Games based on movies are a popular trend and now that we’re in the summer movie season more are on the horizon, including X-Men: The Official Game. X-Men is a straight beat ‘em up ties the second and third movies together, but instead of focusing on all the X-Men this game just focuses on three - Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Iceman. The problem with the game comes from the fact that it appears it’s been rushed to retailers in order to maximize on the hit movie and in the end feels rather uninspired.

Probably the one thing that particularly stands out about the game is the voice acting. Thankfully Activision didn’t scrap here for the most part landing voiceovers from Hugh Jackman, Alan Cumming, Shawn Ashmore and Patrick Stewart as Professor X. All four actors do a solid job voicing their characters and that adds some depth to an otherwise lousy game. Sadly though, the remaining members of the cast are made up of generic actors that do nothing more than read the roles and the music isn’t anything to write home about.

Another thing that particularly stood out about the X-Men game is certain graphics. Overall the environments aren’t very good, but the main characters you’ll play with throughout the game are pretty well done and look a lot like their counterparts. You can really see Jackman and Cumming in Wolverine and Nightcrawler respectively, making the main characters stand out on screen.

Finally, the game does offer some extras including unlockable costumes, hidden items and Danger Room missions. These all provide a little bit of extra replay value in order to maximize the experience. One other additional item in the game is the ability to acquire character upgrades like health, damage and more along with going through all three of the characters to find out the entire story. All this is decent, but none of it exactly blows you away.

First and foremost the gameplay in X-Men is very repetitive. You’ll continuously find yourself hitting the same four buttons - X to jump, square and triangle to fight and L2 to heal. This game is a beat ‘em up through and through and doesn’t require any thinking to utilize the characters. Sure each character has a slightly different ability set like Nightcrawler can teleport to fight and Iceman can shoot and surf on ice, but none of the characters can pull off any combo moves making the gameplay even worse. Finally, the enemy AI is just terrible and stupid.

One other big problem with X-Men is the presentation. This has to do with a couple things; one is the in-game graphics which are dull and generic. You’ll often find yourself in an enclosed warehouse or building trying to hack into a computer system in order to shut down generators, open a door, or something else. Overall the areas you fight in are pretty bland and the enemies all look identical. The only thing that separates them apart from each other is the weapon they carry which varies between bazookas, guns, electric sticks, and more.

The other issue related to the presentation is the cutscenes and storyline. Since the game focuses on just three of the X-Men, the story is pretty disjointed and rather hard to follow. After a little while you really don’t care about the plot anymore. Along with this are the cutscenes or rather lack thereof. The game features still or essentially still scenes that don’t attempt to go the comic book route like they could and probably should have; instead the scenes just don’t look right and become very difficult to watch.

Finally, the last major problem with the game is the fact that it just isn’t well put together. There are minor glitches throughout the game like enemies getting stuck in walls and more. Another thing is that the game doesn’t feature a two-player option at all which it could have easily utilized to make the beat ‘em up much more enjoyable.

Though X-Men: The Official Game is bad, it isn’t terrible. There is a nice variety of combat amongst Wolverine, Iceman and Nightcrawler and the voice acting by their movie counterparts is solid. Beyond that though, X-Men is disappointing in just about every other regard. The graphics are dull and lifeless, the enemies are predictable and the gameplay is brain-damagingly repetitive. It’s particularly disappointing to see Activision take advantage of a solid franchise to make a few bucks especially when we know they can make a good X-Men game - just look at X-Men Legends. In the end if you’re interested in checking out the X-Men this summer, go to the movie and hope it isn’t anything close to the game.

There’s lots of repetition, all three players utilize only three or four buttons. No combos.

Character graphics are very good, but the environments and enemies are monotonous and generic.

Audio is the best part with good voice work from Jackman, Stewart along with solid effects.

X-Men is very repetitive as a beat ’em up. Iceman things more interesting, but not enough.

Average in length. You could go back to earn better abilities, hidden costumes, and more.

]]> Tue, 06 Jun 2006 20:31:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/xmen_the_official_movie_game_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/xmen_the_official_movie_game_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/xmen_the_official_movie_game_announced# X-Men: The Last Stand - are in the works at various developer houses. Entitled X-Men: The Official Movie Game (working title - sounds rather familiar, doesn't it?), the game provides a back-story for the upcoming film.

For the first time ever, the game enables players to truly command the powers of popular characters from the X-Men movie universe by allowing players to assume the roles of Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Iceman as they wield and upgrade their signature powers and maneuver through unique environments designed to showcase their Super Hero abilities. Assisted by other X-Men characters, players will use an advanced control scheme to master and control the characters like never before as they unleash Wolverine’s combat rage, experience Nightcrawler’s acrobatics and teleportation powers, and glide through the air on Iceman’s ice slide.

• Become three legendary heroes — Players will immerse themselves in the signature powers of their favorite X-Men heroes - hack and slash with Wolverine’s brute strength to decimate foes; as Nightcrawler, players will scale walls, spin and BAMF through environments to stay one step ahead of enemies; and experience incredible speed on Iceman’s ice slide while shooting ice beams and creating hailstorms to freeze the opposition. For even more power, players can utilize fury and adrenaline modes to launch devastating attacks.
• Experience events leading up to the X-Men: The Last Stand feature film and play beyond – Players will experience epic Super Hero action as the game explains Nightcrawler’s mysterious absence from the movie, and in-game events foreshadow the roles of the X-Men and Brotherhood in the film. The game’s climactic ending sets the stage for the movie with intersecting characters and storylines intersecting.
• Become a part of the X-Men movie universe — Embark on a globe-spanning conflict that delivers every element of the X-men universe—from costumes and enemies to the voice of Patrick Stewart. Explore Alkali Lake, the Statue of Liberty, Dark Cerebro and more.
• Battle fierce enemies, join forces with X-Men comrades — Face off against villains from both the movie and beyond as favorite X-Men allies join forces with the player in gameplay that includes melee fighting, stealth-style action and time-based missions.
• Experience gameplay environments specifically designed to showcase each character’s Super Hero abilities – Uniquely engineered environments empower players to use different gameplay strategies as they harness their Super Hero powers and defeat enemies. Players will have ultimate control over their heroes as they improve their superpowers over time through the Mutant Evolution System.
• Game console features and exclusives – Experience the X-Men universe in amazing HD on the Xbox 360 version of the game. The Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS versions also offer exclusive X-Men characters to play, and for the first time, use the Nintendo DS touch screen to control the X-Men.

• Z-Axis (PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360)
• Hypnos (Nintendo GameCube)
• Amaze (Nintendo DS)
• Wayfoward (GameBoy Advance)
• Beenox (PC)