Dan Geeks Out: Video Game Review #380: X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse

X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse

Super Nintendo

Nostalgia Factor:

Mop Up Duty rolls on, as we are nearly through the year 1994. Jurassic Park and The Adventures of Batman & Robin were the last two games I played, so I figured it would be appropriate to close out the year with another licensed franchise game - X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse for the Super Nintendo.

I've never played this game before, despite owning a copy of it. I probably picked this up over ten years ago and it's sat in storage ever since. I'm a big fan of the X-Men, and I really liked the Genesis X-Men games. Why I never chose to play this, I have no idea. Every serious gamer has a backlog of things they want to play someday, don't they? Well, someday finally came for me.

Story:

On Genosha Island, humans are creating Sentinels and other machines to combat the growing "mutant scourge". Many mutants have been taken prisoner within this facility. Professor Xavier sends in the X-Men to free the prisoners and destroy the facility's weapons. Each character has their own separate mission to complete that is important to the team's success. On the brink of success, it is discovered that evil mutant Apocalypse is attempting to take over the facility for his own nefarious purposes. The X-Men band together to take him out.

But we aren't done! Magnet, outraged over the events that occurred on the island, threatens to destroy it from above. After some Danger Room training where you fight the Juggernaut and a handful of other boss characters, you head into space to do battle with Magneto. In the end, the X-Men are victorious, but Magneto lives to plot against humanity another day.

Gameplay:

This is one of the most straightforward games I've played in recent history. Mutant Apocalypse does absolutely nothing to hide what it is - a 2D side scrolling beat 'em up. There are no frills attached here.

When you begin playing, you're given the choice of five different X-Men to play as: Gambit, Wolverine. Cyclops, Beast, and Cyclops. Each of these X-Men has their own unique stage that they play representing their role in the Genosha mission. Once you complete these stages, the game becomes linear, where it doesn't matter which character you pick, you get the same stages you would have normally until the end of the game.

Controls are very, very simple. You only use two buttons - attack and jump. You can use different, Street Fighter-esque button combinations to initiate special attacks. For example, the classic hadoken combo of down, right, attack makes Cyclops fire his eye laser and it makes Gambit throw his charged up cards. Other combinations like forward, forward attack are effective as well, especially with Wolverine and his lunge attack. Playing around and discovering different special moves is one of the best things about this game.

Each stage has a set beginning and a set ending point. Like most 2D side scrollers of its time, essentially all you are doing is starting on the left side of the screen and making your way to the right. Sometimes you go up or down depending on the changing nature of the landscape, but ultimately your goal is to always find the end of the level, which typically is a boss fight.

The actual stages of this game are pretty easy. Your typical enemy thug doesn't put up much resistance aside from being a punching bag. As you get deeper into the game, there are some more annoying enemies added like the jumping insect creatures and the enemy soldiers who teleport around the room. The real challenge of this game lies in its boss battles. You can't just go into each one and expect to smash your way through it with your fists. You have to pay attention and play strategically.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how similar this game is in its format to Marvel Super Heroes In War of the Gems, which I reviewed back in January of 2022. Everything about it is pretty much exactly the same, right down to its gameplay and its format. They are essentially the same game with two different skins. That said, this game came out first so it is the one that was copied. I can't hold that against it. Plus, I prefer the X-Men to the Avengers, so the theme of this game is more up my alley. When comparing the games side by side, I think I prefer this one over War of the Gems.

Graphics:

Visually, this game is really nice. It seems like many of the characters are modeled after their counterparts from the classic X-Men cartoon, which I can't complain about. It's a visual style that I find quite charming and a perfect representation of the X-Men in the 90s.

Sound:

I wish this game's sound was a little bit better. The music, while serviceable, is generic and completely forgettable in the long run. I played through this game twice before reviewing it, and I can't say I remember a single song from the entire thing. They used the character likenesses of the X-Men cartoon. I wish they'd borrowed from its music as well.

Overall:

Fine. That's the word that comes to mind when I think of this game. It's fine. It's not great. It's not bad either. It's okay. It's fine.

I think the game realizes it, too. It doesn't do anything it doesn't set out to do. This is a game where you control your X-Men character, you walk slowly through the stage, you beat people up, and you fight a boss character at the end of the stage. You do that for every level, the entire game. And that's it.

Although it's a simple and sometimes mindless game, I still enjoyed it. I can't in good conscience grade this game in the A or the B range, but I feel it is better than a C, which is just mediocre. C+ is the best I can do. Which is the exact same grade I gave War of the Gems. As I said, this game is slightly better than that one, but not significantly so to bump it up into the B range.

As I said, this game is fine. It's nothing to get too excited about, but if you are a fan of the source material you'll probably have a good time with this.

THE GRADE:

C+

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