X-Men
Sega Genesis
Western Technologies Inc
© 1993
Genre: Action Platformer
It’s been said before, on this very blog: franchise games tend to be cringe-worthy. Once in a blue moon, clever developers realize that they shouldn’t make a game based on a franchise merely to sell games, but they ought to put some damn effort into it, and maybe check out the source material. Tapping into a long established franchise to produce a game that does both of these things is a rarity. Considering how old this particular comic franchise was, and that it had been dug into before (and after), it was unsurprising that the Genesis’ X-Men came to be.
![X-Men (U) [!]_005](https://3pstart.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/x-men-u-_005.gif?w=300&h=210)
Nightcrawler’s teleportation power is both exceedingly useful, and feels almost necessary in certain parts of the game to bypass irritating sections.
![X-Men (U) [!]_010](https://3pstart.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/x-men-u-_010.gif?w=300&h=210)
Every depiction of Gambit mangles the Cajun accent. Go youtube any of them to discover what I mean.
The current team of X-Men who comprise the roster in X-Men include the four protagonists and playable characters of the game:
Gambit – a Cajun ex-thief with the power to charge small objects with a dangerous unknown energy, his preferred projectile of choice comes in the form of playing cards. With his slick trench coat and metal bo staff, he is both stylish and deadly.
![X-Men (U) [!]_009](https://3pstart.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/x-men-u-_009.gif?w=300&h=210)
Did I mention that Gambits fighting style is stylish?
Nightcrawler – though this German mutant looks like a demon, he’s got a noble heart. With the power to teleport both himself and others, he is also a trained acrobat and large fan of the works of actors like Errol Flynn. His fighting style is faster and lighter hitting.
Cyclops – Rounding out the fearsome foursome, Cyclops is the American leader of the X-Men. Unable to control his optic blasts, he is cursed to constantly wear a special set of ruby goggles or glasses to keep his mutant power in check. His garish blue jumpsuit and slower movement speed don’t mean he is any stronger, but the ability to fire controlled blasts from his eyes more than make up for it.
![X-Men (U) [!]_015](https://3pstart.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/x-men-u-_015.gif?w=300&h=210)
I’ve tried to remain unbiased, but I hate Cyclops. Easily my least favorite X-man, and I couldn’t tell you good reasons why. He has so little favor with me that I was compelled to include this caption, despite having little to no relevance to the article.
The game was an action platformer that was, while enjoyable and with some innovations, a huge pain in regards to difficulty. It could be played single or two player, which was both a blessing and a curse by taking away characters available to you. Enemies were placed in annoying areas that made travelling across unfamiliar stages hazardous, and could often be a bit tough to dispatch without your mutant power. It was a 3-button game, making use of attack, jump and mutant power. A yellow bar represented your health, and a blue bar represented how much energy you had. While all X-men slowly regenerated their blue bar, Wolverine also replenishes his yellow bar, as part of his mutant power set. Power ups included the buffs for secondary characters, health bar fillers and mutant power fillers, along with keys. When a character dies, that’s it – they are gone from your roster. You can switch between your four heroes at any time, but you have to be extremely careful, and it’s not likely you’ll have them all to the end of the game.
One of the most rage-inducing features in a game includes the end of one stage, where a countdown begins. When I first owned this game, it took me a full year to figure out that the way to get past a particular stage (where you find the source of the virus in the danger room) was by pressing the hard reset button on the genesis ever so lightly to initiate a “reboot” of the danger room. Innovative? Sure. Boy, it sure was irritating to have a feature with no hint of what they wanted you to do. I only had figured it up by having given up on the idea I could get past this stage, and was resetting my Genesis to start the game over.
The games music was really catchy. I had forgotten quite how catchy the musical selection was. Composed by a gentleman by the name of Fletcher Beasley, the music used G.E.M.S. (Genesis Emulation Music Software), communicating directly from the game to the Yamaha synthesizer chip in the console itself. It gave the game a rich sound, both more complicated than the usual 16-bit music and an overall great soundtrack.
![X-Men (U) [!]_018](https://3pstart.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/x-men-u-_018.gif?w=300&h=210)
Wolverine is always a B.A.M.F. (not to be confused with the sound that Nightcrawler makes when he teleports).
Oh god…I forgot about the hard reset during the game. I ended fighting that same battle…lost two weeks to it.
The sequel was much better, and a lot more fun to play. They improved the mechanics, level design, and most importantly, how the mutant powers were handled.
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I did enjoy the sequel, but I’m a glutton for punishment. I just liked this one so much!
That $#&*ing reset though. Seriously, the most irksome thing about the game.
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