X-Men (1993 video game)

Last updated
X-Men
X-Men (1993 Sega video game cover).jpg
Developer(s) Western Technologies Inc
Publisher(s) Sega
Producer(s) E. Ettore Annuziata
Designer(s) Bruce Straley
Jeff Fort
Steven Ross
Mira Ross
Programmer(s) Jeff Fort
Ray Fredricks
John Bojorquez
Alan Wise
Artist(s) Bruce Straley
Mira Ross
Steven Ross
Composer(s) Fletcher Beasley
Platform(s) Sega Genesis
Release
Genre(s) Action, platform
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

X-Men is a home console video game produced by Sega for Sega Genesis in 1993, based on the adventures of the Marvel Comics superhero team, the X-Men. One or two players can play as any of four pre-chosen X-Men. X-Men was released in 1993 and was followed up by X-Men 2: Clone Wars .

Contents

Plot

The game takes place in the Danger Room, a training area for the X-Men inside the X-Mansion. A virus transmitted via satellite has infected the Danger Room, disabling control and safety limits. The X-Men must endure the unpredictable behavior of the Danger Room until the virus can be located and eliminated. Once the virus is eliminated, the X-Men discover that Magneto is behind the computer virus and the final stage involves a battle with him.

Gameplay

Gambit, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Cyclops are available to play. Each character can jump and use various unlimited weapons (i.e. punch, kick) and a superpower which has a usefulness limited by a mutant power bar similar to a life meter, making the player rely more on standard attacks. The mutant power bar would slowly regenerate when depleted and when switching characters in mid-game, would revert to the status of the next characters mutant power bar from the last use (characters yet to be used would start off with a standard full bar of mutant power).

Characters

Playable Characters
Wolverine: Uses retractable claws which enhance the strength of his basic punches and allows him to execute special mid-air attacks. As in other X-Men games, he possesses a healing factor that enables the character to recover from injury (i.e. replenish the life bar).

Gambit: Uses his trademark bo staff as a weapon. His charged cards track enemies.

Cyclops: Uses rebounding optic blasts.

Nightcrawler: Uses a teleportation ability which can skip many areas or transport a secondary character.

Other X-Men such as Storm, Rogue, Iceman, and Archangel can be called upon for support. Jean Grey also appears as support to pick up characters who fall. Sauron can be seen as cameo at the near end of first level, ironically helping the player inflight. There are several levels, most having boss fights with familiar X-Men villains.

Soundtrack

All of the music in the game was composed by Fletcher Beasley using the G.E.M.S. system (Genesis Editor for Music and Sound Effects), which could communicate with the Yamaha 2612 FM synthesizer chip on the Sega Genesis and could be used to directly play back the sounds through the Genesis.

Reception

The game sold over a million copies. [3]

In 2011, IGN named the game in its "Fifteen Really, Really, Really Hard Games" list, citing "unfairly placed enemies, ridiculously annoying jumps and near-impossible-to-beat bosses", as well as the need to lightly press the Genesis' reset button in "Mojo's Crunch". [4] The requirement to reset effectively means the game cannot be completed on a Genesis Nomad. Power Unlimited gave X-Men a score of 82% writing: "X-Men for the Megadrive is a platform game with an original approach. It's basically a platform, tactics, fighting and strategy game all in one. The game is therefore extremely extensive and varied. A true must for superhero fans." [5]

The game was ranked number 7 on GameTrailers' "Top 10 X-Men Games" list. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Summers</span> Marvel Comics fictional character

Rachel Anne Summers is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-plotter John Byrne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">X-Men</span> Comic book superhero team

The X-Men are a superhero team in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the team first appeared in The X-Men #1. Although initially cancelled in 1970 due to low sales, following its 1975 revival and subsequent direction under writer Chris Claremont, it became one of Marvel's most recognizable and successful franchises. They have appeared in numerous books, television shows, 20th Century Fox's X-Men films, and video games. The X-Men title may refer to the superhero team itself, the eponymous comic series, or the broader franchise, which includes various solo titles and team books, such as the New Mutants, Excalibur, and X-Force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rogue (Marvel Comics)</span> Character appearing in Marvel Comics

Rogue is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. Created by Chris Claremont and Michael Golden, she first appeared in Avengers Annual #10 (1981). In her comic book appearances, Rogue is depicted as a mutant, a subspecies of humans born with an "X-gene" that grants superhuman abilities. She is capable of absorbing the life force, attributes, memories, and superpowers of anyone through physical touch. She may then use these powers, abilities, and knowledge as her own for a period of time after releasing her target. Rogue is initially portrayed as a reluctant supervillain, but she soon joins the X-Men as a superhero and has since endured as one of its most prominent members.

