Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Released: 1994 Genre: Beat em up
The X-Men license did not get off to a good start on the SNES. Spider-Man & the X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge was not a good game in spite of its fantastic soundtrack. Wolverine: Adamantium Rage was a middling game that could have been better. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised those games were bad seeing as they came from Acclaim but I digress. Leave it to Capcom to do it justice in the span of one year. X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse was the home console companion to the excellent arcade game and an awesome addition to the system’s beat em up library.
Honestly the story is an excuse to feature an all-star cast of X-Men universe. Anti-mutant hysteria has reached a fever pitch on the island nation of Genosha. Mutants around the world are disappearing, prompting Professor X to send a specialized team of X-Men to investigate. But behind the scenes something even worse is brewing….
The setup is a little different from your typical action game. Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, Beast, and Psylocke are your playable characters. Rather than choosing one and playing through the game each has their own stage initially. All action takes place on a single plane rather than the belt scroll popular in the genre. It isn’t as limiting as you would think and there is some simple platforming thrown in to break up combat. After the initial set of levels you can choose anyone to tackle the last few. There are definite advantages for certain characters although I feel Beast is the worst out of everyone.
Capcom have infused the gameplay with a little bit of Final Fight to make it varied. Using simple button combinations you can perform a variety of special moves. The inputs are simpler than Street Fighter allowing anyone to jump in. The special attacks are character specific and a bit of fan service for fans of the comics. From Gambit’s charged cards to Cyclops’ optic blasts, they relive the boredom inherit in the genre, especially as the game is of decent length. Some heroes have more moves than others like Psylocke and Wolverine but you would be a damn fool to not expect that given their popularity. My only disappointment with the controls is that the game only uses two buttons. In practice mode you can use X to perform special attacks; the game would be so much better if it were carried over to normal mode.
The introductory stage for each level is tailored to their abilities. With his optic blasts Cyclops fights more long range enemies and has minimal hand to hand combat. That is Wolverine’s forte; as the scrappy brawler his stage has the most enemies. With his ability to stick to ceilings Beast has a heavy platforming component to his stage. After the introductions the game opens up, allowing you to choose freely to tackle its last few levels. These test how well you know each character as they can be disproportionately harder depending on the hero. As much as I like how well Capcom have made each character unique the game still favors Wolverine and Gambit heavily. But that is my opinion.
Unlike the majority of brawlers Mutant Apocalypse is not particularly difficult. Once you can execute your special attacks regularly most regular enemies put up little fight. Technically you begin the game with ten lives. Rather than a single pool you get two per character. With a little exploration you can earn an extra life for every character as well. The boss battles are where the game gets challenging if you pick the wrong character. The Brood Queen is simple with Cyclops but a nightmare with Beast for example. While it does have its moments with annoying long stuns most will breeze through it until the final level, which is….yeah.
The gameplay is solid but the most striking aspect of Mutant Apocalypse is its graphics. The sprites are massive and look ripped straight from the comic book page. The proportions are a little wonky but as a whole they look and animate great. The list of enemies and bosses is a literal who’s who of the X-Men universe. The game has a flimsy reason to toss in some of the most popular villains but when they look this good I can’t complain. I am almost sure that the game was built on the back of Mega Man X as the graphics and music look and sound similar. That is a compliment.
In Closing
X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse is a great game and one of the better X-Men games of the time. Excellent graphics and solid gameplay let it hold up even today. Up until The X-Men Legends games this was probably the best licensed title starring these characters on home consoles.
