Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara

I bought it to play with my brother and we had so much fun. An incredible game to play with friends. HIGHLY recommend. Pro tip: if you die, press select when going for a revive. It allows you to switch your character outfit.

I think this is a great piece of history for anyone who loves Mystara. But as a game, it did not age well. I've seen comments like "this should've been more popular" and after finishing Tower of Doom and Shadows Over Mystara, I know why it wasn't more popular. The game tries very hard to make you spend more $$$ for tokens, from an arcade perspective. A lot of enemies can attack you out of your range. A lot of them also attack faster than you can react. Some of the grab attacks are either too fast or the hitbox is way too big (you get grabbed even outside the enemy's hands). Some attacks are unblockable. In boss fights, there are always infinitely-respawning small fry to pad out the difficulty. Some bosses will just rush to your face, be unstaggerable and hit you. Some fireball attacks will hit you anyway even if you literally just dodged the animation. Some boss attacks can hit the entire arena. Even the hardest bosses in Elden Ring will give you a chance to see the incoming attack and at least attempt a dodge or block. That doesn't even happen here. I watched the top players of this game on YouTube and they straight up use exploits because engaging with the combat as-is is jus…

It's a very solid classic sidescroller beat 'em up. Levelling systems, very distinct character classes, branching paths, secret areas, randomized equipment drops... it's a robust little experience.

This is a really good game. Golden Axe was my favourite arcade beat em up game growing up but it doesn’t hold up quite as well as I remember. These two arcade titles are like Golden Axe but with a bit of extra complexity. There’s a story of sorts, branching paths, an inventory and secondary weapons, but it’s all done in such a way that it still plays like a classic arcade game. There’s only one thing to take issue with and that’s the menu and pause music. It’s an annoying loop that’s literally two seconds long and doesn’t even cleanly loop. And it can’t be turned off. You have to go into the file system and create a text file with the same name and delete the original. It’s genuinely baffling how they could release a polished port of this game with a lot of options and then have the most maddening music play on a short loop. It feels like it’s deliberately made to annoy you. In any case, easily fixed and the rest of the game is great, but just an insane design choice right there.

One of the GOATS

Probably the best beat em' up I've ever played. The characters have so much depth to their combat, with unique combos, movement, and abilities. Branching pathways and tons of secrets give it massive replayability. Highly recommend to anyone who likes 2d action games.