March 17, 2007. X-men mania.

Xbox 360 Cheat talks about history. Don't run! We're talking about X-men video game history. Not the stuff you sleep through in class. The first X-men game was released in 1989 for the IBM-PC and compatibles. It wasn't bad for 1989, but it wasn't that good either. It did come with a special comic book featuring the X-men verus Magneto and Arcade. They decide to have it out at an abandoned theme park called Murderworld. Not the type of place you want to take the family. You can find this game at The Underdogs. Watch out for the annoying popups on that site though.

In the same year, a console X-men game was also released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Probably the idea of making phat cash in the gaming market appealed to Marvel. But what was unappealing was this game. You can play a few X-men, but mostly you'd pick one that could shoot because you'll be shooting plenty of weird flying objects like mutant butterflies and black holes? At least that's what they look like. The game was just bad all around. I played Mutant Ninja Turtles instead.

Finally, in 1992, X-men game was released in the arcades. The game featured the X-men versus Magneto and his army of mutants and Sentinels??? It made very little sense. But it did feature six players and two screens. You could punch, jump, and use your special mutant powers. The game was really just one of those quarter eaters because beating the final boss, Magneto, was nearly impossible with a single coin. You can learn more about this game at Wiki. A year later, a forgettable X-men game was released for the Sega Genesis filled with platform jumping and bad character animation. You can learn more about it at Wiki for this game.

In 1994, Capcom got the license and made X-men Children of the Atom. The game featured the X-men versus mostly themselves and Magneto as the final boss. The game was really just a carbon copy of Streetfighter. In early 90s Capcom fashion, they later released X-men Versus Streetfighter and Marvek Versus Capcom. The games hit the Sega Saturn and Playstation.

Capcom also released different X-men games for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. These were quite good. Although the ideas were the same as other X-men type games. One button for punch, one for block, one for jump, and one for your special power. More information on the Sega Genesis game can be found at the Wiki here. This is a screenshot from the Super Nintendo version with yes, Magneto as the boss character once again.

In 2000, Activision got the licensed and released X-Men Mutant Academy followed by a sequel. The games were still fighting and the action wasn't all that great considering the competition at the time. Activision decided to keep the over the top animations that Capcom used. In the screen to the right, Cyclops unleashes his special optic blast that is somehow the size of his body. Activision did more with the Marvel license for the Spiderman games. Activision even released X-men fighting games for the Xbox and other consoles, but once again, the games were overshadowed by much better fighting games.

Next up was the release of X-men Legends in 2004 and a sequel in 2005 by Activision for the Xbox and various consoles. This time, you still punch, jump, block, and use your special powers. But you control a team who can do the same things. And you can pick up stuff to throw around. It was a pretty standard action RPG, but better than all previous attempts at releasing X-Men games.

This brings us to the release of X-men the Official Game in 2006 for the 360. Our review can be found at this page.

But I know what you are all thinking? We left out all the handheld releases and Ravages of Apocalypse for the PC. Don't those count? For this blog, no. But you can search the web for history of X-men on handhelds.