<i>X2</i> (film) 2003 film by Bryan Singer

X2 is a 2003 American superhero film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris and David Hayter, from a story by Singer, Hayter and Zak Penn. The film is based on the X-Men superhero team appearing in Marvel Comics. It is the sequel to X-Men (2000), as well as the second installment in the X-Men film series, and features an ensemble cast including Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Bruce Davison, Shawn Ashmore, Aaron Stanford, Kelly Hu, and Anna Paquin. The plot, inspired by the graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills, concerns the genocidal Colonel William Stryker leading an assault on Professor Xavier's school to build his own version of Xavier's mutant-tracking computer, Cerebro, in order to destroy every mutant on Earth and to save the human race from them, forcing the X-Men to team up with the Brotherhood of Mutants to stop Stryker and save the mutant race.

<i>X-Men: Evolution</i> Television series

X-Men: Evolution is an American animated television series based on the superhero series X-Men published by Marvel Comics. Taking inspiration from the early issues of the original comics, the series portrays the X-Men as teenagers rather than adults, following their struggle to control their mutant powers as they face various threats. X-Men: Evolution ran for a total of four seasons, comprising 52 episodes in total, from November 4, 2000, to October 25, 2003, on Kids' WB, making it the third longest-running Marvel Comics animated series at the time, behind Fox Kids' X-Men: The Animated Series and Spider-Man. Seasons one through three aired on Cartoon Network from August 31, 2001, to May 27, 2003. The series later aired on Disney XD from June 15, 2009, to December 30, 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nightcrawler (character)</span> Fictional comic book character

Nightcrawler is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. Created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, he debuted in the comic book Giant-Size X-Men #1. By the time of his creation, there was already another Marvel character with the same name, but with a hyphen (Night-Crawler), which was later changed to Dark-Crawler to avoid confusion.

<i>X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men</i> Television pilot

X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men is an animated television pilot originally broadcast in 1989 on the Marvel Action Universe television block, featuring Marvel Comics' mutant superheroes of the X-Men. The pilot aired infrequently in syndication and was later released on video. It later served as the basis for Konami's X-Men arcade game.

<i>Ultimate X-Men</i> Comic book series

Ultimate X-Men is a superhero comic book series, which was published by Marvel Comics, from 2001 to 2009. The series is a modernized re-imagining of Marvel's long-running X-Men comic book franchise as part of the Ultimate Marvel imprint. The Ultimate X-Men exist alongside other revamped Marvel characters in Ultimate Marvel titles including Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four and The Ultimates.

<i>X-Men Legends</i> 2004 video game

X-Men Legends is an action role-playing video game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. It was released on the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles in 2004. Barking Lizards Technologies developed the N-Gage port of the game, which was released in early 2005. Players can play as one of fifteen X-Men characters, with the ability to switch between four computer- or human-controlled characters at any time.

<i>X-Men: Next Dimension</i> 2002 video game

X-Men: Next Dimension is a fighting game, released in 2002 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube video game consoles. It is the third installment in the X-Men: Mutant Academy fighting game series, following X-Men: Mutant Academy and X-Men: Mutant Academy 2.

<i>X-Men: Mutant Academy 2</i> 2001 video game

X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 is a 2.5D fighting game for the PlayStation video game console. It was developed by Paradox Development and published by Activision on September 18, 2001. It is the sequel to X-Men: Mutant Academy and predecessor to X-Men: Next Dimension.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danger Room</span> Training facility in X-Men comics

The Danger Room is a fictional training facility appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It first appeared in The X-Men #1 and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The facility is depicted as built for the X-Men as part of the various incarnations of the X-Mansion. Its primary purpose is to train the X-Men, initially using traps, projectile firing devices, flamethrowers, and mechanical dangers such as presses and collapsing walls. These were replaced by holographics, when the Danger Room was rebuilt using Shi'ar technology. It gained sentience in Astonishing X-Men as Danger.

