Hey all I'm back with my second review. I decided to delve into the collection for a retro game that I had bought years before and hadn't played in a long time and out came X-Men. Again any opinions are welcome, I personally found this review a little harder to write due in comparison to my Fallout 3 review, perhaps because there is little going on in a 16-Bit game in comparison to a new game. Anyways enjoy.
X-MEN REVIEW
The risk prevalent in reviewing older games is that the rose-tinted spectacles that make a person regard a game in such high esteem may be blasted off upon the realisation that the game they loved has dated to the point that it becomes extremely difficult to enjoy in the current games climate of pick up and play accessibility. Such is the case with X-Men on the Megadrive.
The first thing to strike the player upon booting the game up is the absolutely horrendous use of the Megadrive's admittedly poor sound chip. Nobody should be expecting works of art out of the humble 16-Bit machine, however when compared to the music and effects from the consoles household titles, such as Streets of Rage or the Sonic series, the various blips and bloops of X-Men are just plain offensive to the ear. The in game music is simply horrendous for the most part, with monotonous and dreary tones being used throughout. This coupled with the sound effects that all sound the same, imagine the word SQUICK in your head and you have the sound of a punch connecting, make for an excruciating experience for the ears.
First impressions aren't helped by the games complete lack of graphical ambition. The character sprites are all rather fuzzy, with just enough detail to let the player know just who they are meant to be controlling but at the same time having them look slightly like a smudged version of their favourite X-Man. This trend is continued throughout for all the sprites and shows a genuine lack of inventiveness in the graphical area. On top of this the environments created for the player to traipse around in are lacklustre at best and simply bland at worst. There is little within the game that stands out graphically, however this lack of ambition has a plus point in that at least the screen is rarely cluttered. The player can generally tell what needs to be killed and what path to take, barring a few exceptions, such as one slightly jarring path in the first level that seemed to blend completely into the background. However it would still have been nice to perhaps have a little more colour and at least something going on in the game's various levels.
One slight graphical quirk of note occurs in the Excalibur Lighthouse level, as the stage switches between flashes of and full on mirage mode. When in full mirage mode, Wolverine's head becomes a complete mess of pixels in what can only be assumed to be a miss by the QA team.
This would all be moot, of course, if the gameplay was of a high standard. However this is a little bit of a mixed bag, as the game shows flair in some areas but lets itself down in others. For starters the mechanic that allows the player to switch in between the various X-Men in level brings a welcome level of depth that is often missing from many platformers/beat-em-ups. The fact that this ability is often limited to two or three times per level means that the player must be sure they've squeezed the last remnant of usefulness out of their current X-Man before switching, as a mis-timed switch could lead to problems later on with the player unable to switch out and eventually dying and having to restart a level minus the fallen X-Man.
Despite the nifty character switching system, the game limits the player to a choice of 4 main X-Men, these being Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Gambit. This is a relatively paltry offering from such a rich universe of characters and, although the game does offer assist characters in the form of Jean Grey, Rogue, Ice Man, Archangel and Storm, it perhaps would have been worth including a wider range of the X-Men as playable characters to take full advantage of the character switching mechanic.
Dying is something that can and will happen quite a lot in this game too, as the difficulty, even on the easiest setting, is very challenging at all times and sometimes borderline ridiculous. Poor enemy placement in some levels means that you may be hit without even seeing the enemy sprite, the diagonal spear throwers in the Savage Land level being prime examples. On top of this, enemies often regenerate at a ridiculous rate, often literally reappearing as soon as you walk of screen. This means that if the player has any need to back-track, they must do so through the enemies that they defeated to get to the point they were already at.
However, as mentioned previously, the level design is generally decent, though not spectacular and even occasionally confusing. And although the enemies can occasionally be poorly place, decent button responsiveness coupled with good reactions and a decent collision detection system mean that the player can usually, though not always, dispatch a foe without too much damage being taken. This does take practice though, as the game is not one that can be simply picked up and blasted through. The various strengths and weaknesses of the X-Men on offer must be considered for each level and it often takes multiple run-throughs of a level to be able to get past it relatively unscathed.
Unfortunately, the game then shoots itself in the foot with a moment that seemed to be created just so people could ask "How the hell were we supposed to figure this out without a guide?". For those who don't already know...
at the end of Mojo's Future Crunch, the player must perform a soft reset of the console to continue on in the game.
While certainly commendable for its attempts to break the fourth wall, this little stunt can also be considered a massive turn-off in a game that doesn't really give the player any reason to really want to get through it in the first place. There are also various sections in most of the levels which allow the player to skip ahead to a later part of the level, similar to Mario's warp pipes. Whether these were intentional or not is debateable, but if not then they stand as another example of poor level design in an otherwise generally well-designed game.
Overall, X-Men is a decent game, but it never really excels in any area. In fact some areas of the game are simply drab in comparison to the top titles that the Megadrive has to offer, but for a player that is willing to put some time in to learn the game and adjust to its difficulty, there is a game worth playing here... just. Unfortunately it requires a level of patience to find that may not be readily available in most players and if that patience is there the game itself is perhaps not good enough to warrant it.
