When comparing Tiny Brains vs Gauntlet, the Slant community recommends Gauntlet for most people. In the question“What are the best local co-op PC games?” Gauntlet is ranked 4th while Tiny Brains is ranked 47th. The most important reason people chose Gauntlet is:
Gauntlet offers full controller support that actually works extremely well for an action RPG. This makes for a good game to play on a Steam Machine or living room gaming PC.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Local play makes for good back and forth between friends
Cooperating with players/friends in the same room can be quite fun bringing back memories of console games of the past where friends are yelling at each other in order to solve the levels of the game. When finally completing a level the sense of exhilaration is something that can't be matched over the internet.
Pro Great for couch play
Tiny Brains offers full controller support on PC, which makes it easy to control on a Steambox in the living-room.
Pro You can easily play the PC game on a sofa with the included full controller support
Gauntlet offers full controller support that actually works extremely well for an action RPG. This makes for a good game to play on a Steam Machine or living room gaming PC.
Pro Bosses offer good bit of diversity to the gameplay thanks to requiring different strategy over the base gameplay
Different bosses require different tactics to defeat them. This creates a good change of pace from the regular hack and slash gameplay as differing tactics will need to be used.
Pro Good co-op options no matter if you want to play locally or online
Gauntlet has support for local and online 4 player co-op. Making for a game that works well for small groups.
Cons
Con Very short campaign
The campaign itself can be played through within roughly 4 hours.
Con Single player is taxing
Due to the mechanics of the game needing all 4 characters in the level to solve a puzzle the single player mode sees the player hot-swapping between characters quite often in order to advance. This gets old pretty quick.
Con Looks to be abandoned
There are bugs in the game that inhibit connecting online with other players. This has been reported multiple times on the games forums with no response and the last update for the game was in 2014.
Con Very repetitive gameplay
With a few exceptions, the gameplay and strategy is the same for the entire game. There is very little progression and very few new abilities. The game also seems to gets easier rather than harder, although the new Colosseum mode adds some challenge to the end game.
Con Locked camera
The camera is locked in a single position. This creates confusion while playing in a busy area, as the camera does not stay focused on the player’s character. While a locked camera made sense in the arcade or on home consoles, where only one screen was needed, it really doesn’t make much sense for online multiplayer.
Con Can be rather difficult
The difficulty level is way too high especially when playing with kids.
Con Requires controllers with XInput
You cannot play Gauntlet with PS controllers.
Con Wizard is complicated to use
The wizard character is complicated to use. He has nine spells that can be cast using a number of hard-to-remember button combinations. This results in very few people wanting to play as the character. For online matches, this means there are quite a few three-player games as no one wants to take the role of the fourth character: the wizard.