Forgotten Worlds: X-Men

During the comic book boom of the early 1990s, Marvel Comics made changes that would give the company an extreme amount of exposure.  If there were any Marvel franchise that spearheaded this new direction the company took, it would be X-Men.  In the 1970s and 1980s, comic book legends such as John Byrne and Chris Claremont, brought deep, rich characterizations and dark, hard-hitting stories, such as “Days of Future Past” and “God Loves, Man Kills,” to titles such as Uncanny X-Men and The New Mutants.  In 1991, the franchise was revamped to become more marketable and attract more potential readers, and it worked.  According to Guinness, X-Men #1 is still the best selling comic book of all time.  The new comic spawned a toy line, video games, and an animated series (I’ll cover most of these at a later time).

Of course, this success wouldn’t last for long. Chris Claremont ended his 17 year tenure of writing classic stories for the franchise after extended clashes with the editor.  X-Men #3 was his last issue (he wouldn’t return to the franchise until 2000).  Follow that up with the 1992 departure of Jim Lee, whose artwork was the foundation of the X-Men’s new popularity, and you have a title with stories and art that was, well… let’s just say they were mostly forgettable.  In the mid-nineties, no amount of holofoil gatefold covers could save the X-Titles.

But that’s not what I want to talk about.  This is Forgotten Worlds, after all.  I’m here to talk about arcade games.  While just about every post-’91 X-Men product was based on the teams’ new design, including a handful of arcade fighting games, the original X-Men arcade game was based on something completely different: the pilot episode of an animated series.  This isn’t the same as the successful animated series that came out in 1992.  “Pryde of the X-Men” was created by Toei Animation in 1989 and featured a cast of characters that were prominent in the comic during the ‘70s and ‘80s.  It was intended to launch a series that never got made, as it was panned by X-Men fans as being too campy.  For some reason, Konami took what was considered a flop and turned it into something enjoyable.

Known for creating side-scrolling beat ‘em ups based on popular franchises, such as The Simpsons, and, of course, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Konami’s X-Men follows in the same vein.  You can usually recognize a Konami beat ‘em up by the vivid colors and cartoony graphics, which worked well with the franchises they used – and X-Men is no exception.  The graphics do a really good job of emulating the visuals of the animated pilot and the similarities with the show don’t end there.   

The game completely evokes the cheesiness of “Pryde of the X-Men.”  The rogues’ gallery in this game is kind of mixed up.  Probably, the strangest is the inclusion of human-sized Sentinels, which were originally designed to hunt and destroy all mutants, as Magneto’s shock troops.  While some bosses were part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, such as Blob and Pyro, other characters were added, like the White Queen, who was featured in the pilot episode and Wendigo who wasn’t.  Just about every one of those bosses in the game spouts some goofy one-liners (my favorite: “Pyro will turn you to toast!”).  These aren’t, necessarily, bad things, as nothing ever gets gratingly annoying.  Sure, the game is not accurate to X-Men cannon, but the game doesn’t take itself too seriously, so why should you?

"...while I get to second base with Daphne in the Mystery Machine."

Yes, I know it's Kitty Pryde, not Daphne. 

If you’ve ever played any of Konami’s beat ‘em ups, you know what to expect, here.  The only new feature that the game introduces is special attacks (each character’s mutant powers) that can deplete your health each time you use them.  While this game doesn’t completely reinvent the genre, it does present it in an extremely fun way.  When this game came out, my younger brother and I would walk to the local bowling alley and drop countless quarters into this six-player beast of an arcade game for an entire summer.  We thought this game was awesome and we couldn’t get enough of it.  Though I felt the same way about TMNT, I enjoyed X-Men even more.

I always thought that Dazzler, the woman with short hair,

looked sexy in that costume. 

If you want to rekindle your love for mutant superheroes, or you’ve never played the game before, X-Men is now available on XBOX Live and the Playstation Network for $10, which is good.  The re-release includes the Japanese version of the game, which added power-ups, and also features online co-op, for those times when you want to play with five other people (which didn’t happen often in the arcades, if I remember correctly).  This game gets the Anacronus seal of approval; definitely, check it out.

Until next time, keep your scores high and your pockets full.

This video is a demo from the 4-player version and is from YouTube user Narox.