X-Men: Next Dimension

"X-men: when sentinels attack, you need fast, fast, fast relief! We recommend the ingredients found in... mutants!"

Well. I have to say, this game is pretty good. I think that other game developers could take clues from what this game does.

Gameplay: 7/10
The gameplay is very good in this game. There are several different modes of play:
arcade, where your character goes up against a group of randomly-selected fighters.
Versus: your friend pissing you off? Feel the Need to dispense some indiscriminate fireball justice? Don't use a steel chair; that'll get you in trouble later on, and it isn't good for the chair. Instead, challenge your ''friend'' to a 1-on-1 grudge match!
Practice mode: here you can hone your skills and stuff. If you feel like it, you can also battle your opponent to the death. Or not. Because no one can die in practice mode. If you feel like dispensing some pent-up rage, than this is probably a good choice.
And, last but not least: story mode. Here you can select from a certain list of characters to fight preselected enemies, inbetween hastily-stitched together cutscenes to sort of explain them, or something. This story mode gives the game most of its gameplay points, and is also a detractor: sometimes, the fights don't make sense. For instance, there is one point where you must fight a big robot, called a ''sentinel''. Who must you fight him with? Magneto. And you will get your ass handed to you several times. Yes, that's right, the master of magnetism, controller of all things metallic, is powerless before the towering might of the giant, *metal* robot. Its the attack of the giant aluminum robots from *hell*! Run for your *life*!
Some fights seem like they have been put there just to piss you off. An example of this is when you must fight the giant robot (TM) as Forge. And you must do it in fifty seconds, or you will lose. Aggravating this is the fact that said giant robot, thanks to an error in gameplay, can disrupt your super moves with a single projectile. Oh, and he blocks almost everything you throw at him. Now, I wouldn't mind this so much, except that after you've finished clobbering the metal monstrosity (TM), a cutscene begins showing four more of these beautiful creatures coming out of the shadows and carrying you off. So, the fight that you just sprained your hands to win is completely pointless, because you got captured anyway. Urge to kill rising.
The gameplay itself is... interesting.
You have a punch one, punch two, kick one, kick two system. Those expecting to be able to use Street Fighter punching styles from x-men academy are going to be very sorely disappointed. Oh, and just to add that extra-special flahvah, Actavision kindly switched the button configurations on us. Now, throw is r1 instead of l2, and so forth. The special moves are kind of interesting. Many of them are rather complex, involving such moves as ''right, square, square, square, triangle, circle'', and they must be performed at a certain range or else. And since there's no such thing as ''strong weak medium'' attacks anymore, you can't, say, get x and circle confused and have it be all right. Also, we still have super moves, but their different now. You must get your ''power meters'' charged up. The more charged they are, the more moves you can perform. For instance, a ''level 4'' super move can only be done when all four meters [of which only 3 can be seen] are filled. How do you fill these meters? By crunching the snot out of your opponents, silly! Except, y'see, you can just as quickly punch the air to build up your super meter. [''This air is *pissing me off*! Triiiibal spiiiirets!''] The counter system has been modified so that you have to specifically block which kind of attack is being happily visited upon you. This is probably the reason why I have never performed a successful counter in this game. Also, now people can get stunned or knocked waaay up into the air when they are hit. I guess its good for realism buffs, but lets face it: being hurled off of a skyscraper and falling on top of a lightpost before being run over by a Winabego and than getting up again with about a tenth of your health gone is not all that realistic either. Nor is Subzero's magical ability to break your leg 16 times and still allow you to stand on it, as he does in MK4. But let's face it: trying to play a fighting game with a broken spine is no fun. So, I would appreciate it if such ''realism'' factors would be chucked violently out the window.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics in this game are quite superb. The backgrounds have nice detail, and you can use them to your advantage sometimes. I especially like the danger room, because occasionally the surroundings will switch around you. This game gets major nostalgia points for letting you fight in the danger room. My only regret is that there is no way to pull an MK4 and start chucking severed heads at your opponent. As for the characters... Let me just take a moment here:
Oh my god Misteak you are the hottest mutant I have ever seen!
Thank you. :p as for some of the other characters being ugly... well let's face it, not everyone is beautiful. Get used to it. Besides, how the hell is someone who has survived more knife fights than anyone else in the entire multiverse ever will expected to look?

Audio (4/10)

All right, let's face it: this game has the worst voice acting for any game that is not Japanese dubbing. Wolverine's attempts to emulate the *real* Wolverine's badassery are truly sad to watch. Cyclops is the most arrogant sod I have ever heard in the history of video gaming. Forge is not nearly into his lines enough. Misteak is way too damned into hers. So is Lady Deathstrike. Juggernaut sounds like he has been created by Microsoft Text-to-speech synthesizer version negative 3.5. And don't even get me started about Rogue. As for the lines themselves... absolutely terrible. Let me just give you a few examples of the ''taunts'' thrown out by the characters.

FORGE: ''Cannon primed.''
CYCLOPS: ''For a better tomorrow!''
CYCLOPS: ''Heart is what wins battles.'' [Cyclops, incidentally, is the cheapest fighter in the game. I know that lasers shouldn't be avoided due to realism and all that, but please... Anyway, it isn't all that uncommon to have been beaten by Cyclops because he wouldn't stop shooting you, and then have him say ''heart is what wins battles'' in that arrogant manner of his. Arrgh...]
NIGHTCRAWLER: ''I'll turn you into schnitzel!'' [... yeah.]
Juggernaut: ''Juggernaut rules!'' [ph34r his incredible chi p0wrz and his 1337 ninja crush skilz!]
Toad: ''Toooooad is the grrrrrreatest!''
TOAD: ''Quit horsing around!''
Misteak: ''Human lover!'' [...so what does that make *you*, Mistie?]

There are two shining points, however. First of all, of course, is Patrick Stewart, who plays the part of Xavier during the cutscenes. But considering he doesn't actually have to fight, I say he doesn't count. The second is Magneto. Fighting-wise he got completely screwed over, but in all other respects he is the leader supreme. Magneto is so cool that they actually programmed in some CGI where he makes a stairway out of metal plates for him to walk down, before he delivers his tagline, like ''let none stand before my might. Muahahahahahahahahaha!'', which looks really dumb up here but which sounds awesome in the game] before making the plates circle him and then fly out of the stadium. Magneto has an aura of cool (TM) that will not be penetrated by anyone, except maybe Bishop. Not Havoc, not Betsy, and certainly not those idiot poser wannabees Sentinel A or Juggernaut.
The audio and music, on the other hand, is pretty good. The audio is very clear, the sounds aren't too bad [except for Forge's bomb, which I have nicknamed the pumpkin bomb for no reason whatsoever, and which sounds like someone blowing bubbles in a swimming pool] and the music doesn't detract from the fight, which is good.

Conclusion:
This game is very good, overall. The bad parts of it are really quite bad, but somehow I find myself able to obtain an immense amount of enjoyment out of it regardless. As a final note: hats off to Actavision for making their game rated E. Now get on over there and do something about Spiderman, will you?

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/08/03, Updated 02/08/03