Answering the prayers of fans, Capcom is finally bringing Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara and Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom to the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.
It’s been two decades since the debut of Capcom’s arcade beat ’em up Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom, and yet we’re still amazed that the concept produced not just a viable game, but a genuinely excellent brawler on par with the Final Fight franchise. If you think about it, there’s no reason the premise should have worked as well as it does. Dungeons & Dragons is traditionally played using dice and intricate character sheets, while Capcom’s brawlers have always been fast-paced action games. Yet, by carefully melding the two disparate styles, Capcom was able to create a miniature franchise that ate more of my quarters than bus fare and the laundry machine down the hall combined.
Sadly, once Capcom lost access to the Dungeons & Dragons license (after a mere two games), it appeared that Tower of Doom and its semi-sequel Shadow Over Mystara would be lost to the winds of time. Of late however, Capcom has been reviving a number of its older titles for modern digital distribution platforms like the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. Thanks to the success of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike: Online Edition and Marvel Vs Capcom 2, the firm has been slowly expanding the scope of its rehashing operation and it’s with great excitement that we’re able to report that both Tower of Doom and Shadow Over Mystara are reportedly headed to the XBLA and PSN.
That’s according to a new Siliconera piece, which claims that both titles will be officially unveiled at the upcoming PAX East conference. It’s currently unclear how these games will be packaged for digital distribution, but if we’re to go by Capcom’s recent history, we’d expect both games to be included in a single package with upgraded HD graphics, arcade-faithful gameplay and a host of bonus material specifically aimed at hardcore fans.
This news is particularly notable as Western gamers have rarely had the opportunity to play these games outside of an arcade (of which there are scant few left, and even fewer that stock esoteric Capcom beat ’em ups). Japan saw a compilation release of Tower of Doom and Shadow Over Mystara on the Sega Saturn, but given that console’s short lifespan, that particular release isn’t easy to find. Plus, while the Saturn game was quite good (especially if you owned a memory expansion pack), it wasn’t a perfect adaptation of the arcade games. The power of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 should negate any fears over how faithful the upcoming digital release might be. Now the only question is how much bonus content the company can jam into these titles and how well the games will perform in online multiplayer modes.
We’ll bring you more on this just as soon as Capcom issues official details.
Source: Siliconera
