The Fun Factor 4.23.07: X-Men (The Arcade Game)
Posted by Cory Moore on 04.23.2007
In the early '90s, Konami was the crowned king of beat'em-up arcade games. Titles like X-Men are the reason why.
Before I get into this week's edition of The Fun Factor, I'd like to send out my condolences to all of those affected by the Virginia Tech shootings. A situation like that really makes you do a double take and realize we take so much for granted sometimes. I couldn't begin to imagine what the families and the students are going through. I know it's been beaten into the ground already so I won't elaborate any more, but let's pray for everyone involved. They need it.
Now, on to a more lighthearted subject…
For the past week, I've been on a huge MAME kick. I used to not like MAME a whole lot because you have to go into a PC's command prompt to get it booted, which can be a hassle. But I recently discovered MacMAME and promptly installed it on my MacBook. This way, you see, I can play my arcade favorites during class. Who said college was about learning?
For those of you not familiar with MAME, it is an arcade emulator like those you can use to run console games on your PC. Of course, the older games (think no later than mid-‘90s) work the best. So recently I've been on a kick, playing everything from 4-player Turtles in Time to Moonwalker. Yes, the Michael Jackson game. Oh, the irony.
But while I was searching through ROMS, I immediately jumped to the ‘X' category, for a certain game held many fond memories. And not surprisingly, it was the only game on the page worth looking at…
X-Men
Arcade
1992
The Origins
The late 1980s were notable for the rise of two major happenings as it related to youngsters: comic books and arcade games. It's only fitting, then, that they interlocked and profited off each other.
In the 1980s, X-Men was one of the catalysts for comic book specialty shops popping up around the nation, housing everything from the newest issues to collectible memorabilia. Other comics such as Spiderman and Superman became mainstream characters in American society, and many other franchises enjoyed success like never before.
While video games hit a rough patch in the early part of the ‘80s, companies like Capcom and Konami started to reinvent the arcades into the ‘90s. Capcom relied on brand new franchises like Final Fight, while Konami based its games off popular franchises of the time, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons.
With the aforementioned titles under their belt, Konami stepped up their game and snagged the X-Men license just in time for the 1992 cartoon to debut on FOX. While X-Men Arcade was developed on the 1989 TV pilot, Pryde of the X-Men, it perfectly captured the feel of the X-Men franchise. In fact, it is widely considered one of the best arcade games ever…
The Controlled Substance
Like other famous Konami arcade side-scrolling games of the early ‘90s, X-Men follows a pretty simple beat'em-up formula. You have three different buttons to utilize: attack, jump, and your power move. The power move clears out most – if not all – of the opponents on screen. Be careful as you use it, though; if you don't have enough energy in your special bar, your health bar will drain.
In X-Men, you are able to choose from six different superheroes: Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Dazzler. Dazzler is the only misfit of the group, as she isn't a true staple to any significant X-Men team. But again, these are adapted from the 1989 animated pilot, so take that in mind when wondering where the cool cats like Gambit are. Sentinels act as foot soldiers in the game. Some of the bosses include Pyro, Blob, the White Queen, and Juggernaut.
The Fun Factor
The first reason X-Men has gained such praise is because of its license. Of course, the series attracted (primarily) kids who grew up with the series, so the arcade side-scroller was a perfect fit for the series. Like many of Konami's beat'em-ups, X-Men flows smoothly, is quite colorful graphically, and captures the feel of each character. For instance, Wolverine attacks villains with his claws, Cyclops can shoot laser beams from his visor, and Storm calls upon the weather to do her dirty work. Nightcrawler has always been a somewhat unheralded fan favorite, so his appearance just makes the game sweeter.
We all know how mistranslated dialogue in a video game can gain a cult following overnight. Just look at "All Your Base Are Belong to Us" for the best example. X-Men follows a similar path. While many critics like to point out the flaws in this game's dialogue, I'd like to point out the positives. Heck, it makes the game memorable! When you see a super villain screaming "The White Queen welcomes you to die" or "I am Magneto, Master of Magnet," you can't help but chuckle. In fact, you almost gain a higher satisfaction by kicking the snot out of a guy who wears a purple helmet and can't even speak proper English. I know it was a simple programming mistake, but it makes for a good time.
Ultimately, though, what sets X-Men: The Arcade Game apart is its cooperative play. Yeah, yeah, every arcade game back in the day had four player action. So what makes this one different? Well, some of X-Men's cabinets had a whopping six. That's right, six players. The arcade cabinet was significantly larger than most, as X-Men was expanded to two side-by-side screens. Only a few other games at the time used it, but X-Men was definitely the most popular. If you could ever get six kids playing on the machine at once, it was frantic, fun, but solid teamwork at its best. Plus, ganging up on bosses made it a lot easier to make it to the end without wasting $10 in quarters!
The 411
To be honest with you, I almost forgot about X-Men's arcade game until a few years ago. The entire side of my dad's family got together for Thanksgiving and we went to a getaway house in the middle of nowhere. Once the Thanksgiving leftovers vanished, me, my uncle, and a few of my cousins went up to this family-owned pizza place up the road and we spotted this arcade machine. The memories came flooding back. It had to be entertaining to watch a bunch of guys and gals in their late teens laughing about while pouncing on the arcade sticks.
The Simpsons arcade game usually brings out the nostalgia in people, but X-Men shouldn't be counted out. Along with Turtles in Time, Konami ruled the beat'em-up genre of the early ‘90s. These games may be mindless action, but they're an absolute blast to play.
