Ah, the X-Men; an incredibly well loved superhero franchise originating in the 60’s which experienced somewhat of a revival of popular interest in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Growing up I was quite familiar with the franchise, at least in the state it was presented at that time, and recall quite a few games based on the 90’s animated series being produced and these, among some earlier titles, are what the Nerd is focusing on in this episode.
We start off with a quick side story about a teacher James had in school saying that the name was a bit “sexist,” with James following this up with a bit of a joke. This acts as our introduction to the games and starting off we have “X-Men” for the NES.
This game is, of course, produced by LJN. This marks a point in the AVGN series where James really begins to note how that rainbow logo is virtually an assurance of a bad game being present inside the cartridge, and this is no exception.
It’s a top-down action-adventure title with an odd quirk that even if you are playing a one player game, you have to pick 2 characters acting as a team. One you control, and the other the computer controls. Poorly. Not just bad, no, it actually can hinder the gameplay experience, sometimes making progress virtually impossible. This, on top of the usual poor controls, level design, graphics, much of everything. Yeah, the Nerd hates this one, and apparently it’s a game he actually rented in his youth, thus wasting a weekend on such a horrible game. Poor James.
We move on to another X-Men game, in this case Wolverine which happens to also be made by LJN. Fuck.
This one is a side scrolling platformer where, as you can imagine from the title, you play as Wolverine. It looks better, but still apparently isn’t that much better of a game.
Beyond odd enemies, rough controls and level design, and some other oddities, the biggest point of note is the signature trait of Wolverine, the claws. You have to manually pull them out, which would be fine, but they damage you to use them. Yeah, that makes minimal sense to me too. It’s an odd game, to say the least. Very odd. I’ll leave James to fill you in on just how crazy it is. Better than the last game, but not much.
Next up we get a quick look back at the X-Men arcade game (you know, the origin of “Welcome to Die”) and it raises the question of why we couldn’t get some game of that style on home consoles in the early 90’s. A very good question, I’d have to say.
To finish up this episode, James covers two X-Men game on the Sega Genesis — the same games I recall being released in the early 90’s.
For the first X-Men game he touches on he has to at least mention the claws again — this time they don’t drain your health though, so that’s a plus. Beyond that he hits at quirks regarding the stage select code and a section at the end of the game where you have to “reset the computer” which actually involves resetting the Sega Genesis console. Neat, but cryptic in the game, and not always possible depending on what Genesis / Mega Drive variant you’re playing the game on.
Lastly, we get to X-Men 2: Clone Wars. A good one with a few quirks, but nothing to really ruin the experience. Oh, and Wolverines claws are out by default finally.
Final Rating: 3.5/5
This is a pretty nice episode. Nothing special, sure — it isn’t all that hilarious and is more straightforward and bluntly honest than some of the other more comedy driven episodes, but that’s fine. I think it’s actually better that way, a very honest if eccentric criticism of some games that should have been great, with an eventual ending showing that an X-Men game can be done well, helping accent just how bad the two NES titles really are.
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