The Uncanny X-Men

"Bah! Hellspawn!"

Intro
Ah... X-men comics... I was an X-Men freak in junior high. Not in a good way, though. I'm sorry to say that I was a bandwagon freak. Although I'm not into bandwagon stuff anymore, it still feels great to get that off my chest. That's not to say I hate the X-Men. From what little I've actually been able to see, I actually enjoy. That is, until, this came along. The NES was known for having a diverse range of games: Good, Bad, and just plain Messed Up/Over the Top of my Head Weird. I think this game fits under category C. Coincidentally, C is also the first letter in the word ''crap,'' which is exactly what this game is. X-Men fan or not, this game is what I have labeled one of the many horrendous freaks of nature. While the many follow-ups to this game are a lot better, this one still remains a very hated game in my book.

Stuck in a Bad Game. Such a Devious Plan.
As for the story, I'm not sure what's going on. Magneto is being evil like usual and some of the X-Men are sent out to beat him up. I don't remember exactly who's in it. I can only remember Wolverine, I'm pretty sure Cyclops was in it, and I think Nightstalker. I know there's more than that, but that's not important. As it turns out Magneto isn't the one the X-Men should be worrying about. It's actually the developers as they have successfully trapped the X-Men in an 8-bit Hell with tons of killer robots and bad graphics.

Game Play
The game is an overhead game, like Legend of Zelda or Crystalis. You can pick two different X-Men. When playing one player, the other X-Men acts like a severely dumbed-up NPC. You then have to battle tons of enemies in a nearly impossible game that is a true test of your gaming ability. Extremely expert gamers or those who are persistent can probably finish this. Those of the average and below gamers, well... Let's just hope you're extremely persistent. You basically move around each level beating up the enemies and using your mutant powers. Nothing much beyond that.

Game Elements
The graphics are enough to nauseate a blind man. They mainly look like random splotches of pixils with bad animations to the characters. The sounds are less than welcoming as the music sounds almost earsplitting. The sound effects are okay to go with the game other than the ones that sound a bit incoherent. The controls can add to the mounting frustration of the gameplay as the jumping seems a bit unfairly set and the over all control makes grinding several rusty nails against a chalk board sound like loads of fun. Over all, the game is a major abomination, in my opinion.

FINAL JUDGMENT
Graphics: Blech! 2/10
Sounds: Ho hum 4/10
Controls: I think the developers really needed to tweak with this a bit 3/10
Plot/Storyline: If you really want some good X-Men storylines, then go out and buy a comic! 1/10
Gameplay: Remembered only in the darkest of nightmares 1/10
All Together: 1/10

Recommendations
Only for the extremely HARDCORE X-Men fans. I'm not going to tell everyone to completely avoid this. Honestly, it just seems the developers really didn't spend any real time on this game. It seems they just threw a bunch of stuff together and hoped the gamers would like it. If they really would've spent some time on the graphical animation, the controls, composed some better music, and made this just a bit less frustrating as well as a bit more beatable, they might've pulled out a classic game. Wait a minute! All those things I just said that could improve this game can be applied to almost any crappy game! So, the way I see this game is just another failed number for the books. If you're in the market for a good X-Men game, I suggest one of the Genesis games, the first one on Game Gear, or the arcade game very much over this.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/01, Updated 04/19/01