Recommendation - Rent It... but only just (Though this probably isn't possible anymore)
X-MEN REVIEW
The risk prevalent in reviewing older games is that the rose-tinted spectacles that make a person regard a game in such high esteem may be blasted off upon the realisation that the game they loved has dated to the point that it becomes extremely difficult to enjoy in the current games climate of pick up and play accessibility. Such is the case with X-Men on the Megadrive.
The first thing to strike the player upon booting the game up is the absolutely horrendous use of the Megadrive's admittedly poor sound chip. Nobody should be expecting works of art out of the humble 16-Bit machine, however when compared to the music and effects from the consoles household titles, such as Streets of Rage or the Sonic series, the various blips and bloops of X-Men are just plain offensive to the ear. The in game music is simply horrendous for the most part, with monotonous and dreary tones being used throughout. This coupled with the sound effects that all sound the same, imagine the word SQUICK in your head and you have the sound of a punch connecting, make for an excruciating experience for the ears.
First impressions aren't helped by the games complete lack of graphical ambition. The character sprites are all rather fuzzy, with just enough detail to let the player know just who they are meant to be controlling but at the same time having them look slightly like a smudged version of their favourite X-Man. This trend is continued throughout for all the sprites and shows a genuine lack of inventiveness in the graphical area. On top of this the environments created for the player to traipse around in are lacklustre at best and simply bland at worst. There is little within the game that stands out graphically, however this lack of ambition has a plus point in that at least the screen is rarely cluttered. The player can generally tell what needs to be killed and what path to take, barring a few exceptions, such as one slightly jarring path in the first level that seemed to blend completely into the background. However it would still have been nice to perhaps have a little more colour and at least something going on in the game's various levels.
One slight graphical quirk of note occurs in the Excalibur Lighthouse level, as the stage switches between flashes of and full on mirage mode. When in full mirage mode, Wolverine's head becomes a complete mess of pixels in what can only be assumed to be a miss by the QA team.
This would all be moot, of course, if the gameplay was of a high standard. However this is a little bit of a mixed bag, as the game shows flair in some areas but lets itself down in others. For starters the mechanic that allows the player to switch in between the various X-Men in level brings a welcome level of depth that is often missing from many platformers/beat-em-ups. The fact that this ability is often limited to two or three times per level means that the player must be sure they've squeezed the last remnant of usefulness out of their current X-Man before switching, as a mis-timed switch could lead to problems later on with the player unable to switch out and eventually dying and having to restart a level minus the fallen X-Man.
Despite the nifty character switching system, the game limits the player to a choice of 4 main X-Men, these being Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Gambit. This is a relatively paltry offering from such a rich universe of characters and, although the game does offer assist characters in the form of Jean Grey, Rogue, Ice Man, Archangel and Storm, it perhaps would have been worth including a wider range of the X-Men as playable characters to take full advantage of the character switching mechanic.
Dying is something that can and will happen quite a lot in this game too, as the difficulty, even on the easiest setting, is very challenging at all times and sometimes borderline ridiculous. Poor enemy placement in some levels means that you may be hit without even seeing the enemy sprite, the diagonal spear throwers in the Savage Land level being prime examples. On top of this, enemies often regenerate at a ridiculous rate, often literally reappearing as soon as you walk of screen. This means that if the player has any need to back-track, they must do so through the enemies that they defeated to get to the point they were already at.
However, as mentioned previously, the level design is generally decent, though not spectacular and even occasionally confusing. And although the enemies can occasionally be poorly place, decent button responsiveness coupled with good reactions and a decent collision detection system mean that the player can usually, though not always, dispatch a foe without too much damage being taken. This does take practice though, as the game is not one that can be simply picked up and blasted through. The various strengths and weaknesses of the X-Men on offer must be considered for each level and it often takes multiple run-throughs of a level to be able to get past it relatively unscathed.
Unfortunately, the game then shoots itself in the foot with a moment that seemed to be created just so people could ask "How the hell were we supposed to figure this out without a guide?". For those who don't already know...
at the end of Mojo's Future Crunch, the player must perform a soft reset of the console to continue on in the game.
While certainly commendable for its attempts to break the fourth wall, this little stunt can also be considered a massive turn-off in a game that doesn't really give the player any reason to really want to get through it in the first place. There are also various sections in most of the levels which allow the player to skip ahead to a later part of the level, similar to Mario's warp pipes. Whether these were intentional or not is debateable, but if not then they stand as another example of poor level design in an otherwise generally well-designed game.
Overall, X-Men is a decent game, but it never really excels in any area. In fact some areas of the game are simply drab in comparison to the top titles that the Megadrive has to offer, but for a player that is willing to put some time in to learn the game and adjust to its difficulty, there is a game worth playing here... just. Unfortunately it requires a level of patience to find that may not be readily available in most players and if that patience is there the game itself is perhaps not good enough to warrant it.
Recommendation - Rent It... but only just (Though this probably isn't possible anymore)
