Introduction
"Cyclops. Storm. Banshee. Nightcrawler. Wolverine. Colossus. Children of the atom, students of Charles Xavier,
Mutants--feared and hated by the world they have sworn to protect. These are the strangest heroes of all--these
are the Uncanny X-Men!"
That was the intro that preceded every X-Men comic book when the "new" and revamped team debuted back
in the late 70s. Though the roster has changed through the years, the basic premise of mutants being social outcasts
has constantly remained in all the X-books, and with the movie becoming a huge hit, Marvel Comics' merry band of
mutants have finally made it to the mainstream, and are enjoying popularity like never before.
Gameplay
X-Men: Mutant Academy is basically a fighting game, in which you choose from 9 available mutants and pit them against
each other in one-on-one battles. You can select from a roster that includes Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, and Gambit
from Prof. X's school, or Magneto, Mystique, Sabretooth, Toad and Pyro, from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Two
other mutants, Phoenix and Apocalypse, are hidden characters who can only be unlocked later on in the game.
5 modes are present in this game: Story Mode, in which you fight a succession of good to evil mutants leading to
the hidden characters Phoenix or Apocalypse; VS. Mode, where you get to battle a human-controlled opponent via
Link Cable; Battle Mode, a team match consisting of three mutants each; Survival Mode, where you fight to the finish;
and Training Mode, where you practice your special moves.
The mutants battle amidst a variety of global locations, from Giza, Egypt to London, England, with day transforming
into night. During battles, the more you hit your opponent, the faster your Rage bar increases, and once it's full,
you can unleash your special moves. Pressing Select in Training Mode will show you the correct keys to press in
order to perform certain special moves.
Controls, Graphics, Sound
Controls are simple enough: during battles, players either use a combination
of punches and kicks using the A or B buttons and the direction pad to move, jump, or crouch. An Options menu lets
you switch the A and B buttons, turn off the sound or music, set the degree of difficulty, number of rounds, time,
and the amount of damage.
Graphics are very good, with each mutant nicely animated, but the special effects of their signature powers could
use more detail; Cyclops' eye beams look more like fiery rocks rather than his trademark optic blasts, Storm's
lightning bolts look like feeble sparks, and Phoenix's "phoenix force" looks like some paltry canary
rather than the celestial avatar it's supposed to be. The backgrounds are colorful and well done, but sometimes
too well done that the mutants themselves tend to blend within them.
Sound is okay, with appropriate rousing themes scattered throughout the battles, but the music tended to get distracting
that from time to time I would turn it off. Sound effects are sparse and severely lacking; whatever was used seems
to be substandard Game Boy fare and could have used a little more variety.
Other Comments
Clearly, something went wrong with the way this game was developed from
its inception to its actual production--it's way too easy. Battles are relegated to nonstop, repeated button pressing,
and you can easily defeat opponents by cornering them to the edge of the screen, crouching down, and wildly mashing
the punch button like there's no tomorrow. Using this technique, I managed to defeat every single opponent using
Magneto in Story Mode, and was able to obtain Phoenix in the process.
Unlocking the hidden characters are more trouble than they're worth, since all you get for your effort is a set
of codes to press during the title screen, and it's a frustrating process--it took me several tries before I managed
to unlock them. Why couldn't they be automatically available after you win?
Worse, there's no Save feature, making all your effort for naught. So if you want to use the hidden characters
again you'd have to go through the whole button-mashing exercise or use the codes you were given, providing you
bothered to write them down in the first place. This is supposed to be a "Mutant Academy", so why isn't
there some kind of saved ranking system at least to make all this battling worthwhile?
The choices of mutants were unsatisfying as well; Toad has never been an effective villain, but his inclusion here
is probably tied to the movie. Pyro's inclusion here was also strange and unwelcome. Where's Rogue? Psylocke? Shadowcat?
Colossus? For the villains, Juggernaut, Sinister, or even Onslaught would have been worthy additions.
Overall, this game was very disappointing for me on two counts: as a long-time X-Men reader and as someone who
expected the same kind of quality from Crawfish, the game's developers and the very same developers who made the
excellent Street Fighter Alpha for the Game Boy Color. X-Men: Mutant Academy may look like Street Fighter, but
Street Fighter it ain't. If you want to play an X-Men fighting game, then get the much superior PlayStation version
of X-Men: Mutant Academy. If you want to buy a good fighting game for the Game Boy, get Street Fighter Alpha instead. |
