Games:
X-Men
- Platform: Sega Game Gear
- Release Date: 1994
Game Description
X-Men is a side-scrolling action game starring the mutant characters from Marvel's comic book series. Players start off with a choice of eitherIf one of the team members dies on a level, players lose that member, but can continue the game with the other X-Men available to them. The game ends when players have lost all their X-Men characters. Consequently, players start off with the equivalent of two lives in the game, and earn one more for each level completed.
The X-Men each have a health bar and a power bar. The health bar is diminished whenever the character takes damage from enemies, traps, or from falling, while the power bar decreases as characters use their special mutant powers. Players can replenish their characters' health bars by picking up hearts and their power bars by picking up X icons.
Each of the X-Men team members has his or her own special mutant power, ranging from claws to energy blasts. When activated, pressing the punch button uses the power. Powers can be activated or deactivated at any time in the game, although if a character's power bar is empty, that character cannot use his or her power. ~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Review: Enjoyment
There's not a lot of depth to the gameplay, but the straightforward action is enjoyable. ~ Kyle Knight, All Game GuideReview: Overall
X-Men for the Game Gear is a simple side-scrolling action game. There are no hideously intricate puzzles or incredibly deep storylines. Instead, you just walk from one place to the other, jumping anything that needs to be jumped and beating anyone that needs to be beaten. This is actually quite enjoyable in its own way, as a throwback to when games were simple and straightforward.X-Men has quite detailed character graphics for a portable game. The X-Men team members are drawn with many of the details of their comic book counterparts intact. When Wolverine pops his claws out you can see three individual and clearly distinguishable claws. But while the character art manages to capture their subjects' details, they're a bit off as to the characters' spirits.
Enemy characters also have a good amount of detail, though they tend to suffer from the clone syndrome -- every enemy on a stage looks the same as every other enemy. The stage backgrounds are decently drawn, with more than enough detail to keep them from looking sparse. Despite the characters' small sizes, or perhaps because of it, the game's animation sequences look good even though they're composed of only a few frames for each movement. Screen scrolling is also very smooth.
The game's music is played at a frantic pace, like a child's hysterical whining. There's actually a good song or two in there, but it's been sped up so much that it becomes hard to hear. The sound effects are of the garden variety, decent enough to let you know what's going on but not good enough to make you take notice.
X-Men's gameplay is about as typical as you can get. There's jumping, there's punching, and not much more. Each character has a special power that you can activate. Unfortunately, the Start button is used to activate the powers, which means you can't pause the game. Some of the levels are lengthy, so the inability to pause is annoying.
Instead of being bogged down by the simplicity of its gameplay, X-Men manages to take advantage of it. Playing through the game is a somewhat mindless but enjoyable experience, especially since you can unlock other X-Men members as you go. Fans of the comic book or the animated series will enjoy the game, as will action gamers looking for some light fun. But those looking for depth should steer clear. ~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
