Xbox

X-Men: Next Dimension

While not as impressive as other Xbox fighters, the Marvel Universe comic book heroes and villains certainly look the best they ever have in videogame form in XND. The AI challenge pushes even the best gamers too. But the game’s good looks and taxing challenge level cannot help overcome the difficult fighting controls that made playing not very much fun at all. In fact, the controls absolutely ruin the XND experience. Even fighting game veterans will be reduced to button mashing mayhem. If this game’s controls could have came anywhere near the responsive wonderfulness of DOA3, this could have been a a great addition to the Xbox fighting game genre. As it is, only the most rabid of X-Men fans might want to consider picking up.

X-Men: Next Dimension is a superhero fighting game that shows a lot of promise but comes up short in so many ways. And while the fighting mechanics are decent at best, the game fails to capture the raw excitement of playing as a favorite superhero or villain. Next Dimension is definitely a good rental for fans of the comics and movies.

One of the least popular fighting games around the office in quite a long time, X-Men: Next Dimension is certainly not for everybody. Ribbed on as it may be by the other guys in the desks around me, nobody spent as much time with it as I did either. And nobody besides me was privileged enough to discover just how decent this one can actually be.

A number of X-Men: Next Dimension's characters require unlocking, and various other extras--mostly alternate outfits for characters--can also be obtained from repeated play. Still, the problems with the fighting system will probably keep you from playing X-Men: Next Dimension extensively. It can be a fine game to play with casual gamer friends who are fans of the source material, but since a number of better fighting games starring the X-Men already exist, it's hard to get too excited about this one. In the end, even the most ardent X-Men fans should probably just rent Next Dimension rather than buy it.

Encore une fois, les X-Men ne parviennent pas à convaincre sur console. Manque de rythme, réalisation trop limite, on les préfère largement lorsqu'ils apparaissent en 2D dans des productions plus musclées.

X-Men: Next Dimension borrows inspiration from Dead of Alive 3's multiple arenas, but like everything else in the game it is a pale copy of the original. While it is true that you can knock an opponent into the next arena, it is impossible to move back into the prior one, even if it makes logical sense. For example, one level takes place inside the mansion. From the main room you can knock an opponent into Xavier's office. From Xavier's office you can see back out into the main room, yet you cannot run back out there. Very odd, indeed.