Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara
If you’re thinking this is just going to be another double dragon game then like what Captain Tenneal likes to say on the show MXC: “Well, YOU’RE WRONG!!!”
This game incorporates some of the most advanced mechanics you’ve ever seen in any beat-em-up. And mind you these two games came out wayyyy back in 1996. Expect to see: Critical hits in your attacks, spell casting, combos, FOUR PLAYERS!, backstabbing, infinite combos (if you’re good enough), secrets, forked paths, different equiappable weapons, level ups, and unlockable in game perks such as arts, galleries, and even house rules to play around with.
– Real player with 598.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Online Co-Op Side Scroller Games.
Gather your party before setting forth! Or just yourself. That way you don’t need to see the disappointment in your friend’s eyes as you die to a kobold.
“BY THE ABYSS
- Fighter, every time he falls down. Every time.
Chronicles of Mystara is two ported games with some retro flair - Shadow Over Mystara, which is a cult classic beatemup which has as much accolades as Gary Gygax giving birth to the 20-sided die, and there’s Tower of Doom, which can come too.
They’re coin-op arcade games with a flair for the tabletop, giving you classes, items, branching paths, Tower of Doom even has effects for enemies failing saving throws. All of this makes for a game that’s novel, intricate by nature, and has earned its cult classic status.
– Real player with 28.7 hrs in game
Clan N
This game is fun to play. Gorgeous environments with a variety of enemies and bosses to combat. There is a awesome feature where you lock-on to the nearest enemy. This is a must-have if you’re into beat-em ups although there is platforming thrown in to add something different.
– Real player with 9.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Online Co-Op Singleplayer Games.
Clan N:
Japan, the land of the rising sun, has seen its fair share of trouble throughout centuries. During Medieval times, Japan had one of the most fearful combat units, known as the Samurai. Well, one of the Samurai lords during that time was spreading terror throughout the land by destroying all the villages and killing its people in order to acquire their lands. His name was Akuji! But a group of four skilful fighters, known as Clan N (of which Akuji was once a part) would face the tyranny of the Samurai Akuji and take back their lands. You are one of these amazing fighters, and we will be right behind you (a few miles behind you), cheering you on every time you take back a piece of our land. All hail the fantastic four of the Clan N!
*– [Real player with 7.7 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198003030375)*
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![Son of a Witch](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/539400/header.jpg "")
## Son of a Witch
Originally, I found this game on the the Nintendo store while browsing for local multiplayer games I could enjoy with my kids. I was drawn to it due to the above but also due to ts great art style and the randomness each game offered. Being an avid Diablo fan going on decades, this really appealed to me.
My three girls and I have a blast playing this and there are not a lot of buttons to remember so the basics are easy to pick up for younger children. I have beaten barbarian challenges with my 3 year old and shes even saved me! Although her favorite is the Alchemist so technically her "friend" saved me.
*– [Real player with 226.9 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198053350124)*
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Read More:
Best Online Co-Op Dungeon Crawler Games.
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All around a great game.
TLDR: Magic has 10x more potential than melee and archery. the +1% magic per cast potion needs to be scrapped.
My only gripe with the game atm is that magic can be massively overpowered late game. I have finished all 7 acts (the last being the desert) multiple times now as a magic user, and probably wouldn't have even needed to look at the screen to beat the final boss (which would be really hard as melee/archer).
The potion that gives +1% bonus magic everytime you cast a spell can be so easily abused. If you get it early on you can just hold onto a voodoo doll (or anything will a low magic cost) and spam it.
*– [Real player with 149.7 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197986452515)*
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![9 Monkeys of Shaolin](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/739080/header.jpg "")
## 9 Monkeys of Shaolin
A great, modern beat em up that dared to be different instead of relying purely on nostalgia and making a carbon copy of already existing games. This game is basically everything I wanted Streets of Rage 4 to be.
Positives:
- Decent story. (Not that stories in a beat em up ever mattered)
- Very fluid and satisfying gameplay. When you get the hang of the mechanics and skills, you can do some awesome combos, linking the different attacks and abilities together. The fact that you can attack in 360° instead of being forced to a 2D pane doing only left/right attacks is a welcome change. There is a bit of 'automatic lock on' for the moves to help with this, but you still feel in control of the character. Sending enemies flying and watching their rag-doll bodies fall/smash against the environment is never not satisfying.
