X-Men Mutant Apocalypse is definitely one of those games I really needed several attempts to get into to appreciate. X-Men was basically my childhood, so I was super excited to load up the rom when I was a kid, but... I ended up being a bit underwhelmed and turned off by the difficulty TBH?
Flash forward to this month where on a whim I decided to give it another go and realized the problem. The input detection in this game is a bit imperfect, innit. The player has to make sure they're facing a certain direction and then perform the special move input, and even then it may drop sometimes. I'm the last person in the world to complain about fighting game inputs, and in other beat em ups with these inputs like Guardian Heroes or Final Fight 3 I can always do them more consistently. I think the input detection in this game just feels a bit off for this type of beat em upformer, but once I adjusted to it somewhat I started to really get into the game.
Visually, the game is mostly pretty rad! The sprites aren't MVC tier quality but they look about as nice and detailed as they could with the sheer amount of objects always on-screen, with the colours feeling picked right out of the 90s X-Men comics and cartoons. Just about all the proportions are on point, with characters like Gambit having visible abs and muscles to suggest his physical prowess and characters like Juggernaut being extremely hulking. Also, whoever drew Psylocke's sprites was crazy downbad good lord. I think the bright colours of the X-Men characters sometimes clash a bit with the game's dark world and may have preferred some designs like the dark red-brown Wolverine costume, but I think some designs like Gambit's thieves guild costume were a few years after this game's release so it's forgivable. At least my boy Magneto still looks like a BAMF. https://twitter.com/SigmaPosting/status/1378557944766230539
I feel pretty positively about the music. I don't think Gambit, Wolverine, Magneto, Psylocke, or Juggernaut have themes quite as memorable as in MVC games, but I still think Wolverine's is top notch and Cyclops' really befits that of someone who is constantly called in to fight war after war and is just tired of all that bullshit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T7zgTrk0tU
Actually thinking about it, the instrumentation just makes me feel like the music was mostly rejected compositions for a Mega Man X game, which isn't a bad thing but just definitely something I get vibes of from the boss music especially https://youtu.be/jkGlRm2Bk6g
Anyway, what about the gameplay? Well X-Men Mutant Apocalypse is basically a cross between the Mega Man X trilogy and Final Fight 3. It doesn't always gel together into a perfect experience but it fits the game really strongly overall, actually! Every character feels totally unique with different normals and focus. Wolverine and Psylocke have pretty great DPs and agility with tools like wall climbing or triangle kicks, while Cyclops is an almost pure zoner character to contrast Beast's rushdown focus. Then there's Gambit who feels like Jack of all trades, which I suppose is fitting when he's constantly throwing Jacks at motherfuckers.
Each character's specific levels suit them well enough, though when the character meet and tackle non-specific levels that's when it hit me; the game is extremely unbalanced. For example, in the final stage, every character needs to fight Exodus, but while Beast or Gambit have an easy time fighting him due to their command normals hitting him really fast with wide hitboxes, it was a struggle hitting him with even Wolverine or Psylocke's DP. It definitely feels like an unapproachable game, even if it's not a ballbustingly hard game when you've figured out the best way to route through it.
As for the story... eh, it's whatever. I noticed the English version is missing details like the bios being trimmed, but I think even in the Japanese version each X-Man only has one line each and that kinda sucks actually? I won't remove points for it but man it's a wasted opportunity to include more banter when the heart and soul of X-Men comics was the soap opera ass interactions.
Overall X-Men Mutant Apocalypse is a solid enough beat em upformer that gets a rec to play once if you're a fan of X-Men as well as MMX and Final Fight styled games. A romhack that alleviates input detection issues and maybe adds some darker shading to characters or extra dialogue could be just the push this game needs to bump it from a ~7-7.5/10 to an 8/10 for me.
tldr Capcom was the best at what they did, and what they did was very nice!
Flash forward to this month where on a whim I decided to give it another go and realized the problem. The input detection in this game is a bit imperfect, innit. The player has to make sure they're facing a certain direction and then perform the special move input, and even then it may drop sometimes. I'm the last person in the world to complain about fighting game inputs, and in other beat em ups with these inputs like Guardian Heroes or Final Fight 3 I can always do them more consistently. I think the input detection in this game just feels a bit off for this type of beat em upformer, but once I adjusted to it somewhat I started to really get into the game.
Visually, the game is mostly pretty rad! The sprites aren't MVC tier quality but they look about as nice and detailed as they could with the sheer amount of objects always on-screen, with the colours feeling picked right out of the 90s X-Men comics and cartoons. Just about all the proportions are on point, with characters like Gambit having visible abs and muscles to suggest his physical prowess and characters like Juggernaut being extremely hulking. Also, whoever drew Psylocke's sprites was crazy downbad good lord. I think the bright colours of the X-Men characters sometimes clash a bit with the game's dark world and may have preferred some designs like the dark red-brown Wolverine costume, but I think some designs like Gambit's thieves guild costume were a few years after this game's release so it's forgivable. At least my boy Magneto still looks like a BAMF. https://twitter.com/SigmaPosting/status/1378557944766230539
I feel pretty positively about the music. I don't think Gambit, Wolverine, Magneto, Psylocke, or Juggernaut have themes quite as memorable as in MVC games, but I still think Wolverine's is top notch and Cyclops' really befits that of someone who is constantly called in to fight war after war and is just tired of all that bullshit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T7zgTrk0tU
Actually thinking about it, the instrumentation just makes me feel like the music was mostly rejected compositions for a Mega Man X game, which isn't a bad thing but just definitely something I get vibes of from the boss music especially https://youtu.be/jkGlRm2Bk6g
Anyway, what about the gameplay? Well X-Men Mutant Apocalypse is basically a cross between the Mega Man X trilogy and Final Fight 3. It doesn't always gel together into a perfect experience but it fits the game really strongly overall, actually! Every character feels totally unique with different normals and focus. Wolverine and Psylocke have pretty great DPs and agility with tools like wall climbing or triangle kicks, while Cyclops is an almost pure zoner character to contrast Beast's rushdown focus. Then there's Gambit who feels like Jack of all trades, which I suppose is fitting when he's constantly throwing Jacks at motherfuckers.
Each character's specific levels suit them well enough, though when the character meet and tackle non-specific levels that's when it hit me; the game is extremely unbalanced. For example, in the final stage, every character needs to fight Exodus, but while Beast or Gambit have an easy time fighting him due to their command normals hitting him really fast with wide hitboxes, it was a struggle hitting him with even Wolverine or Psylocke's DP. It definitely feels like an unapproachable game, even if it's not a ballbustingly hard game when you've figured out the best way to route through it.
As for the story... eh, it's whatever. I noticed the English version is missing details like the bios being trimmed, but I think even in the Japanese version each X-Man only has one line each and that kinda sucks actually? I won't remove points for it but man it's a wasted opportunity to include more banter when the heart and soul of X-Men comics was the soap opera ass interactions.
Overall X-Men Mutant Apocalypse is a solid enough beat em upformer that gets a rec to play once if you're a fan of X-Men as well as MMX and Final Fight styled games. A romhack that alleviates input detection issues and maybe adds some darker shading to characters or extra dialogue could be just the push this game needs to bump it from a ~7-7.5/10 to an 8/10 for me.
tldr Capcom was the best at what they did, and what they did was very nice!