Throughout the ‘90s, the beat-‘em-up genre was a dominant class both in arcades and on home consoles, with dozens—nay, hundreds— of titles for action fans to punch, kick, and 360-attack-at-the-sacrifice-of-some-health their ways through.

When I caught wind of the D&D games’ exalted status within the genre a few years ago, I picked up the elusive Sega Saturn collection at great expense, only to discover that I had indeed missed out on two of the genre’s all-time best games. In fact, if I were the marketing guy instead of the community guy, I might have pled a case for the slogan, “The best excuse you’ve ever had to ‘beat them up.’” I guess that’s why I’m the community guy.  

But it’s pretty darn cool that everybody can now experience these two games without moving to Japan, without succumbing to great expense, and with a whole bunch of new features like online play, challenges, “House Rules,” and of course greatly-improved visual quality.

But by now  you’ve heard  Chronicles of Mystara’s top-line pitch. Today I wanted to get into why these games are so outstanding within the beat-‘em-up genre, and as you may expect, it has a lot to do with the combat.

Without getting too granular, I think there are three major ways the D&D games set themselves apart from fellow beat-‘em-up titles in terms of combat: 1) bigger movesets, 2) an elaborate but manageable inventory system, and 3) meaningful character selection. All of these factors contribute to an extremely varied experience with great multiplayer potential and nigh-unprecedented replay value for an arcade title.

More Moves
Before even taking items and spells into account, each character class in both D&D games boasts an impressive number of core combat moves. Through different stick and button combinations, characters can attack, defend, counter, dash, aerial attack, rear attack, and perform a number of special moves. Shadow over Mystara adds even more moves such as the extremely useful, cancelable back-step, and character-specific specials with fighting game-style inputs (think hadouken). Skilled players will be able to weave all these abilities into momentum-filled combat that doesn’t grow stale.

Inventory
On top of all these core moves, each character can hold and wield a vast selection of items, magic spells, and secondary weapons. Wieldable items vary per character class, but all characters get some useful goodies, whether it be throwing hammers, burning oil flasks, or attack spells. Fighters can even equip a secondary short sword to dual wield swords!

Tower of Doom Inventory List  
Shadow over Mystara Inventory List  
(Lots more great resources over at arcadequartermaster.com !) 

These items greatly expand your combat options, and can be great for chaining impressive combos. Yup, I’m talking legitimate, frame-canceling craziness. Observe, with this amazing video from YouTuber crassus1 .

Meaningful Character Classes
Tower of Doom offers four playable classes: the Fighter, the Cleric, the Elf, and the Dwarf, while Shadow over Mystara offers six with the addition of the Magic User and the Thief. You’ll find that each one has distinct strengths, weaknesses, and quirks, making party composition a thought-provoking aspect of the experience—especially given Chronicles of Mystara’s online and local four-player support.

Shadow over Mystara’s Magic User, for example, does not have very strong melee attacks or good melee range, but his backstep is a quick and wide teleport, giving it the most defensive utility out of all the characters. In addition, many of his magic spells do incredible damage, making Magic Users a valuable asset for boss battles.

Other classes have specific moves that provide unique assistance to the team. The Cleric’s “Turn Undead” move will instantly clear the screen of all undead enemies, while the Dwarf can destroy treasure chests to generate even more treasure. Players will do themselves well to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each class when constructing their team.

For more in-depth combat tips, check out this FAQ from GameFAQer KazeYagami.

Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara releases digitally this June on Xbox Live, PSN, Wii U e-Shop, and PC for $14.99. Get hype!