*– [Real player with 38.4 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198051689156)*
Disclaimer: A copy of this game was provided by the developer.
9 Monkeys of Shaolin is a beat em up about a chinese fisherman/monk fighting the japanese pirates with a staff.
The main appeal is the satisfying, fluid and responsive combat. It has good skill expression with three different attacks that later get upgraded each with two different stances, a 360 degrees parry skill that requires good timing and can reflect enemy projectiles back at them and a dodge. Once you upgrade the attacks, you can fly across the screen with a kick and feel like a real Shaolin monk jumping and weaving attacks between multiple enemies. The use of magical seals disrupts enemies in an area that in my opinion make the game too easy even on the hardest difficulty. The enemies have a visual indicator, a brief shining light and take some time to execute their attack which usually makes them easy to defeat one on one. The only unfair element is sometimes ranged enemies shoot you from outside the screen. You will fight them in small groups in a locked zone until you defeat them and new enemies that need to be approached in a different way are introduced progressively. Finishing off the last enemy in a locked zone comes with a satisfying blow and slow motion.
*– [Real player with 11.6 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198022564688)*
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![Bake 'n Switch](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1080410/header.jpg "")
## Bake 'n Switch
There's lots of love and effort put into this game. The breads are super adorable!While you can play the game with 2 players, it definitely gets more fun if you've got a full party.There are a couple of levels that could be balanced a little better. In some you can get away with camp stacking the spawners which can get quite mundane. But you'll realize there's a wide range of difficulty once you play the stormy levels or try to complete each level with 3 coins.The highlights for me are the boss levels. My hands got real sweaty taking them on.
*– [Real player with 79.2 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197989888838)*
This game is deceptively difficult. How can so cute be so challenging?
The gameplay feels like a high bread (ha ha!) between Moving Out and Overcooked. Finishing levels is doable first try, getting 3 stars is a lot harder on many of the levels. Storm levels - geez, those are tough!
One thing I would love to see is adjusted star level scores for additional players (3-player should have a higher score needed for 3-star than 2-player).
Overall, an adorable game with challenging gameplay that feels like it will take quite a while to actually complete. Here's hoping there are 4-star levels when we get there.
*– [Real player with 8.0 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198030807571)*
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![Final Exam](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/233190/header.jpg "")
## Final Exam
Basically, buy it because it's cheap might eventually lead to Mighty Rocket doing an Obscure 3\.
Core gameplay is fun, the beat 'em up parts work pretty well, the characters are samey but have slight differences. Mostly, one "Always on" skill and some special moves, and the damage they deal with specific weapons. It's more fun with friends, but so is anything up to and including getting slaughtered by an ax-wielding maniac. Even the weapons are pretty samey, but it's fairly straightforward to start whacking enemies and never get touched, stringing S combos together in no time.
*– [Real player with 57.9 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198018518903)*
This game right here - 2.5D Side-scrolling PERFECTION, An absolute PERFECTION.
Plays like a dream, its flawless in almost every departement (the important ones :P) and if you like side scrolling games you will not be able to put it down once you start playing. And dont give up, like I have few years ago - when you unlock some skills, get better weapons and get some practice - it becomes unadulterated pleasure to play.
As Graphics goes, it looks absolutely beautiful for what it is, its cartoonish, but that fits soooooo much. Letter fonts, menus, post mission screens looks like you are in some comic. Reminds me of Batman Arkham Asylum style, and this one here is even better. It runs like a charm, no frame drops to speak of, not a single bug, glitch, crash…its just works...like and old school mercedes. Even when all hell is breaking lose on the screen, with explosions, enemies coming for all sides, up, down...nothing will come in the way of your fast reactions, and you will need quick dodging reactions here, especially on harder diff. levels, or when going for high combo counts.
*– [Real player with 24.7 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198057622074)*
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![Foul Play](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/244810/header.jpg "")
## Foul Play
So after checking the game and playing it completely,I think I can give a fair review of this game.
First of all, what you should expect when you play Foul Play:
You should like beat-em-ups with 2d sprites and all the cons that come with it (bad lineup,more "That should have hit"-moments).
You should like the general idea of a game having a theatre-like feeling.
However, you should not expect a hard game when playing. Elaboration on why later on.
