Friday, January 18, 2008
X-MEN (The Arcade Game): One of America's Favorite Beat 'em Ups Revisited
One of my favorite arcade games growing up was X-MEN (1992), known to many as X-MEN: The Arcade Game. In case you've never played the game, it's a sidescrolling beat 'em up which was riding the popularity of games like Double Dragon (1987), Final Fight (1989), and Streets of Rage (1991), which were all very popular arcade-styled games involving hand-to-hand combat (sometimes with various handheld weapons) where the player directs his or her character from one side of the screen to the other, beating up generic thugs and a few other types of enemies before you get to the boss of each particular level. In X-MEN, the same concept applies but instead of weapons you get mutant powers respective to the character you choose, which are a blessing and a curse, as I'll explain later. So basically, you get to the end of the level, beat the boss, and you're onto the next level with a few cut scenes in between to explain the simplistic (but not unwelcome) story for the game.
Recently I decided it was time to go back and see how X-MEN held up. I was also seeking revenge since I don't remember ever beating the game as it seemed to always eat up all the tokens I had. I figured that my older, more talented and experienced self would have no problems tearing through the game on just a handful of credits.
Well, I was wrong. I played through it and discovered a lot of things. Among these the fact that I wasn't giving my former self enough credit. This game is tough, but not in the right way. It is a very cheap game. The kind of game that makes you want to give up but not after already pumping in a few dollars worth of quarters and then discovering said cheapness.
This game has several flaws which hinder enjoyment:
- The Inevitability of Death. This is by far the greatest flaw in the game. You WILL die in this game. Lots. Some of the reasons that follow in this list will help explain this, but it's mainly because the game doesn't follow the ethos of arcade games: Reward the player for being good. The game does no such thing, and being good only entails that you are getting punished less than the average player.
- No Power-Ups. Throughout the level you will be outnumbered and there will be hits which you will almost certainly have to take, and there are no health bonuses or anything that will increase your attacking abilities. There aren't even any interactive weapons that you can pick up, and although that might seem stupid since the X-MEN have mutant powers, you should be able to get some kind of temporary advantage over your foes, if not just to break up the repetition. Your only reward is given at the end of the levels after beating the bosses, an extra orb for additional mutant power usage. This is not a good deal.
- Mutant Powers = Pain? The fact that your character's mutant power hurts you unless you have three or less bars of health is just stupid. When you have three or less, you can use your special orb(s) up, which is usually going to be just one since you will probably have died and not beaten a boss in between deaths. Coupled with no health restoration (unless you count adding tokens to respawn--I don't!), this game is unforgiving and this would be slightly more okay if you could just use your power without simultaneously harming yourself.
- Redundant Enemies. Get used to fighting mini-Sentinels in all their palette-swapping glory, because by the end of the game you will be fighting hundreds of these for no reason whatsoever, along with some bazooka toting Sentinel-esque enemies and some laser machines which look like something you'd see in a metal cutting shop.
- Repetitive and Crippled Attacking. Also get used to the same three-hit combos and a couple of other animated attacks, such as a random throw or turnaround attack that seems to work better for some characters than others. Yes, Colossus sucks in this game because he will be unable to fend off attackers on his backside mostly without using a special, which leads to the Catch-22 of you taking damage to deal damage no matter how you approach the situation. Nevermind the fact that your attack combos can and will be broken by the bosses mercilessly, forcing you to use life-shaving mutant powers which in turn lead to death.
As I said, the game still can be enjoyable. However, this game would have held up better if it had better balancing that worked more in favor of the player's skills rather than his wallet.
Labels: 1992, beat 'em ups, genre analysis, helmholz, konami, reviews, x-men
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