A decent arcade beat em up, one of the better D&D games out there. An excellent collectors item.
The Dungeon & Dragons Collection features two different games, including Tower of Doom from 1994 and its follow up, 1996's Shadow Over Mystara. Graphically, Shadow Over Mystara is significantly nicer looking than Tower of Doom; the difference between the two is comparable to the change in look from Street Fighter II to Street Fighter Alpha. Sound-wise, you're better off keeping these harsh, tinny effects low in volume. Arcade games rarely have exemplary sound or music, and that's exactly the case here.
The most surprising aspect of the game is that, despite its use of the 4-Meg RAM Cart, loading times are horrendous, with mid-level battles occasionally pausing to let data stream in. It never becomes clear what exactly all the loading time is for, since the game levels aren't that big, and the enemies are fairly repetitious. Nevertheless, if you're a fan of these games, you'll endure it just the same. The bottom line is that, as a very basic scrolling hacker, this game is simply alright. It's not bad, especially if you have a friend to help you play, but you can hardly look at this game as anything other than average. It's a good thing that the controls are spot-on, or else it would have been straight to the bargain bin. For fans, however, it's a reasonable value, just as long as you don't expect to much.
Worthy note: The game is extremely rare and in somewhat high demand these days so expect to pay 100 dollars or more. My copy would run you about $164 with Ram cart.