Franchise Retrospective: X-Men's Gaming Legacy Part 5 -- X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse

X-Men may have had a good start when the first games released in the 16-bit era, but the games really hit their stride in the latter half of it. Admittedly, that's not too surprising. Developers tend to better manage and master the hardware technology they're working with after developing software for it after a few years, so it's expected that the games at the end of the generation are going to look better and play better. But that's something tough to describe in words, and it helps if the person reading has a history with 16-bit consoles. So hopefully you do, and hopefully you're aware that X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse is one of the better examples.

Then again, anyone in the know pretty much knew that Mutant Apocalypse was going to be a quality product; it is a Capcom game after all. They're like the antithesis to a company like Acclaim, whose output tended to be on the egregious side far too often (well, when they were around). Also, Capcom had a reputation for developing some excellent licensed titles during both the 8-bit and 16-bit era's, most of which were Disney titles like the Chip 'n Dale games, the Mickey's Magical Quest games, and the SNES version of Alladin (though the Genesis version by Virgin is also well worth your time).

Mutant Apocalypse is like the lovely fusion of a beat em' up and a platformer, the result of which is an experience that combines the best elements of the arcade game and the Genesis platformers. You're given control of five characters: Wolverine, Cyclops, Beast, Gambit, and Psylocke. The unique aspect here that helps the overall game work very well is that each of them have different levels that are designed carefully around their mutant powers. The game is made so you'll have to complete the levels of every single character (with about two exceptions), though they'll all fight the same boss at the end of them - and by "boss," I mean the iconic ones like Apocalypse; they guys at the end of the individual X-Men stages are just mid-bosses. It's also really easy to pick up and learn how to do a lot of the mutant power techniques if you play a lot of fighting games, though it doesn't get any more complicated than the occasional quarter circle forward (QCF) movement.

It may sound like kind of a bother to have to play as every character via a description, but you won't mind because of how fun each individual character is. It's tough to design a game with levels that have to cater to every character's individual powers lest balance issues arise, but Mutant Apocalypse honestly takes the easy way out. Not to say that's to its detriment; it's actually one of the standout aspects of the game. The stages themselves are about as long as you'd expect for a game of this time (1994), with them not being short at all, but concurrently not overstaying their welcome. The difficulty is also scaled pretty well, in that it eases you in well enough, but prepare for a good challenge later on. In other words, it's a Capcom game. And some of the development team also worked on greats like various Mega Man and Bionic Commando titles.

The music is also very good, and incredibly catchy. As a testament to that, I still knew the music to Wolverine's first stage completely, even though I hadn't played the game since I was around eleven-years-old (well, until it was time to write this). It definitely has some of the best music in an X-Men game, featuring great (though not the best) music from Setsuo Yamamoto - who also worked on music for Mega Man X and the first two Street Fighter Alpha games, among others for Capcom.

Mutant Apocalypse is one of the best X-Men games around, and definitely the best one on the SNES. If you haven't played it yet, definitely consider it since it's also one of the best examples of good licensed games. And it's perfectly enjoyable even if you don't like X-Men.