X-Men

X-Men

Year Of Release: 1992

Studio: Konami

Description

Another amazing scrolling beat em up from the guys at Konami is X-Men! X-Men is known for having a huge arcade cabinet. There was a standard smaller arcade version, but the one most people remember is the huge six player cabinet. Each of the six playable characters has their own joystick and the screen thanks to the aid of a mirror and double monitors has just a huge game screen. Until you have actually seen it, it’s impossible to understand just how large the 6 player X-Men cabinet is.

One common mistake that people make about the X-Men arcade game is that they think it is based on the very popular animated series, The Uncanny X-Men which is actually regarded as one of the greatest, Marvel animated shows of all time. This arcade game is actually based on a pilot for a new series called The Pryde Of The X-Men. This pilot has been released on VHS and DVD over the years, but the show was never picked up and turned into a series.

The game captures the look and the feel of The Pryde Of The X-Men very well. There is some great voice acting, even with the classic line from Magneto “Welcome to die” which has amused gamers for over two decades now. From a presentational point of view, Konami just knocked this game out of the park just like they did with their work on the Ninja Turtles, Simpsons and Bucky O Hare licenses.

The game play is that of your typical scrolling beat em up. You have a choice of six characters in Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Dazzler and Storm. Each character can punch, kick and do close up melee attacks such as throws. Each of the X-Men also has their own mutant power which causes major damage in some cases to all the enemies on the screen! But use of your mutant power comes at the expense of your health so using it sparingly and wisely is the key to progressing through the game. You make your way through very well designed levels taking on various enemies with Sentinels being the most common enemy that you will face. The game also has many classic X-Men villains play the role of bosses such as Pyro, Blob, Juggernaut, and Mystique to name a few. One of the really cool aspects of X-Men is that when you are playing it in co-op you really do have to watch your buddies back.

Current High Score: 830 by Bill Toups

Related Titles

X-Men was a very popular arcade game, but it would never get a follow up. As a matter of fact only the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would get a sequel to their Konami arcade game leaving X-Men, Simpsons and Bucky O Hare as standalone games. The next time we would see the X-Men in arcades would be in their one on one fighting game X-Men: Children Of The Atom.

After X-Men: Children Of The Atom, Capcom would make their first fighting cross over game with X-Men vs Street Fighter. Which would evolve into the Marvel vs Capcom series that is still going to this day.

As LJN had the rights to make games based on the X-Men for the home systems the game was never given a port to the Super Nintendo or the Sega Mega Drive. Gamers would have to wait until 2010 to play the game in the comfort of their own homes as then the game was released as a downloadable title for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. This version lets you play either the American or the Japanese version of the game.

A little under a year later the game would make its way to the iOS. Despite using touch screen controls the game plays very well and was very well received by fans of the original arcade game.