Dungeons and Dragons - Chronicles of Mystara (PC, Xbox, PS3, Wii U) review

[Silvergun X]

I didn't even realise this was getting a PC release!

This popped up on Steam completely unannounced yesterday while I was looking around the store. Bought it instantly as I was a big fan of the original arcade games.

It's a compilation of the two Capcom arcade games, Shadow over Mystara and Tower of Doom. These are some of the finest co-op beat-em-ups I've ever played, and they've both been ported with challenges, unlockables, and drop in drop out online play.

The online play is absolutely sublime, and uses GGPO (for the uninitiated, a method of synchronising online play with emulated games with almost lagless input). It's perfect. You can start a game by yourself and people online can just join whenever they like and play with you. At the very worst, when it's synchronising, you'll get things slightly jumping about but it's never unplayable unless someone's REALLY got an atrocious connection.

Finished a game of Shadow over Mystara, and got half way through a game of Tower of Doom. I'll fill out a few more details about the game when I'm not at work, but it's a brilliant port.

[J0e Musashi]

It's on Wii U too.

[teddymeow]

Totally buying this on PSN today.

[Silvergun X]

It's on Wii U too.

Seriously? Wish I'd bought it on that now as well.

[fuse]

Wouldn't mind hearing about if they've done much with the WiiU game pad. If not it'll be XBLA for me!

[J0e Musashi]

Seriously? Wish I'd bought it on that now as well.

Well technically it's out tomorrow, but you catch my drift.

['Press Start']

Wow, what a great suprise! I shall be downloading them on PS3 (pad preference for these games).

All we need now is Capcom's Aliens vs Predator and The Punisher then we will be well stocked for replayable side scrollers.

[J0e Musashi]

Wouldn't mind hearing about if they've done much with the WiiU game pad. If not it'll be XBLA for me!

You can select spells and items from the GamePad. It'll probably be slightly easier than the ring system, but not "Arcade Perfect". I only use the Pro Controller anyway, providing games allow it.

[Silvergun X]

Is it possible to drop items once you've picked them up?

One of the conditions for unsealing the Cursed Sword 2 in Shadow over Mystara is to let the Cleric in your team pick it up 8 times. If someone else has picked it up, how can you give it to someone else?

[Brad]

How much is this on PSN?

[Silvergun X]

Been playing a bit more of this on my lunch break. Combined with last night's experiences, great fun. Sad there's no Steam Cloud support for saves, having started this on my main PC then on my partner's laptop, the save data didn't transfer. Boo!

For those unaware of what the games entail and what they're about, I'll cover Shadow over Mystara as that's what I've got the most experience with:

4 players co-operatively. Beginning to End takes just over an hour, with multiple different paths and choices you can make along the way that make it brilliantly replayable. The game keeps track of how many continues you use, but unless you specifically use the ruleset that disallows continuing, you can continue as many times as you like.

You pick up loot, usable items etc. along the way, like a little dungeon crawler.

You can choose from one of six classes each with their own abilities - Cleric, Magic User, Dwarf, Elf, Warrior, and Thief.

Cleric is a melee class with high health that focuses on buffing the party and using healing spells. It's worth noting that having a Cleric in your party will help you with unsealing Cursed Sword 2, where the requirement is for the Cleric to pick it up 6-8 times. It will then turn into the Holy Avenger, a sword that will kill undead targets in a single hit.

Clerics can also press Attack and Jump together to cast Turn Undead, which will instantly kill any undead creatures on the screen. You get no EXP for this however.

Magic User is a spell focused character, brilliant at destroying bosses. Their physical attacks are weak, and their health is rather low compared to other classes, but they have a large amount of spells you can use and they're vastly powerful. Having a Magic User in your party is absolutely necessary if you intend to use 'Final Strike', a secret attack you can use on the final boss of the game...

Dwarf is a smashy smashy character. I don't know enough about what makes the dwarf different from other classes other than they're melee based, and I believe he can equip two handed weapons which no other class can? I'm not sure. Need to look into this one.

Elf is awesome, and the character you should be playing if you intend on going solo. A mixture between physical attacks and swordsmanship, as well as magic use. It makes taking bosses down MUCH easier, and her Down, Up+Attack combo is stupidly handy. She also has infinite arrows, so you can let everyone else go at the frontline and sit back spamming your bow attack / rapid fire.

Warrior is another melee character, main thing with him being he can dual wield weapons. Pretty cool but not solo focused. You can also turn your Spell button into a Guard button and start tanking for your team.

Thief is a fighter character focused on evasion, and stealing items. If you dash into an enemy and bump into them, you can steal an item from them which is kinda cool. They can also backstab by going behind an enemy and doing Back, Forward+Attack. Thieves can also open all chests without a key, and with a thief in your party, chests with traps in them are spotted and tagged.

It really deserves to be played with 4 people. Solo play does NOT do it justice. Expect to go through many, many continues until you learn the game inside out and learn to co-ordinate with your Cleric... It's very very difficult, nigh on impossible, to heal someone else if they aren't positioned correctly in front of you. It's frustrating when everyone else is just smashing things like complete anarchy. You'll get that in random groups or quick match games.

There's so, so much to the game and even after completion, there's reason to go through it again and again.

Now, time to learn about Tower of Doom.

[J0e Musashi]

Thief for me. Echoes my real-life backstabbing persona.

[Silvergun X]

I like the Thief Down/Up attack. Launches them into the air then throws burning oil down, burning enemies in a straight line.

Thieves, like elves, also have an infinite amount of slings, so you can also treat them like ranged characters and spam rock throwing while everyone's in the front lines.

If anyone wants to sort out a party on the Steam version, add Infinity Pig to your friends list and we'll get a game going!

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

How does the PS3 version look?

[CrispyXUK]

Wouldn't mind hearing about if they've done much with the WiiU game pad. If not it'll be XBLA for me!

You can activate spells and such on the gamepad.