| X-Men | |
|---|---|
Sales flyer for the arcade game. |
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| Developer(s) | Konami (Arcade) Backbone Entertainment (Xbox Live Arcade & PSN) |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Composer(s) | Seiichi Fukami Yuji Takenouchi Junya Nakano A. Hashimoto |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, iOS, Android |
| Release date(s) | Arcade February 12, 1992 PSN
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| Genre(s) | Beat 'em up |
| Mode(s) | Up to 6 simultaneously (4 and 2 player version were also made) |
| Cabinet | Standard |
| Arcade system | Custom hardware |
| CPU | 68000 (@ 16 MHz) |
| Sound | Sound CPU: Z80 (@ 8 MHz) Sound Chips: YM2151 (@ 4 MHz), K054539 (@ 48 kHz) |
| Display | Raster, 288 x 224 pixels (Horizontal), 2048 colors |
X-Men is an arcade game produced by Konami in 1992. It is a side-scrolling beat 'em up based on the characters of the same name under license from Marvel Comics. The animation of the X-Men and the supervillains are based on the 1989 X-Men pilot episode titled X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men. An HD port of the game by Backbone Entertainment was released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade on December 14, 2010 and December 15, 2010 respectively.
Contents |
The player chooses one of six X-Men: Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, or Dazzler. Their objective is to stop the villain Magneto from wreaking havoc on human civilization. They must fight through an army of hundreds of Sentinels and supervillains such as Pyro, Blob, Wendigo, Nimrod, The White Queen, Juggernaut, and Mystique. Later, Magneto kidnaps Professor X and Kitty Pryde, prompting the heroes to go on a rescue mission. The heroes fight their way to Island M and ultimately to Magneto's base on Asteroid M where the final battle with the "Master of Magnet" (sic) takes place.
The object of the game is to progress as far as possible while surviving attacks from Magneto and his minions. The character is controlled with a standard joystick, an attack button, a jump button, and a mutant power button. In addition to right and left, the character can move up and down the screen as well which adds a three-dimensional feel to the game. Every character is able to fight with punches, kicks, or other close combat attacks. Each character also has a unique mutant power which can be used to defeat all or nearly all enemies on the screen. The use of a mutant power is very effective, but also costly since it causes a character to lose three health points. Normally, a character who drops below four health can no longer use any mutant powers, but it is also possible for characters to obtain bonus mutant powers which can be stored like items (similar to Golden Axe 's magic powers). In the Japanese version, the power items are used up before the health, and there are also power-ups and health packs throughout the level.
Depending on the machine, the maximum number of simultaneous players varies from two to six. The six-player version is particularly unusual because it has two contiguous screens (one screen in the usual place for an arcade game, and other in the cabinet below, reflected by a mirror one side of the screen) which created the effect of a single, "double-wide" screen set up, similar to The Ninja Warriors.[1]
On October 9, 2010 Konami revealed that the game would be coming to PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. The game was ported by Backbone Entertainment with the original US and Japanese ROMs and was released on December 14, 2010 and December 15, 2010 respectively.[2] The Xbox 360 and PS3 port features drop-in local or online multiplayer for up to six players (only four local players possible on the XBLA version), as well as custom matchmaking and adjustable difficulty. Players can also choose between the USA and Japanese versions of the game, the latter of which features power-ups and health packs. All of the voices were re-recorded by Bang Zoom Entertainment, but the script retained the infamous lines from the original game, including "I am Magneto, master of magnet!" and "Welcome to die!".[3] In the re-recorded script, only two voice actors were used for male and female characters (Kyle Hebert and Mela Lee, respectively).
On June 2, 2011 Konami also released the game in the iTunes App store to be played on iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad, as well as in the Android Market. The game remained identical to the original, with the addition of on-screen controls for smartphones. It was launched at the price of $2.99.
IGN gave the HD port of the game a score of 7.5, saying "The game is incredibly simple and repetitive... And yet it works. It's simply a blast to play with friends."[4] Many websites and reviewers such as Gouki.com[5] stated that having unlimited Continues without penalty for all modes has cheapened the classic experience, especially Online play. Players will intentionally abuse the use of Mutant Powers and intentionally die just to refill on Mutant Powers and get a high score.