An unusual coin-op made by Capcom in 1991, composed of three different games among which the player could choose: a Platform Game (Midnight Wanderers: quest for the Chariot), a Shoot 'Em Up (Chariot - adventure through the sky) and a Puzzle Game (Don't Pull). Strangely enough, Chariot was also the direct sequel to Midnight Wanderers.
Since Don't Pull has no plot to speak of, here's the story behind the world of Midnight Wanderers and Chariot: the demon Gaia stole the legendary Chariot of Light, symbol of the Kingdom of Ashtar, and turned all the inhabitants of Ashtar into wooden statues. Lou and Siva, the wanderers of the title, are the kingdom's only hope: they must enter Gaia's castle, defeat the demon and use the magical Card of the Dawn to re-awaken the Chariot. After having recovered the artifact, Lou and Siva must use it to fly into the sky and save the princess of Ashtar who was kidnapped by Gaia's superior, Lar.
The game(s) was ported to Sega Saturn and PlayStation in 1998, and later included in Capcom's Classics Collection for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Most recently, the game has also seen a rerelease as a part of Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium in 2022, available as a pre-order bonus for Capcom Fighting Collection. Lou and Siva made only a few appearances in subsequent Capcom games, most notably in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes as helpers. Strangely enough, both of them also made cameos on the cover of issue #77 of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics).
Both Midnight Wanderers and Chariot provide examples of:
- Defeat Equals Explosion / Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: In both Midnight Wanderers and Chariot, normal enemies explode when defeated and defeated bosses explode repeatedly. Balgoss also falls apart.
Midnight Wanderers provides examples of:
- All Trolls Are Different: The most common enemy type, here they are very goblin-like rogues.
- Assist Character: In Midnight Wanderers, you can pick up three different creatures who will follow you around and attack when you do: a little flame that breathes fire, a ghost that shoots a ground-following beam, and a little black blob that gains energy balls as you move that home in on enemies (very similar to the cleric in Magic Sword)
- Automatic Crossbows: Lou uses one, shaped like a gun.
- BFS: The third boss, Dougar, uses a huge sword that he tries to stab you with.
- Big Bad: Gaia, the god of the earth itself.
- Breath Weapon: The flamethrower guy in the Terror Twins duo and the fat frog-like Mook both attack by breathing fire at you.
- Crossover: Gaia and Laru (swordsman from the Terror Twins) appear in the quiz game Adventure Quiz: Capcom World 2. In Capcom's Crossover shooter game Cannon Spike, the character of Shiba Shintaro is based off Siva. Lou also appears as one of several Assist Characters in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes.
- Clothing Damage: Just like in Ghosts 'n Goblins, a more well-known Capcom production, getting hit once in Midnight Wanderers doesn't kill you, but strips you to your underwear. One more hit and you're history, though.
- Degraded Boss: The flamethrower guy from the Terror Twins and Dumpty return as generic enemies in the later stages.
- Denial of Diagonal Attack: You can aim up and down, but not diagonally.
- The Dragon: Moeban, a sun-like demon who is Gaia's right hand man and the penultimate boss. He is often seen ordering the other bosses around.
- Dual Boss: The second boss are a pair of skie pirates, fittingly named, the Terror Twins. The Dumpty Mini-Boss may count as well.
- Dual Wield: Siva, who duel wields some sharp knives.
- Dumb Muscle: The first boss, Balgoss. A huge terrifying giant that is nevertheless quite dim-witted, making him easy to outmaneuver.
- Evil Laugh: Some Mooks have a comic book-like "HA HA HA" over their heads while attacking you.
- Funny Animal: The frog in the intro that gives the heroes the summoning card.
- Gaia's Vengeance: A rare case where Gaia herself (or himself in this case) is a purely malevolent being and is attacking more out of a hunger for power than actually protecting the environment.
- Grandpa God: A mysterious though highly benevolent spirit that looks like this appears leading the forces of good at the beginning and gives the Midnight Wanderers special chariots in the ending, leading up to the sequel.
- Green Hill Zone / The Lost Woods: The first stage is a big lush mystical forest.
- High-Altitude Battle: The Terror Twins are fought aboard a flying machine.
- Inexplicable Treasure Chests: They come out of the ground and are dropped off by friendly fairies.
- Playing with Fire: The Firestorm helper, it will set enemies on fire with its flaming breath.
- Recurring Boss: Balgoss and Dougar are fought again in the last level, revived by Gaia.
- Recycled In Space: Ghouls n' Ghosts in a magical kingdom.
- Shout-Out:
- The Midnight Wanderers title is written in the iconic, red-and-yellow Indiana Jones font.
- Balgoss has a splitting jaw that looks like the one Predator has.
- Taken for Granite: Instead of stone, everyone in Ashtar is turned into wooden statues by Gaia's magic.
- Villainous Demotivator: Gaia threatens his minions just as the Wandereres are reaching the top floor.
- Waddling Head: Dougar is just a head with a very long arm.
- Western Zodiac: Stage 5 has a building with a circle of the signs of the zodiac, surrounded by a circle with unknown symbols.
- When Trees Attack: Golem Wood, the first Mini-Boss.
Chariot provides examples of:
- Asteroids Monster: One enemy consists of a pair of clouds with lightning in between. Destroy one and the other splits into four clouds.
- Backup Twin: Possibly in the case of sixth boss Alcazar, which is identical to Midnight Wanderers Moeban.
- Big Bad: Lar, a mysterious sun-themed spirit who was Gaia's superior.
- Body Armor as Hit Points: The armor powerup gives you an extra hit point.
- Dual Boss: Unsurprisingly Gemini, the third boss, is this. Two huge maidens who start beautiful, but steadily deteriorate into gruesome skeletons.
- Energy Weapon: Hypnos shoots lasers from both his ends and eyes.
- Floating Continent: The scenery in Stage 06 shows several chunks of land (and castles) floating around.
- Giant Enemy Crab: The fourth boss, Cancer, is naturally a giant crab. In this case a giant flying enemy crab.
- Inexplicable Treasure Chests: These ones fly with little bat wings.
- King Mook: Aeolus is a boss version of the cloud enemies, and Hypnos is a boss version of the moon enemies.
- Losing Your Head: Halfway through the boss fight, Lar loses his body and becomes a flying sphere-throwing head.
- Man Behind the Man: Lar was behind Gaia's stint.
- Mini-Boss: The trio of big-gun totting techno-devils Bazz, Dazz and Jezz. Also a sort of Recurring Boss, as they are mostly Palette Swaps of each other.
- Non-Indicative Name: The Chariot is more like a hang-glider.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Without the aforementioned armor powerup, you die in one hit.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Bosses are named after either deities (Aeolus, Hypnos) or zodiac symbols (Gemini, Cancer, Sagittarius).
- Schrödinger's Player Character: Siva only appears in the ending in a singleplayer game.
- Shows Damage: The moon enemies deflate as you shoot them.
- That's No Moon: Second boss Hypnos
◊ appears to be some crescent-shaped, steampunk-ish creature shooting lasers.
Don't Pull provides examples of:
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's a puzzle game where you only can PUSH blocks (think like Pengo), so what do you expect?
- No Plot? No Problem!: Unlike the other games, Don't Pull has no plot.
- Punny Name: The player characters are named Don and Pull.
