X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse

"Great to look back on."

First off let me start out saying, I live in the gaming past I base all my reviews as if I were comparing them to other SNES games not something like Halo.

Ok the game first starts out with you, being able to pick which X-man you want to be and you play his/her specific level. The 5 X-men that you romp through the game with are Psylocke, Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast and Gambit (we all know gambit is the coolest ever). Any who, I was very impressed with the cast of characters and the ability to view their bios. The game actually has an X-men style storyline, Magneto taking over the world with his huge Sentinels. Each X-man has their very own power that sets them apart from the others. Psylocke uses her special psy-knife, Wolverine uses his nasty claws to stick to vertical ceilings, Beast can stick to horizontal ceilings and he is very strong, Gambit is nasty with his long wooden stick and his energy powered cards and Cyclops blasts guys with his heat eyes (don't bash me for my inability to know anything about the X-men universe).

The graphics in this game are incredible, especially for the SNES there are some great ambience effects and really put you into the experience. During one level I was especially sucked in because a huge lava pool was chasing me through a tunnel and this rushing music comes on and you really get into it, you begin to panic while columns block you from progressing. This is an example of using different characters. If you use wolverines, you can rush through columns without trying to break them open, or you can use beast and bash these columns in a few simple punches. There is a huge difference between each character and how they handle combat and different bosses, sometimes it could be the difference between life and death.

On the first level you must beat each specific level for each character. After that the rest of the game is the same levels for all the characters, but sometimes you need to pick the right character for each level, or maybe you could just use your favorite character the entire game. This freedom is pretty innovative and a great step for the x-men series. The control is tight and you need to use certain button combinations activate special moves for each of the characters it is fun to experiment with these moves, and learn new ones throughout the game. I was especially impressed with the level where Psylocke was being followed around by a miscellaneous crosshair that would shoot you every 7 or so seconds, and you would have to hide behind an object before you got shot. This innovativeness was impressive and I liked the aspect of a training room mode for you n00bs in training.

The replay ability aspects of this game are incomprehensible, when you finally complete the game you can try and beat it with other characters and try their different levels. The presentation of this game is great and its graphics and sound are amazing for the SNES, especially the backgrounds. Overall I was so impressed with this game, the bar wasn't set very high but the developers really stepped up and created a great detailed game. Oh, oops, I almost forgot; there are also plenty of bosses and less identifiable mini-bosses in this game. Some of the bosses are Apocalypse, Omega Red and Juggernaught.

Overall, I was so impressed with this game I go back and play it at least once every 6 months it's such an accomplishment and the world they put you in is really phenomenal. When you're wandering through game stop without a purpose, buy this game. It is probably very cheap.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/25/04