Story: You control Sebastian Dashforth,who combined with his assistant Scampwick Steerpipe is presenting his life as a daemonologist on stage, re-enacting the main events of Dashforth's last 20 years. Not fearing to go into hand-on-hand combat he and Scampwick are fighting themselves through an lost city of egypt, cursed villages, underwater cities and a london in control of a cult.Fairly generous with the humor and honest (though you may not thank him for it) he will keep you interested to keep playing for a while.
*– [Real player with 24.3 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198055727011)*
Lot's of fun and action to be had with this enjoyable side-scrolling beat'em up!
Developed by Mediatonic and The Irregular Corporation, this game was released in 2013 and published by Devolver Digital. Devolver Digital has published games such as Shadow Warrior 2, Hotline Miami and Broforce. The developers have produced less well-known games to date.
The game is full of action. You can achieve combo multipliers of over 300+. That's a lot of consecutive hits!
You can only play as one character. You are basically an actor on stage with an audience. The more combo's and more hits you make on your enemies, the more your audience approval goes up and the quicker you can get the audience to fully approve your performance, the quicker you can unlock youir special move and unleash a lot of hits.
*– [Real player with 15.4 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198088093310)*
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![Sacred Citadel](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/207930/header.jpg "")
## Sacred Citadel
With Sacred Citadel there's a lot of fun to be had or at least enough here to distract you.
A pitfall of this game is the intermittent platforming sections. The game figures your level time into the level completion screen. This means you run almost everywhere while navigating screen to screen. I always felt as if I was flying into holes on accident and that it really broke up the flow of the game to slow down and carefully jump across smaller gaps. As someone who quite enjoys platformers this behavior could've been cleaned up a bit even though this is mainly a brawler style game.
*– [Real player with 51.3 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198078048528)*
There is a review says it dont save local co-op, that is untrue. It does save it but in a weird way. i at first i thought it didn't aswell (because of that uninformed review), but it does I'll explain how it works. This may confuse you but it is just a strange way of saving. Ok in local co-op you enter lets say you and other players, your name will be your steam name the person that joins you will be player 1 and 3rd person player 2\. As you progress through co-op local play your progress is saved to a file, but player 1 & 2 saves to a separate file specific to each person. So now lets say you playing solo sp when you go in you'll see what ever char you used leveled up to w/e you got in co-op, but the chars player 1 & 2 leveled up will not be leveled up, reason is as I explained above the progress is saved but for each separate name in its own file. So progress does save in local co-op just only way player 1 & 2 levels up and progresses is when they are being used in co-op. In vice versus case what ever char you, your steam name progresses in sp will not be usable for player 1 & 2 because like i said your save file and progress is specific to your name.
*– [Real player with 19.3 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197972464089)*
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![Streets of Rage 4](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/985890/header.jpg "")
## Streets of Rage 4
One of the best homages to old school beat em ups I've ever played.
*– [Real player with 507.3 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198042713728)*
It's fine I guess.
*– [Real player with 94.7 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198106156853)*
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![Braveland Knights](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1253610/header.jpg "")
## Braveland Knights
![](https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1253610/extras/bk_battle_mashup_wishlist_white.gif?t=1639045737)
Join the Heroes Guild and travel the path from a rookie to the hero of the kingdom. Head on a hunt for the vicious boss solo or with your friends. Your adventure will be randomly generated from hundreds of different events.
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1253610/Braveland_Knights/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1253610/Braveland_Knights/)
Once you sign up a contract to catch the villain, you'll head into an adventure. Each quest is created from hundreds of particular events, melding into a unique story. The Elves will reveal secret paths to you and the ordinary pub owner might very well turn out to be a werewolf.
![](https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1253610/extras/bk_encounters_en.png?t=1639045737)
![](https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1253610/extras/bk_choice.gif?t=1639045737)
* #### Become a knight
Energetic slasher in the best traditions of the old school.
* #### 4 player co-op
Destroy villains solo or have up to 4 players on the same screen or online.
* #### An endless adventure
More than a hundred events will make each adventure one of a kind.
* #### Choose a fighting style
A heap of various weapons and equipment from ordinary axes to runic staffs made of dragon's teeth.
* #### Rebuild the castle
Upgrade your guild castle to get bonuses before new adventure.
![](https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1253610/extras/bk_4player_en.png?t=1639045737)
![](https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1253610/extras/bk_coop.gif?t=1639045737)
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