X-Men: Mutant Academy Game by Activision/Crawfish Reviewed by The Avardancer (Philip Wesley) Size: 16 megabits Save: NONE! Released: 2000 Works with: Game Boy Color ONLY! **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: Why did I buy this game? I'm not even an X-Men fan! But, I like fighting games, and this game has a two player game link option. It's also done by Crawfish, and I got to try it out before hand, so I knew it wasn't going to be... horrible. Well, I have a store-bought copy of the game and I'll sit down and review it. **************************************************************************** Gameplay Descripion: Well, to break it down, I'll explain the fighting engine in this game. The buttons are touch responsive. Which is basically the standard. Pretty much every fighting game on the Game Boy, except for Power Quest, has this. Tap for weak attack, hold for strong attack. Where do you think SNK got the idea from? You can block in the air, and you can knock your opponent out of the air as well. Some of the characters have projectiles as their strong attacks. Each character has two special moves and a super move. Which is a little skimpy compared to some Game Boy fighting games. But it works out okay in this game as special moves aren't really going to connect as often as you would like. Everything is blockable. And the computer will block pretty much everything so go in and punch them. That's what I recommend. Go in and slug it out L.A. style. The Rage meter at the bottom of the screen fills when ever you get hit, or do a move. When it is full, press A and B at the same time to unleash your special move. Careful! Some moves are short distance only. In other words, they involve grabbing your opponent. Think before you use them. There are eleven fighters to choose from. They are Pheonix, Apocalypse (Both hidden!), Magneto, Toad, Mystique, Pyro, Sabretooth, Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, and Gambit. The game has a Story mode, which is a "Defeat all mutants" deal. Not really much of a story; but it's fairly long and depending on whether you are an Evil Mutant, Good Mutant, or Apocalypse; the order of the fighters is different. Good beats good first, bad takes out bad first, Apocalypse takes everyone out in random order. The Battle mode is a Three on Three Survival Match. Easy actually... Oh, well. That's all I can really say about it. Survival Mode is fun. And it is the best challenge. How many Mutants can YOU beat before you get beaten? The game also has a Training mode and that teaches you the moves if you push the Select button in it. Not bad. Next is Options. Tweak that like so for the best possible challenge. Only ONE notch on the damage meter should be lit. There you go. And that little challenge number should be 3. That makes the game more fun. The game also has.. TWO PLAYER GAME LINK VS PLAY!!!!! Yippee! Crawfish has FINALLY gotten it right. Two player modes are good.Thanks to Pokémon, a lot of gamers have the link cable. About time a Game Boy Color ONLY fighting game used it. Liked: Fun. Two-player mode! Hated: With the right options.... can make it really short... **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: Not too flashy, a little more flashy then Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior's Dreams; but still not as flashy as, say, King of the Fighters 1995, or World Heroes 2 Jet. The characters on the other hand are NOT super-deformed, although some of them look a little odd. For example, Apocalypse really doesn't look too much like Apocalypse to me, he looks like something out of Reboot. But, he's the only character that looks a little odd, Gambit, Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Magneto, everyone else, looks like they should for the most part. Considering they are only three colors each. They don't animate as smooth as Street Fighter Alpha; but they still look good doing that mutant thing. There are some comic book style cut-scene stills in the game and those are cool. A few of the characters have sweet looking ending sequences. But not all the characters have endings and that is sad. Maybe the game was rushed to meet the movie? Oh, some of the characters, like Storm look perfect. The character faces are well done, the map screen and menus are sweet too. The backgrounds have day and night versions and while they have no movement in them like some other fighting games, they vertically scroll -something NONE of the NGPC fighters ever did- and that Morlock Tunnel one is sweet. I think it's just too bad that you can't.. I dunno.. break through the floors and stuff. The title screen is nice and reminds me of the X-Men arcade game. There is some flickering; but it's actually not noticable unless you are actually looking for it. I can have two Sabretooths, or two Apocalypse on the same screen and the flicker is barely there. Which is excellent, when you consider that the characters are rather large on-screen. Liked: Sweet backgrounds that vertically scroll, almost no flickering, and it all looks good. Hated: Three and four color sprites just need to go away. **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: This is the weak spot. The music, while nice, is rather limited, and repetitive. The sounds are weak as well. Not weak as in low or inaudible. Weak as in.. lame. Liked: Sound isn't a big factor if you turn it all the way down. Hated: It just needs some work... really. **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: For not being an X-Men fan, I like it. It's a solid fighting game with a good game engine. I would want to do something with that Rage meter though.. it's far too easy to use. I mean, you tap A and B at the same time to use it. That isn't right. I want it to be like the meter in Street Fighter Alpha. Where you need to do something else to use your Super Moves. I would have also liked to have seen ONE MORE DIFFICULTY LEVEL. Seriously, I beat it on all three levels of difficulty by being a really cheap person. But the two-player mode is where it is at. Oh, yes. The two-player mode is worth it. Crawfish is getting better at this. I eagerly await whatever fighter they do next. Oh, the play control is responsive, although, the timing for the special moves isn't very forgiving. Oh, well. Practice you fool! It's okay though, as you really only need special moves for strategy against a human opponent. Yoo can be cheap and juggle the computer around. The computer needs to be smarter. Sometimes it can be cheap; but it's not as tough as some of the AI I've seen in other fighters. Liked: Nice two-player mode. Responsive control. Hated: The computer doesn't stand a chance... **************************************************************************** Improve: Improve the AI. Oh, do another Marvel game.. preferably Marvel VS Capcom. Let me break stuff. Also, put Spiderman in it. I think they can pull off the whole character swap Tag Team deal if they have the time. Oh, KEEP making TWO-PLAYER fighting games.. or make one with the Darkstalkers in it. RIYL: Fighting games, X-Men. **************************************************************************** Final Words: I like this game. I'm not even an X-Men fan but I like it. If you like fighting games, it's worth your time, definately. Especially if you like playing against people. **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: ***** Graphics: ***** Sound/Music: *** Play Control/Game Design: **** Personal Opinion: ***** Total: 23 out of 25 Final Score: 92% **************************************************************************** Currently Known Codes: I beat the game to get you these codes.. happy? At the Title screen, key in the following sequences to unlock the two hidden characters. Pheonix = Down, Right, Down, Up, Left, Right, B, A Apocalypse = Right, Left, Up, Down, Left, Up, B, A