X-Men (ARC, 1992)
Graphics-8 Sound-7 Control-7 Challenge-8* Story-6
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8* Fun-7* Originality-4.5
Overall Score-7
*1-player
+
4-player co-op (there's also a 6-player cabinet with double screen width)
Large and pretty well animated sprites
Two kinds of jump kick (attack at the height of your jump to do the faster one)
Huge explosions
Grabs
Six playable characters (storm, wolverine, colossus, cyclops, dazzler, nightcrawler)
Some memorable quotes (welcome to die)
Clear voices
Satisfying feedback when attacking
Traps also hit enemies
Graphics are true to the cartoon/comic at the time
Decent cutscenes in-between levels
You can interrupt bosses during their intro speech
Difficulty options (8 levels, can also adjust how many lives you get per credit and max specials per life)
~12 chars on screen without slowdown
No friendly fire (can't turn it off though?)
Throw enemies into each other
+/-
Hit enemies when they're down
Can't run (fairly fast movement though and you can do the secondary jump attack for a bit of a boost forward)
No dodge move
Pretty cheesy music (voice sample wankery)
Can't move backwards in the levels at all
Game loops to the next difficulty level after finishing it?
Using specials drains your health down to 1 HP
Partial boss rush in the final level
-
No advanced combos (combining buttons or changing the timing)
Some control issues (no control over grabbing, performing the secondary jump attack makes the camera stop following your character (you also have to re-adjust it manually), can't jump or step sideways, can't jump without also moving forward)
Some trial & error (bosses seem to override your attacks at will)
Kinda hard to do crowd control (no breakout move and a special doesn't stop an enemy punch, can't hit other enemies while grabbing and punching an enemy)
Some enemies and traps can keep hitting your avatar as it's getting up after being knocked down
Characters play very similarly (storm seems faster and cyclops slower - the latter has a spin kick finisher that hits behind him though)
Repetitive
No power ups (including health drops; you do get an extra special per life at the end of levels though (see the blue orbs next to your health)) - apparently there's health and special drops in the JP version and it also makes the chars use up their special attack orbs before draining their health
Pretty short (six levels or ~35 mins)
Some waiting for enemies that are knocked down off screen
Almost no pits to knock enemies into
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8* Fun-7* Originality-4.5
Overall Score-7
*1-player
+
4-player co-op (there's also a 6-player cabinet with double screen width)
Large and pretty well animated sprites
Two kinds of jump kick (attack at the height of your jump to do the faster one)
Huge explosions
Grabs
Six playable characters (storm, wolverine, colossus, cyclops, dazzler, nightcrawler)
Some memorable quotes (welcome to die)
Clear voices
Satisfying feedback when attacking
Traps also hit enemies
Graphics are true to the cartoon/comic at the time
Decent cutscenes in-between levels
You can interrupt bosses during their intro speech
Difficulty options (8 levels, can also adjust how many lives you get per credit and max specials per life)
~12 chars on screen without slowdown
No friendly fire (can't turn it off though?)
Throw enemies into each other
+/-
Hit enemies when they're down
Can't run (fairly fast movement though and you can do the secondary jump attack for a bit of a boost forward)
No dodge move
Pretty cheesy music (voice sample wankery)
Can't move backwards in the levels at all
Game loops to the next difficulty level after finishing it?
Using specials drains your health down to 1 HP
Partial boss rush in the final level
-
No advanced combos (combining buttons or changing the timing)
Some control issues (no control over grabbing, performing the secondary jump attack makes the camera stop following your character (you also have to re-adjust it manually), can't jump or step sideways, can't jump without also moving forward)
Some trial & error (bosses seem to override your attacks at will)
Kinda hard to do crowd control (no breakout move and a special doesn't stop an enemy punch, can't hit other enemies while grabbing and punching an enemy)
Some enemies and traps can keep hitting your avatar as it's getting up after being knocked down
Characters play very similarly (storm seems faster and cyclops slower - the latter has a spin kick finisher that hits behind him though)
Repetitive
No power ups (including health drops; you do get an extra special per life at the end of levels though (see the blue orbs next to your health)) - apparently there's health and special drops in the JP version and it also makes the chars use up their special attack orbs before draining their health
Pretty short (six levels or ~35 mins)
Some waiting for enemies that are knocked down off screen
Almost no pits to knock enemies into