X-Men: Children of the Atom

"An incredible arcade game made less incredible in its journey to your living room."

When I first heard about Capcom's latest fighting game project, I literally shouted with glee. Here the makers of my favorite fighting game, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, were making a new fighting game based on my favorite comic, The Uncanny X-Men. How could they go wrong? Then I saw my first screen shots and I almost fainted. This game was going to be a work of art, but would it play as good as it looked? Six months of patiently waiting finally paid off as I got my first taste of the game at a local arcade near my college. Needless to say, I was hooked.

Magneto has gathered together some of the X-Men's worst foes in what he plans to be a final showdown before taking over the planet. You choose to be any one of six X-Men which includes: Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Iceman, Psylocke, and Collosus, or pick from a group of villains: Spiral, Silver Samurai, Omega Red, and Sentinel. In the final showdown you must face Magneto, but to get to him, you have to go through The Juggernaut. Every hero or villain has a reason to be in this battle, but only by beating the game do you find out why.

Each mutant looks incredible and matches its comic book counter-part. The arcade also sported incredible animation, which is missing from the Saturn version. I'd say they cut out maybe a third of the total frames of animation found in the original game. This happened due to no fault of Capcom's (except maybe to teach them a lesson to let other companies port their prized games) as Acclaim is responsible for this home version. I should also note that some of the color and detail seems a tad washed out compared to the arcade version, but it isn't too bad. Still, I think it could have been much better.

Usually, I blame the Saturn and its sound chip for mangled and distorted noise, but I really think that it was bad programming that did this. It's not that it's bad, it's that it's so bad I want to stick my finger through my eye and into my brain and swirl it around a bit. Okay, so I'm being a little harsh on the game, but damn it, this is one of my favorite games. I hate to see it butchered. At least all the voices and music from the arcade actually made it to the home version instead of being cut to save time. As crappy as the playback quality is, I'd rather hear all of it then have some of it missing.

Control for X-Men: Children of the Atom isn't too bad, though it seems a little stiff. It is at least playable, but the lack of all of the animation may throw you off a tad, which can cause some of the special moves to be a little tough to execute. It's not too difficult to adjust to though, so you should be taking some of that mutant rage out on the computer (or your friends) in no time.

Despite such a flawed conversion, X-Men: Children of the Atom is a well-designed game. It might not have nearly as many features as most of the newer Capcom games have, but it took Capcom in a whole new direction that has ultimately lead us to Marvel vs. Capcom. The only bad thing I can say about X-Men's design is the fact you can only choose from ten people. This may seem kind of petty, but considering Capcom's last game (Super Street Fighter II Turbo) had seventeen characters, I think the complaint is a valid one. The only other bad thing about this game (which pertains only to the home version) is the insane difficulty level of Magneto. No matter what you have the computer AI set at, Magneto is one of the cheapest bastards to ever grace a home console.

The only bonus you get in the English Saturn version of X-Men: Children of the Atom is a hidden character. By now, anyone who knows Capcom knows who this is, but for the uninitiated, the hidden player is Akuma. In the Japanese version, you could also play as Juggernaut, but I think the code was taken out of this version of the game. Too bad, this might have helped its score...

X-Men: Children of the Atom is for Capcom enthusiasts only. Many fighting fans might find it too simplistic in its game play or missing too much from its arcade big brother. I really hate scoring a game I love so much so low, but this was, quite simply, a sloppy port and barely deserves the score I gave it. This is a hard title to find now though, so if you really have to have it in your collection (as any fan should), then I wish you happy hunting.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/09

Game Release: X-Men: Children of the Atom (US, 1996)