Game Boy Advance

X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse

It all boils down to this: X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse is a fun game if you like scrolling fighting games with fairly simple controls, near-mindless action, and solid gameplay. You don't have to even be an X-Men fan to enjoy this game, but if you are, you'll probably enjoy it that much more. I particularly liked the automatic save after each level so I could come back and continue later. Normally these types of games don't have too much replay value after you've finished, but I found myself going back again and again to play with all the different characters. In addition, if you know someone else with a GBA and an X-Men game pak, you could probably have hours of fun beating each other up or trying to beat the game as a team. Just watch out after continually pressing the punch button for an hour or two that your thumb doesn't start to mutate.

X-Men faithfuls, beat-'em-up lovers, and casual gamers will enjoy the invitingly easy fisticuffs that X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse has to offer. However, for those who want a bit of depth to their fighting, it may be too limited. In all fairness, though, the game's similarity to Konami's 1992 X-Men arcade game also gives it a nostalgic lure.

The game's real charm comes from its art style, which has some of the most detailed hand-drawn sprites ever seen in a sidescroller...though, admittedly certain player characters look better than others. Like Wolverine and Rogue, for example, animate much more fluidly and exaggerated than Storm and Cyclops for whatever reason...and playing as these two characters feels much more rewarding since they've had more attention paid in their motions. Sprite enemies and boss characters all have decent animation, especially the oversized ones you just can't ignore. Backgrounds are also painted with nice detail, though in several instances you can see squares all over the images -- it's obvious that the developers needed to tile the backgrounds due to the Game Boy Advance's limitations. The one very noticeable drawback is the slowdown and framerate drops that occur when more than six characters appear on-screen. It's not a huge problem, but it does stick out like a thumb.

All in all, Reign of Apocalypse is a decent romp in the setting of some of the world’s best known superheroes. It’s also a pretty good start into the GBA field, but it doesn’t offer much in terms of long lasting appeal or replayability.

A few new and exciting but poorly implemented gameplay elements fail to breathe life into this stale adventure. The game is ultimately mired by mediocre graphics, a terrible aural experience, and repetitive gameplay. Rent this game, beat it, return it in the same day, and move on. However, the core for a new and exciting experience is here, and I would not shy away from a well thought out and realized sequel.

Je me faisais une joie de retrouver la bande à Cyclope sur GBA, mais mon enthousiasme est vite retombé à cause de la répétitivité de l'action. Si vous cherchez un jeu de super héros, préférez de loin Spider-Man : Mysterio's Menace, bien plus amusant.

In case there’s any doubt whether X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse would break the tradition of dismal handheld X-Men side scrollers, rest assured it won’t. Sure the graphics are appealing the decapitated Sentinel peering into the burning remnants of Xavier's mansion and Wolverine's feral skulking look fantastic but the gameplay mantra of advance, stop, button mash, advance, stop, button mash (think Final Fight minus the fun) gets crushingly repetitive. The generic environments are devoid of platforms, weapons, or anything else to interact with and keep boredom at bay, while clusters of frustrating enemies hit you from behind or run away. Besides, what kind of X-Men game doesn’t enable you to switch team members when things get a little bit hairy Even the pathetic X-Men: Mutant Wars for the GBC did. Skip it.