X-Men (1992)

Preliminary: I played this through with my husband, starting in the first level, but some kids must have gotten some of the characters' lives high, like 78, 220, etc. All the characters were active too ha. So we had to do some killing off of our teammates to make it the truly 2 player experience we were looking for. (Plus characters have to move to have the screen move)

Look: 8/10 The look is perfect for the 90s X-Men cartoon era. Also, great in-between graphics, using both the screens effectively even between levels.

Sound: 8/10 Lol the yells as the characters fall for cliffs (we had to do that a bunch to dwindle down unused characters' lives, but even when we genuinely accidentally fell down it was an entertaining sound ha). Some of the sound effects were meh, but consistently the tunes were excellent. Especially the island music with the woo woo woo. Great ending jam, too.

Play: 8/10 Cool that each Xmen has their individual powers. Also impressive with the 6 players features, with 2 screens to make that well-done. Overall, great brawler controls, largely thanks to the variety and usability of the mutant powers. I love Storm's melee, otherwise the melee is just okay brawler mechanics. Throwing enemies was nice I suppose ha. Also some directional clunkiness--turning around, discerning what layer of depth you're on. But I kinda got a hang of it. Fortunately it's straightforward enough to just keep pushing on anyway.

Feel: 8/10 Great musicm Just plain ol fun easy enough but has that feeling of a challenge and working together when it's really geared for you, if we're being honest (especially with unlimited credits). Is it just me or is there even auto aim (to an extent) for the mutant powers?

Attachment: 8/10 A little long for my taste, but I was just starting to feel that as we neared the final level. Fascinating how they allowed for hundreds of lives, did people really put in that many coins?? Fortunately our arcade has this on the free wall, but perhaps that's unfortunate considering the excess lives/characters we had to kill off. I know I'll have my buddies play this with me when I drag them to the arcade, and this had a great classic 90s feel to it all around. Look, sounds, gameplay.

Completion: Main Story Playtime: ~1 hour

I'll admit that most beat 'em up games are repetitive nonsense, but despite the brainlessness of them, I can still have a great time if I'm in the right mindset.

Konami's X-Men from 1992 was another in their lineage of 90s beat 'em ups with TMNT, TMNT: Turtles in Time, The Simpsons and Sunset Riders (which is more of a shoot 'em up than a beat 'em up, but I digress). It was based off of a 1988 pilot of a syndicated cartoon that never got off the ground. We'd get an X-Men cartoon soon after on FOX that was dark, edgy and perhaps one of the best superhero cartoons in history, but this one was much more campy and cheesy. And honestly, I'm totally fine with that.

So if you are in the right mindset and just want to beat up some bad guys for 45 minutes or so, give this game a go.

I have expected something.....well, less goofy when I saw this game being praised around the internet. Yet, when I finally got my hands on it and played it for myself, I was met with a glorious amount of cheesiness. I mean I know "Welcome to Die!" originated from this and all, but I thought that was probably just one goofy line, but nope, the whole game has all kinds of over-the-top acting, goofy voice acting, cheesy dialouge and insane bosses (Not as in difficulty, but the way they act). Now this could easily make the game laughably bad, but instead it somehow ends up being charming and fun, and even nostalgic, dare I say. Oh, that and the fun, solid, satisfying feeling for it's rather mostly simplistic and repetitive gameplay, since that's actually what matters for a game. The game is a beat 'em up with a nice cast of X-Men to play as, I really dig Dazzler's design here and I often found myself playing as usually her or Cyclops. Each character has a special power that can be activated when you have orbs to "spend" them on, the Japanese version has collectible pills dropping from the enemies to refill the orbs and your health, respectively. However, the US version shamessly removes them and even puts a note about the game not ending at the ENDING of the game, done purely to suck more coins out of the radical 90s youth's pockets. Due to all this, I consider the Japanese version of the game superior. You also get all kinds of unique bosses, wheter it be Magneto, Juggernaut carrying a RPG for some reason (IM DA JUGGERNAUT BITCH) and a rather cliché acting Emma Frost, I feel each boss is unique and memorable though. Oh how hard it is to forget them when they all appear to fight you again at the final level...they're not that hard, though. I don't know how Konami pulled it off without this sucking, but they did it. Perhaps it's the gameplay, like I mentioned.It's flaws add to it's charm and it's a wonderful classic any Beat 'Em Up or Superhero fan could appreciate. If you're looking for a fun, short beat em up you can beat in about 30 minutes or less, give this one a go, you won't regret it.

On a side note, the designs of the characters are based on the failed but then recent 1989 Pryde of the X-Men animated pilot, and according to Marvel Wiki, this game and that pilot are in the same continuity, interesting...