Capcom used to make some of the most kickass beat-em ups in the arcade. What I mean by beat-em up is that you have a side-scrolling landscape, a collective of heroes and three buttons for punch, kick and jump – the rest is up to you and three other gamers to hash out. While games like Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and Dungeons and Dragons – Tower of Doom gave you cool moves and combos, Shadow over Mystara did you one better and gave you immersion. The developers took all the cool elements from the first Dungeons and Dragons, shot it full of steroids and attached machine gun turrets to it. That is how over this game is compared to the former beat-em ups by Capcom. We still play that game till today.

What makes it good?
It has everything we want in a Dungeons and Dragons game, sped up to make a run at a stage feel like a campaign from the board game on speed. The elven female hones over 12 spells all from manipulating a couple menus that appear around her midgame. So while the massive Cleric is bludgeoning a Kobold with his mace, she is able to throw a magic missile and if she wants to get down and dirty, pull a broad sword and lay into it similar to the warrior. The master magician pulls down spells which affect the entire stage, walks like he has a pair and makes a player feel good to be using a typically squishy class. The creatures use tricks of their own to get over on you, the bosses take smarts to kill and the levels are large and expansive.

If there is ever a game that needs to be tried by any of you wanting to see how we gamed back in the 90s then you need to look for Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow over Mystara. It is a game that myself and Shinzo reminisce on till this day because it is such a fun multi-player experience we never want it to end. Here is a dose of what the gameplay looked like: