Retro Review - X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse

Before the days of the internet there wasn't a lot of ways to find out if a game was going to be a quality experience. The odd game magazine was there on the news-rack in the supermarket, but the game publishers paid their salary, so you could only trust them so much. Funny how things haven't really changed in that regard.

One great way to know if a game was going to be, well, great was looking for who made it. There were studios in the '90s that just seemed like they could do no wrong. In the case of X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, Capcom was on the cover and that meant you were usually in for something special.

X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse was also an important game to kids of the time that owned a Super Nintendo. You see, the Sega Genesis had their console exclusive X-Men game and you better believe the Sega kids on the playground rubbed that in the Nintendo kids faces.

And to be fair, I would have too. The X-Men cartoon was riding high and comic books were often selling a million copies an issue. The early '90s were a beautiful time to be a kid. And Sega kids had it great with an X-Men game us Nintendo punks drooled over, even if we wouldn't admit it.

X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse was the game that would change everything, and with Capcom on the job, Nintendo fans were in good hands. X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse featured stuff pulled right from the cartoon in an action beat'em up that featured huge sprites and tons of mutant action.

This was everything we could have wanted and put the Sega offering to shame in a lot of ways. All, well, most of your favorite mutants were included here. You could roll with Wolverine, Beast, Gambit, Cyclops and Psylocke.

Sure, Psylocke was a weird choice (see's much bigger now thanks to the latest film and her inclusion of X-Force) with Storm and/or Rogue being better choices, althoug, spoiler alert, the classic team does make a cameo. Still, it's nice that Capcom tried to mix things up a little in terms of character choice.

Each member of the X-Men serve a specific role. You have Beast as the bruiser, Psylocke as the quick and nimble one, Wolverine as the small one, Gambit as the cool one, and Cyclops as the boy scout .

And since this is Capcom, each character has a unique move-set that you'll want to take advantage of. Using a very basic quarter-circle motion and button press will let you pull of moves the characters are known for.

Cyclops has his eye beams, Gambit his cards and Wolverine has the ability to be oversaturated in the Marvel universe. There are slight variations on some moves, but for the most part they work really well and feel satisfying to pull off.

Unfortunately, some work far better that others. Psylocke for instance has a shoryuken style move that often comes out of a combo that leaves you super exposed as the animation is super long. It's almost a given that you'll take some damage after doing it and not connecting with everyone.

Beast also has a charge move that is more trouble that its worth. Thankfully his main ability is climbing and hanging upside down on walls which is a total blast. Just remember that you'll need to master each character as X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse treats each character as a level.

The story see the X-Men heading to Genosha to save some mutants being X-terminated... Sorry, I couldn't resist. Professor X has the team split up to find a way onto the idea and so each character gets their own stages to play through.

It's a really nice touch that allows the game to be a big experience, but also makes you play with each character instead of ignoring one, or a few. And since each plays differently you are going to be doing a lot of practicing.

That's important to note as X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse is classic '90s hard. Games back then tended to be shorter experiences, so developers simply made games really hard to extend playtime. Some people love this because they are masochists, but it's not my cup of tea.

Thankfully, Capcom did a great job with X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse so the gameplay is nice and tight. Dying is a pain, and something that you'll become intimate with, but you'll never feel like the game cheated you.

You'll need to learn level layouts, how enemies appear, and the best strategy to defeat bosses and sub-bosses. You'll need to learn two parts to each level, as once you get the the hang of the baddies, you'll need to also learn the boss patterns too.

The game also features a lot of classic X-Men bosses in the danger room portion of the game that makes the experience a fun and fulfilling one. Sure, it's a little weird Magneto is the final boss above Apocalypse, but someone has to deal with these X-Chickens and their pesky powers.

X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse isn't a very long game, but it's one that you're probably going to invest a lot of time in learning. The only thing that could make it better is if the game also featured the animated cartoon theme song in 16-bit glory.

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