X-Men: Next Dimension

"An alright fighter game..."

X-Men is a super hero-based comic book which has a HUGE fan-following. You'd think they'd put a lot of effort into making a fighter game based on it, right? Well, you'd be wrong. While X-Men: Next Dimension is a fun game for X-Fans, in the fighting game department, it majorly lacks.

Story - 6/10
As with most fighter games, X-Men: Next Dimension doesn't have much of a story. The basic plot is that Forge has been kidnapped by the mutant-hater Bastion and forced into making sentinels for him (Or something along those lines). Not much to go on, but then, nobody ever really plays fighting games for the story, right?

Graphics - 7/10
The graphics are nice, but very blocky and not up to par with other fighter games. The cutscenes all have nice graphics, as should be expected, but nothing over the top or great about it. The detail put into the various costumes are also not as nice as I would have expected. But the amount of characters makes up for the lack in detail of the outfits.

Sound - 7/10
The sound is actually quite pleasing. The music is very fitting for the rounds, and all the sound effects match with what is performed for each character. The voices, however, can become a little annoying. Each character has a different phrase, or maybe two, but that's too little, to me. I don't want to hear the character saying their winning phrase over and over. It gets annoying. The voices picked out for the characters seem fitting enough, although I would have rather heard the actors from the original Animated Series providing the voices. Patrick Stewart, however, does do the voice of Professor X.

Controls - 4/10
Compared to other fighters, this game's controls are terrible. Each fighter doesn't have very many moves, so it makes it somewhat bland during the battles. Each character does have special moves, but that's about it.

Replay Value - 5/10
There are secrets, such as levels and characters, which are always fun to unlock. There are also a total of eight costumes for each character. However, the costumes are just palette swaps, and not much detail is put into any of them.

Rent or Buy? - Rent, if you're a rabid fan of X-Men. If you just like fighters, then maybe this game isn't for you. But, fans of X-Men will be pleased with the assortment of characters and costumes. That feeling is very temporary, however, and that is why I don't recommend buying the game unless you've rented it first and loved it. ^_^

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/04