X-Men
Arcade
Ah, the good ole days of the video game arcade. A lot of younger people will never know the excitement that went along with visiting these things. You'd walk in and be overwhelmed by all the flashing screens, you'd hear dozens of video game themes playing over one another, you'd see ecstatic kids rushing from machine to machine, dropping in quarter after quarter.
It was always an adventure coming to a video game arcade. No arcade ever carried the exact same games as the next one. Whenever a new game would come out, I'd always hold my breath when I walked in - wondering if they would have it in stock or not. It was always such a thrill when they did, and such a disappointment when they did not.
Back in the late 80's and early 90's you could find arcade machines all over the place. Chances are if I was in a place that had them, that is where I would be. If my parents took me to a restaurant and they had arcade machines, I'd be there. At a bowling alley, I'd be there. In a bar (yes, my parents took me to bars with them), I'd be there. Even at fairs and festivals I'd be in the arcade tent for the entirety of my stay.
In 1992, X-Men hit the arcades. That would put me at about ten years old. I was always a big X-Men fan as a kid. At the time, I actually had no idea that this game was coming out. I was on vacation in Florida. My family took a trip to Disney World. The kids and the adults split up and everyone went to do their own thing. I don't know if it is still there, but there used to be a giant arcade at the bottom of Space Mountain. After getting off the ride, I strolled through the arcade, checking things out. That's when I saw this game. It attracted me directly to it like a bright light attracts a moth.
Luckily I had an ample supply of cash on me. I played this game from start to finish, completely in awe the entire time. Over the next few years, I'd often see this game at arcades whenever I'd visit one. I'd always stop and take the time to play it. I loved it. I thought it was pretty much the best arcade game ever made.
As time passed, arcades went out of style and vanished from America's landscape. I moved on to bigger and better things, but it always kind of made me sad that I would never be able to play the X-Men arcade game again.
BUT THEN...
I was able to find this game available for digital download on the PlayStation 3. Looking at my trophy list, this was almost five years ago exactly that I first played this game. I played it, breezed through it, and collected all the game's trophies. It was a fun time, but a very short one. A few years later I played it with my friend Jeff over at his house. We beat it, we laughed at the game's horrendous dialogue, and we moved on. It was a fun time, but again a very short one.
I played it again just today for this blog. While this certainly isn't a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, I didn't enjoy it as much as I did in the past. I think the nostalgia factor of the game has messed with my head. A lot of times I will think back fondly to a game I played as a kid, and when I play it again in present time it is nowhere near as good as I remembered. This game kinda falls into that trap.
I just recently played Batman Returns for the Super Nintendo, and I found that game to be much better than X-Men. There is a lack of challenge here and a lack of depth to the combat that I had a really hard time overlooking. Everything is so simple and basic.
I'm just assuming you readers know all about this game. I apologize. This is a side scrolling beat-em-up in the vein of classic games like Ninja Turtles, Final Fight, and Golden Axe. This means that you move from left to right on a semi-3D playing surface. You can also move up and down to avoid foes and obstacles. Enemies are constantly coming at you and you must fight them off in order to advance in the level.
You have your choice of up to six different X-Men: Dazzler, Storm, Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Colossus. You start the game with three lives. When you exhaust all these lives, you have the choice to continue. You can either pick a new X-Men character or use the one you died with. In the arcade version, you have to put in a quarter every time you want to continue. In the PS3 version, you simply press start. You have an unlimited number of continues. This makes the game a lot less stressful and a lot easier. You don't ever have to worry about dying because there are no consequences. In the arcade, you bet you'd be worried about dying because depending on your skill level, dying could be a very expensive proposition.
There are only three buttons that you use in this game. Jump, punch, and your mutant power. Jumping is self explanatory. Punching is a little disappointing as there is no kick button, and your basic punch move is very repetitive. Each character has a very specific mutant power. Nightcrawler teleports around the screen and does damage to everyone he comes in contact with. Cyclops shoots his eye laser thing. Storm summons a tornado attack. Dazzler dazzles. Wolverine's confuses me because his mutant attack consists of shooting some kind of boomerang energy disc from his claws. When does that ever happen in the comics, movies, or the cartoons? Never, that I know of. Weird.
My favorite character in the game, though, was always Colossus. I don't know if he is stronger than the other characters or if its only a "placebo effect" because of his appearance. But I always pick him. I like his mutant attack too, as it is a good one to use when you are cornered by enemies. He explodes outwards as he transitions back and forth between his human appearance and his metal one. If you do this when enemies are near, it throws them as far away as possible, killing most of them.
The story line of the game is a basic and simple one. Magneto bad. Magneto take Professor X. X-Men track down and fight Magneto. X-Men win. But let's be real, no one plays this type of game for the story line. I have to point out though some of the game's questionable enemy quotes. "X-Men, welcome to die!!!" is an all time favorite of mine.
At the end of each stage, you square off against a classic (or not so classic in some cases) X-Men foe. Fan favorites like Pyro, the Blob, and Juggernaut make appearances. Of course, Magneto is the game's final boss. None of these battles are particularly difficult. Or maybe it just seemed that way because I had unlimited continues. I dunno. I am sure they felt a lot harder when precious, precious quarters were at stake.
Graphically, the game impresses with its bright colors and big cartoony sprite characters. All of the characters are well drawn and instantly identifiable with their comic counterparts. The stages may be a little rough around the edges by today's standards, but it does feel like you are navigating through a believable X-Men cartoon universe.
My main issues with the game are its short length, basic game play, and its extremely easy difficulty level. You can breeze through this in 25 or 30 minutes, easy. There is not a whole lot of incentive to go back and play again. As I said before, there isn't much depth to the combat. You punch and you use your mutant powers. You can jump kick, but I found that to be mostly a useless attack. There are no items, no weapons to pick up and use. Aside from mounted laser turrets and a few areas where you can fall off the map, there isn't much environmental interaction to speak of. So soon after playing a game like Batman Returns that had a lot of depth, I found this game to be quite lacking.
I find myself with the same struggle I've experienced the last few times I've written a review for a game that I used to love. If I was going purely by nostalgia factor and how I used to feel as a kid, this game would get an A easy. But if I'm going by my current feelings, it would get a poor score. How do I find the balance? Giving it a C always works. But hey lets throw a plus on there just for old time's sake. Plus this game earns bonus points for earning the ranking of #85 on my list of 100 greatest video games of all time that I wrote back in 2008. Looking back on it now, it is a godawful list. But still fun to check out, like a terrible B movie that you know sucks but are still entertained by anyway.
Here's a link if you want to check it out (X-Men is at the very bottom of the page):
http://survivorsucks.yuku.com/topic/26697/Rudy39s-video-game-rankings?page=6#.WZDoZbLyvrc
You're welcome in advance.
Overall:
C+
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