Unlockable Content 01.10.07: Reimagining...X-Men 3: The Official Movie Game

Posted by Will Scott on 01.10.2007

Once again, a look at a video game that needs to be redone. This time, the title's not just a bad use of the license, it's a bad game, period.

Welcome back once more to Unlockable Content, and as always, I'm Will Scott. After a nice break, in which things were looked back upon and e-mails displayed, I'm finally getting myself back on track to get to the series at hand. You know the drill – we're going to take a game, do a quick breakdown of its flaws and merits, and try to reconstruct it as something that...well…sucks less. We've already taken a look at the two games that I think are most salvageable – Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. These last two games are, to be blunt, crappy games with little to redeem themselves.

So, without further ado, I give you…X-Men 3: The Official Movie Game.

X-Men 3: The Official Movie Game

X3 (as I'll refer to it throughout the article), is a "midquel" or missing chapter in the X-Men movies series, set between the second and third movies. It's actually almost completely unrelated to the third movie, and only serves to explain a single plot point (where Nightcrawler went). Rather, in an almost totally unrelated adventure, Iceman and Nightcrawler clean up after the events of the second film and Wolverine…well, is Wolverine for several terrible levels. Therein lies a good bit of the problem.

The game itself is split in to three game styles – Nightcrawler's stages are platformers, Iceman is a rail shooter (more or less), and Wolverine is a straight brawler. You'll switch back and forth between the three characters in the various stages, though you'll generally have to play through at least some of them in order (no playing through, for example, Nightcrawler's stages first). The game's quality is markedly different between the characters. Nightcrawlers stages are actually enjoyable, using his powers to a very entertaining extent. Iceman's stages are serviceable, and short enough that they aren't overly annoying. Wolverine's stages, however, are long, drawn out, and actually frustrating because of how repetitive they are. For all three characters, the combat is kind of clunky and the graphics are fairly standard, if uninspired. Power effects aren't quite as nice as in, say, Marvel Legends, but they could be worse. Cutscenes are handled with comic-book like stills that are simply disappointing, even though the voice work is actually quite nice.

The only positive points of this game are Nightcrawlers stages, which in any other game would probably only be considered sufficient. There are variable difficulty settings, but the game is simple enough to beat on all three. Characters can be upgrade through mutation points earned at the various difficulties, and there are some extras…but I can't see why you'd want to get at them. X-Box 360 has the usual Achievements, but they're nothing to be proud of.

The Fix: X-Men

First and foremost, we'll drop the long title. We understand that it is, in fact, a video game. We're good like that, I think. We'll even keep the same basic conceit – a game set between the second and third films. Heck, we can even keep the same three characters, with the same basic versions of the stages. From here, though, we'll begin to diverge.

First and foremost, the combat system must be tweaked. Again, I'm tempted to base the system on Ninja Gaiden (as with the Buffy game), but we'll go a bit different and base it on God of War. Both Wolverine and Nightcrawler would benefit from the combo-heavy system, and the button-tap mini games would be wonderful for Nightcrawler's teleport attacks. Keeping up the rhythmic taps could increase the number of strikes against the enemy, for example.

Wolverine's combat needs to be fluid and fast, not slow and clunky. Wolverine should be able to leap from enemy to enemy, using his claws to quickly attack. As such, the enemies should really just be cannon fodder – large waves that do little damage, but with sheer numbers. To break up the monotony, there should be honest to god puzzles for Wolverine to solve. People tend to forget, but the man's actually portrayed as relatively clever in the comics, and he's got a good deal of experience in what he does. The stages should still be fairly linear, but the combo of puzzles and combat should be useful.

Nightcrawler's stages were done right in the game, and with the combat tweaks they'd be even more fun. Platforming, stealth, and puzzles would be the heart of his stages, with some combat thrown in. His boss battles would be about finding weak points and using teleportation, not…well, dragging drones.

Iceman's a different animal than the other two, and his stages needed some work. The Starfox-esque shooter portions were nice, but they just don't feel right for him. Portions of these stages do need to be on the ice slide, but allow him to go on foot as well. Putting out fires, for example, might be a good idea. Or chasing an enemy from skyscraper to skyscraper, dropping on the ground to fight some thugs, and then jumping on the slides to resume the chase. It just needs a bit of variety.

This is still a movie tie in game, and it does need the good voice work back. Keep the movie's actors, but actually animate some damn cutscenes. Seriously, the pseudo-scenes were kind of creepy in the last one. Fully animated cut-scenes, like Ultimate Alliance, would be very nice. All these things combined would make this game a far more replayable property.

And that's it for this week. Next week, we tackle what I feel is the most disappointing game of all time. Plus, we'll even do a brief "at first glance" review of a half-dozen games. Send in some feedback, and it'll get posted here. Here's another reader submission contest – give me a sign off line. I need help.