcore completionists will enjoy their broken controllers as they dodge and weave their way through the gorgeously imagined levels. If you are not Gendar the Barbarian and you enjoy games as an escape, just finishing all the levels is a fair enough challenge. Gear Gauntlet is worthy of your time.
Joshua was a regular ICXM contributor between 2016–2017, publishing 42 articles across game reviews, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative.