X-Men: Mojo World

"A good conclusion to a great trilogy"

X-Men: Mojo World is the final chapter of a trilogy of X-Men games that found their way to the Game Gear during the mid 90s. It gives us six playable characters and six levels of classic platforming action.

These games come from an era when the storyline wasn't all that important. Just a couple paragraphs or a page in a game manual. The actual game doesn't offer anything by way of storytelling. Instead, it gets us right into the action. The stories for all three of the Game Gear X-Men games are remarkably similar. A winning formula reused. Several members of the X-Men team have been captured by an arch villain, and the two remaining team members must rescue their friends and confront the arch villain while combating hordes of the villain's henchmen. That's pretty much all there is to it.

We have two characters available at the beginning of the game. In this case, it's Wolverine and Rogue. Each of the first four levels houses an imprisoned member of the team, who is guarded by a boss character. After the boss is beaten, the imprisoned character becomes playable. Unlike the other two X-Men games, this one progresses in a linear fashion. That's kind of odd. Being able to choose the order in which we play the levels was an endearing feature of the other two.

Playable characters include Wolverine, Rogue, Cyclops, Gambit, Havok, and Shard. Each character has his own style of attack and his own mutant power, which can be used when it's activated. Just like in other X-Men games, some of the characters are way underpowered here. But if the games were true to comic books (or the movies, for that matter), some of these characters would be nigh invulnerable. To add a level of challenge to the game, the designers gave the characters a mutant power gauge. When his power runs out, he can't use his super powers anymore. Most of the characters are shooters (they fire a projectile of some sort at their enemies). Two of them are melee combatants, attacking at close range. One can fly.

Power-ups replenish your health and power, and there are many of them scattered about the various levels. There's a good variety of bad guys to fight, most of which fire bullets or lasers. Level designs range from linear side-scrolling to quite labyrinthine. This game offers us some good exploration through a variety of locales, including a sewer system, an army base, a futuristic city, and a few high-tech strongholds. Even the straight forward linear levels encourage us to explore, as there are power-ups atop buildings and in tunnels underground. The labyrinthine levels are full of alternate paths, dead ends with power-ups, and numerous extraneous areas to explore. The levels here are considerably smaller than those seen in the other two X-Men games.

The boss characters here are a notable improvement over those seen in the first X-Men game. Some require strategy to beat, depending on which character you're playing, but they're not as difficult as the bosses in the first X-Men game. On the whole, I found this game to be somewhat easier than the other two. On base value, it's just as difficult. There's just not as much terrain to cover, which makes it easier.

Visually, the game is well above average. Backgrounds all look good, sporting some nice scenery. The characters are a good size, larger than those in the first X-Men game. They all have good detail in their outfits, and they're well animated. Same goes for enemy characters.

Our sound department is a mixed bag. For the most part, unobtrusive techno-dance music plays in the background. The music in this game is all well done, with a variety of instruments playing. Sound effects are rather poor. Punches, laser blasts, optic blasts... all are pretty lackluster. This game doesn't have anything by way of snazzy effects. This is a fault I overlook because it's a fun game.

I love the X-Men games on the Game Gear. Exploring the labyrinthine locales, beating up the bad guys, and collecting power-ups with my favorite character never fails to please. This is a great trilogy of games (X-Men, The Gamesmaster's Legacy, and Mojo World). While they come up short in some areas (most notably the sound effects department), they've got it where it counts. Good-looking environments, cool character designs, expansive levels to explore, and fun game-play.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/24/05