DESCRIPTION

Released into the arcade in 1993, Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom brought all of the creatures and classes from TSR's popular role-playing series into a genre established by Double Dragon and Final Fight. A sequel named Shadow Over Mystara followed in 1996, refining some of the elements and adding new character classes to choose from.

Capcom has released both of these games in a single package for Saturn owners in Japan. Each features a similar style, with weapons-based fighting reminiscent of Sega's Golden Axe. In both games, players have four classes to choose from: fighter, cleric, elf, and dwarf. Shadow Over Mystara features some new classes, such as the thief and the mage.

Characters sport a variety of weapons, including staffs, clubs, axes and swords, and the general thrust of gameplay involves a single player or party hacking-and-slashing their way through hordes of smaller creatures before taking on larger bosses such as trolls, gryphons, or the notorious dragons.

Each game has an items and magic system, as well. Items, like arrows, oil-bags, and hammers, can be selected from and hurled at enemies, and the magic users in the game can use more powerful spells. Shadow Over Mystara focuses more on this facet of gameplay, as it has the mage class, which is primarily designed for this purpose. Likewise, the clerics can refresh their parties with health magic.

Each game also features multiple paths to journey through, although the second title lets all players choose their direction on a percentage voting system. At the end of each level, characters will use the experience they gathered in battle to raise levels and put the treasure towards buying items and spells in the town shop.

Dungeons and Dragons Collection is a two-disc set, and supports two players simultaneously. It is officially supported on the Japanese Saturn only, and requires a separate 4-meg RAM cartridge to play. ~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide