X-Men

This is one of my favorite licensed/comic book, let alone games for the "X-Men" franchise. This game is what really started it for the "X-Men" franchise in the video game realm and still goes strong to this day. It's also another childhood gem as I remember playing this game at the "Silver Coin" video arcade in what is now know as "Westfield Mall" in Tukwila, WA.

This game is one of the things that got me into my favorite comic book series of all time, back then when I was a kid I wasn't into "X-Men" as I was into other Marvel comics mainly "Spider Man" (had an arcade game and story for another time). It wasn't until this game along with the animated series and the rest they say is history.

The gameplay is solid, it's the kind you would expect from any beat em up game at the time, but I'm fine with that as I wouldn't want it any other way. Each have decent combo system as they have the martial arts moves to dispatch their enemies. But what really makes each of them stand out are the mutant abilities that are slightly accurate to what they have in the comics.

From Cyclops whom shots out a powerful wide beam heat vision that covers almost the entire room and could make Superman envious. Wolverine he has a swing wave with his claws much like with Hikaru's baton sword in the game "Strider" but a lot bigger and slightly more powerful. Nightcrawler he gains super speed as he just goes all over the screen doing damage to anything within his parameter. Yeah this is kind of strange at this would be an ability for "The Flash" and Nightcrawlers ability is to teleport but only within certain distances depending on what he sees and his environment. But the super speed was the only way they could come close to making the teleportation ability so I'm fine with it and it still looks cool all the same. But these powers by their nature are to be used for emergency only as you only carry a few energy globes, you can refill the meter but other globes are few and far in each level so don't waste them.

I think what makes this game stand out is in it's presentation and the opportunity it presented in gameplay.

The graphical presentation I think is very good, it really captures the comic art of the 80's decade of the series. This at the time was a dream come true for fans of the comic as they were seeing their favorite comic come to life. It kind of blew me a way a little at the time as it was one of the examples showing that making a good comic book to video game adaptation is possible.

From the backgrounds which look accurate to some of the locations in the comic series, one that's my favorite is the Savage Land which I always found interesting and is believe it or not a personal favorite location in the series. There are even cut scenes after you complete a level, the story that constantly develops as you play further, this also was cool because it really gave you the feeling you were reading another issue of the comic series, or you can say even watching another episode of the animated series. Though it's true the story took a liberty or two mainly Magneto using the Sentinels as flunkies, let alone the fact the Sentinels are reduced to human size. But this is expected with all video game adaptations, otherwise we wouldn't have a game, so I don't mind; let alone the size reduction on the Sentinels makes sense as being the same size as the "X-Men" makes them fight them off better, where in the comics they were always the size of "Kong" and "Godzilla" which never really made sense to me.

Like the character models for the enemies in which you have a decent variety of and even like the bosses which features the villains you know and love from the comics like Pyro, The Blob, The White Queen, etc. But of course, the main starts themselves the X-Men themselves that are accurate to the looks from the 80's comic decade.

Each of the character aren't really that different as they all have almost the same martial arts moves, from each other except in their designs, the only weak one in the roster is Dazzler, I know in the 80's she had some popularity but that didn't last and personally not a favorite of mine as she never stood out in the comic series for me; she wasn't a bad character but had a really has a lame ability. It should have been Jean Grey, Rogue, or Psylocke they would have been awesome and fit the group better, but oh well.

The other is of course, this game was one of the first that featured a wide screen and six player cabinet. This was awesome as there weren't many games that used the wide screen feature except games for the Taito arcade games like the "Darius" series, "The Ninja Warriors" and the underrated "Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga 3". I really loved seeing the video games in wide screen because it meant you had an expanded environment to work with but also gave that great feeling of how big the world in the game is and motivated me to play some more to see what more this expanded world held.

But of course there was the six player function where you can literally have six players all on the screen. This was truly mind blowing at the time because having six players playing all at the same time was unheard of; in a way this predates the multiplayer, party, and online play we have now where now we can have as many players in one game as much as we want. However, personally I still like having the old fashioned way because the people you play with are all physically in the same space your in and there is a sense of community when you all play on one arcade cabinet; heck even today as an adult sometimes at the pinball conventions when we find a six play cabinet my friends, wife, and I immediately gravitate to it and play it.

Of course, the music which is just great, as usual Konami always spins out awesome tracks and each of them feel right singing "X-Men" action. My favorite was always the first level which was just awesome as it just pumps you up for action right at the start and a track I sometimes listen to when I work out.

The only drawback of the game is that it can be a little monotonous, some of the fights even some parts of some levels feel like they kind of blend together. This is a fundamental problems most beat em ups are plagued with, but this is something I can easily get past as the levels do go by quickly so you don't have to worry about overstaying.

It would be awesome of they made a sequel to this arcade game like the recent "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge" game, but may 'be this sequel would be based on the 90s decade with the art being accurate to Jim Lee's style at the time. Have some other characters like "Gambit" and "Rogue", give the X-Men more variety in the combos, along with more variety in sub enemies and levels. Well it's a thought to consider anyway and why not as it's been a while since we've had another beat em up for any Marvel property.

Whether you're a fan of "X-Men", Marvel Comics, or even just a non-fan that is into vintage brawlers, then you can't go wrong with this excellent game.

Rating: 3 stars.