Not Worth Beating Yourself Up Over

Great beat-em-ups were a dime a dozen in the ‘90s, with titles like “Double Dragon,” “Final Fight” and “Turtles in Time” running strong on both console systems and in arcades. During that time, even the Marvel Comics’ X-Men managed to secure a place in arcades across the world, with a challenging and graphically pleasing title.

At the time, it might have been one of the best uses of a license in gaming.

Nearly 20 years later however, “X-Men: Arcade” on the 360 Live Arcade is anything but the trendsetter it was when it was originally released. Sure, it’s fun to relive the memories you originally experienced while playing the game and co-op gameplay has its moments, but with a lack of replay-value, smaller character models and cheap A.I., there’s only so much fun to be had.

In spite of the smaller character models [anyone who has played the game in the arcade will tell you the console version doesn’t look nearly as solid], the game still has a good look. Corny cinemas in-between the action will put a smile on your face, as the voice-acting is easily some of the worst to ever appear in a video game. The fact that Magneto and Professor X have essentially the same voice is something that would never fly in today’s era, but one that gives the ultimately simplistic beat-em-up the kind of silly appeal that many retro gamers cherish.

While these blemishes hurt the game’s overall appeal, the way the game plays does it in more than anything else. With unlimited continues, the game is a piece of cake. While the annoying enemies, with their repetitive movements and cheap antics will annoy serious gamers, in the end, the game poses no threat at all. By simply using your mutant powers a few times and then allowing yourself to get hit a few times, your character will die, but you’ll eventually be the one getting the better of your enemies. Going through this process over and over, even the game’s final boss is a joke, making this title more a one-night diversion than anything to beat yourself up over.

A classic arcade title, “X-Men: Arcade,” with a bit of polish and new age flair, could have been a great game on the 360 Live Arcade. But by bringing nothing new to the table and allowing its more than noticeable rust to go unattended, even retro gamers and hardcore fans of Professor Xavier’s students will find themselves unsatisfied.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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