Format: HuCard
Genre: Gauntlet Clone
Developer: Atlus
Publisher: Hudson Soft

Dungeon Explorer's areas are reasonably varied, with some dungeons taking on a midevil look, while others look high tech. Enemies are similarly varied. The problem is that the art work lacks any sort of character; it's extremely generic, almost like the kind of work you would see emerge from an "open source" game.

Like the art work, the music is really missing the mark from an ambient perspective. Unlike where Hiroshi Kawaguchi stepped outside of his normal genre and really nailed the RPG with his work on Mega Drive contemporary Sword of Vermillion, Tsukasa Masuko fails to make the similar transition. At least some of the songs are melodic and catchy, and the sound effects fit the game's formula well.

Even moreso than other Gauntlet-style titles, Dungeon Explorer plays almost like an RPG schmup, where the player is running around dungeons, dodging enemy projectiles, while unleashing a steady "bullet" stream of his own, wiping out enemies and their generators. Dungeon and overworld design are solid and pretty run-of-the-mill.

Dungeon Explorer is the definition of mediocrity. It's not a bad game, and it's certainly playable, even fun in stretches. Five player multiplayer is definitely a neat feature. But the title fails to achieve the kind of moody ambience that so many of its contemporaries succeeded in reaching. And even when viewed simply as an extension of older games like Dandy or Dark Chambers, the gameplay doesn't quite reach the same level of interest.