<i>X-Men: The End</i> 2004-2006 trilogy of miniseries

X-Men: The End is a 2004-2006 trilogy of miniseries published by Marvel Comics, detailing the last days of the X-Men and their adventures in an alternative future. The series, which was part of Marvel's The End line of books, was written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Sean Chen, with cover art by Greg Land and Gene Ha.

<i>X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse</i> 1994 video game

X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse is an action game developed and published by Capcom for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994. The game is based on the X-Men comic book franchise from Marvel Comics. It was the first game Capcom released based on the franchise, released a month before the fighting game titled X-Men: Children of the Atom, also released in 1994.

<i>X-Men 2: Clone Wars</i> 1995 video game

X-Men 2: Clone Wars is a 1995 platform game developed by Headgames and released by Sega of America for the Mega Drive/Genesis as a sequel to the 1993's X-Men. The game is based on the adventures of the Marvel Comics superhero team, the X-Men. A sequel, titled X-Women, was cancelled.

<i>X-Men: The Official Game</i> 2006 video game

X-Men: The Official Game is a 2006 beat 'em up video game developed by Z-Axis and published by Activision. It is a tie-in to X-Men: The Last Stand. The game covers the events between the films X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand, specifically following the characters of Logan, Iceman, and Nightcrawler. It also bridges the gap between the two films, explaining why Nightcrawler is not present for The Last Stand, and also introduces new foes for the game, such as HYDRA. The game uses several voice actors from the X-Men film series including Hugh Jackman, Alan Cumming, Shawn Ashmore, Patrick Stewart, Tyler Mane, and Eric Dane.

The third Summers brother is a plot point in X-Men comic books regarding the family of the superhero Cyclops, alias Scott Summers. The plot point was first referenced by writer Fabian Nicieza in X-Men vol. 2 #23 (1993), published by Marvel Comics. In that issue the villain Mister Sinister has a conversation with X-Men member Cyclops and casually mentions Cyclops' "brothers." Cyclops notes that it is odd to talk about his brothers in the plural, since as far as he knows he has just one brother. However, the dialogue does not mention three, implying there could be several brothers still in existence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">X-Men in other media</span> Overview of X-Men in other media

The X-Men are a fictional superhero team created by Marvel Comics that appear in comic books and other forms of media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">X-Men: Regenesis</span> Comic book

X-Men: Regenesis is a comic book branding used by Marvel Comics that ran through the X-Men family of books beginning in October 2011, following the end of the X-Men: Schism miniseries. This realignment of the mutant population is ahead of the 2012 Marvel event Avengers vs. X-Men which begins during Regenesis with the mini series Avengers: X-Sanction and brings back Cable, who was previously thought to be dead following the events of X-Men: Second Coming.

<i>X-Men</i> (1994 video game) 1994 video game

X-Men is a video game that was released in 1994 for the Sega Game Gear featuring the X-Men superhero team. In the game, most of the X-Men have been captured by Magneto; only Wolverine and Cyclops escaped the initial assault on X-Men headquarters and are available for play at the start of the game. Players rescue the other X-Men and use them and their abilities to defeat Magneto.

References

  1. ↑ "'X' in the spotlight". Hartford Courant . March 4, 1993. p. 62. Retrieved October 5, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
  2. ↑ "X-Men" (PDF). Mega . June 1993. p. 41. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  3. ↑ "Clients". Adrenalin Entertainment. Archived from the original on June 23, 1997. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
  4. ↑ Reyburn, Scott (November 21, 2011). "Fifteen Really, Really, Really Hard Games". IGN. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  5. ↑ "Power Unlimited Game Database". Power Unlimited. Archived from the original on October 21, 2003. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
  6. ↑ GT Countdown - Top 10 X-Men Games | YouTube
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.