X-Men

The Good
Much like with "Spider-Man Vs. The Kingpin", Sega gave Marvel Comics fans an exciting (or 'x-citing') game. No longer did X-men fans have to settle for the horrid "Uncanny X-men" NES game (by LJN) or spend a small fortune to buy the original coin-op X-men arcade game (by Capcom).

The X-men's first 16-bit adventures features amazing animation, graphics, music and sound effects. The basic, side-scrolling, game play mechanics are easy to pick up and their are nice little touches throughout the game, which demonstrate a respect for the source material.

The storyline itself seems like something straight from the comic books of that era (early 1990s), and it is just really cool to see a video game based on a franchise, which is not a hatchet job.

The Bad
I had hoped that Storm would have been one of the playable characters, but she (along with Ice Man, Jean Grey and Angel) is only a NPC roles in the game, who can offer a bit of help now and again.

While the game play mechanics were easy to pick up, comic book fans might find it odd that certain playable characters, such as Cyclops and Night Crawler, have a limited usage of their trademark mutant powers.

Yes, such limitations were designed to "level the playing field", but it does mean that much of the in-game action involves a heavy amount of punching and kicking.

The storyline is interesting, but much of it is displayed on-screen with tiny text. With the exception of the ending (which is wonderful) all of the intermission sequences/cut scenes could have been handled better.

Finally, something should be said about the 'glitch' after you defeat Mojo.

To clean up the computer virus, you have to literally 'reset' your Sega Genesis. Failure to do so properly and at the right time, means that you have to start the game all over again. Yikes!

I can understand the sense of humor, but it probably would have been better to have had an on-screen icon or something that the X-men smashed up.

The Bottom Line
X-men for the Sega Genesis is truly an "x-citing" game. It demonstrates respect for comic book and video game fans alike.