While Neutopia was content with dressing itself up in nice, cartoony graphics and performing a fairly uninspired Zelda-imitator shtick, Dungeon Explorer found a way to murder the classic from which it borrowed its fundamental play mechanics. Ironically, DE's massacre of Gauntlet had little to do with the adventure elements it added to the mix (as it really doesn't feature much of a narrative); rather, it established its superiority by refining the action aspects it mimicked. As in Gauntlet, players view the proceedings from an overhead perspective and launch swords-and-sorcery-themed projectile attacks as they dash about labyrinthine environments. But there is no barreling through enemy lines here; one can't apply the tried-and-true Gauntlet stratagem of lowering one's head and plowing through armies of grunts and ghosts (in what designers laughably dubbed "melee combat"). Hit-point totals in DE are never stratospheric, and progress is best made methodically. Yet, combat is heavy, and the opposition, relentless, making the game one hell of a success as an action-based TurboChip.