14 DAY TRIAL // 
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara is a modern repackaging of two classic Capcom made and published titles, Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom and Shadow over Mystara, which are widely considered as some of the best beat’em ups to launch on arcades.
I have fond memories of playing Golden Axe on arcade machines for many hours before I was 10, and I came to the new Capcom release expecting something similar in many ways, but I discovered a game that was, from a lot of points of view, way ahead of its time.
At its core, there is a beat’em up, a game where you choose a character and then proceed to use the various types of attacks and movement in order to evade attacks from an assortment of enemies before taking them out with combos and special powers.
It’s frantic, engaging and sometimes infuriating because, initially, these types of games were designed to convince players to put in just one more coin and continue to fight the boss that finally took them down.
Tower of Doom is the closest to this idea and I seriously considered it no better than Golden Axe, although I liked the way they used traditional Dungeons & Dragons monsters and the variety of the levels and the enemies.
But Shadow over Mystara is a different beast altogether, a game that understands that choices, rewards and replayability are key to long-term success even for this fighting-focused genre.
There are more spells to use, more special abilities to employ at critical points and a much more complex world to explore.
I even wondered where the various branches of the storyline led, although it’s unlikely I will play through the game again to find out.
Even the plot is somewhat appealing and I would like to see some fans try and take the core points and recreate them using a modern action role-playing engine, such as Dragon Age or The Witcher.
The biggest advantage of the Dungeons & Dragons ports is that the player has unlimited virtual coins to push into the games in order to continue, which eliminates much of the frustration that arcane cabinets generated.
Sure, you might feel like a wimp for dying twice while fighting the same boss, but actually getting to finish the game is something that rarely happened in the old days.
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara can be played solo, but both of them shine when more players cooperate in order to take out enemies and reach their goals, combining classes and item use in innovative ways.
Gamers can get a friend and play a local game or they can search for partners online, with a set of options offered for acceptable ping and delays.
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara looks good considering the age of the titles included, but some modern gamers might be unable to adjust to the jaggy movement and the bright colors that were staples of beat’em up design.
The sound design will also appeal to arcade lovers and all you need is a few shouting friends in order to recreate the entire atmosphere.
The modern version of the two games also comes complete with cheats that the gamer needs to unlock in order to activate and some more art assets for fans to explore.
Capcom also introduces a meta-progression system for both Tower of Doom and Shadow over Mystara for those fans who need to feel they completed all the challenges in the re-release.
I played Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara on the Xbox Live service from Microsoft, but the package is also available on the PlayStation Network from Sony, the Nintendo Wii U and the PC via Steam.
With Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, Capcom is banking on the nostalgia of players to make money, but this time around the two-game package is worth it for the quality of the ports and the original experiences they make available for modern audiences.
