X-Men: Next Dimension / Activision (2003)

Game Information

When Sentinels attack, you need fast, fast, fast relief! We recommend the ingredients found in... mutants!

I have to say, this game is pretty solid. I think that other game developers could take clues from what this game does. The gameplay is very good in this game. There are several different modes of play:

Arcade: The standard fighting game mode (TM), where your character goes up against a group of randomly-selected fighters and is supposed to beat the piss out of them, one by one by one.

Versus: Friend pissing you off? Feel the need to dispense some indiscriminate fireball justice? Don't use a steel chair; that'll get you in trouble later on, and it isn't good for the chair. Instead, challenge your ''friend'' to a 1-on-1 grudge match!

Survival Mode: Run the randomly-chosen gauntlet in this endurance match rip-off! One player. One life bar. Unlimited opponents. One mission: go as far as you can until you die. This is the main way to unlock secret characters--and believe you me, there are a bundle of 'em.

Practice Mode: Here you can hone your skills and moves. If you feel like it, you can also battle your opponent to the death. Or not. Because no one can die in practice mode. If you feel like dispensing some pent-up rage, than this is probably a good choice.

Story Mode: In this mode, you can select from a certain list of characters to fight pre-selected enemies in-between hastily-stitched together cut scenes of one round to sort of give you your motivation. Story mode is the most interesting aspect of the game and provides most of the gameplay, though there are some negatives: the fights sometimes make no sense. For instance, there is one point where you must fight a big robot, called a ''Sentinel." Who must you fight him with? I don't wish to spoil the game, so let me say that Xavier's School for the Gifted picked a particularly apt pupil for this matchup. And yet, you will get your ass handed to you several times. Yes, that's right, the Master of Magnetism and controller of all things metallic is powerless before the towering might of the giant, metal robot. Quiver in terror, puny mortals! The gigantic aluminum attack robots of death are after your blood!

Some fights seem like they have been put there just to piss off the player. An example of this is when you must fight the giant robot (TM) as Forge. And you must do it in fifty seconds, or you will lose. Adding aggravation to this is the fact that said giant robot, thanks to what must be an error in the game's design document, can disrupt your super moves with a single projectile. Oh, and the robot blocks almost everything you throw at him. Now, I wouldn't mind this so much, except that after you've finished clobbering the metal monstrosity (TM), a cut scene begins showing four more of these beautiful creatures coming out of the shadows and carrying you off. So, the fight that you just sprained your hands to win is completely pointless, because you got captured anyway. Urge to kill... rising!

Another gripe about story mode is that's far too short. The pace was fine up until the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and X-Men unite, but after that things get kicked into a completely different gear. They could have seriously stretched the game out by throwing in a few more of the X-men like Bishop and Psylocke, by adding a few enemies (Lady Deathstrike, for instance) and perhaps even tossed the Dark Phoenix in the mix for the hell of it to make the Story Mode require days to complete. There's plenty of characters in X-Men lore, and it's not as if Marvel will only license you a few of the X-Men, you get them all. Even the Mimic. I realize that the developers were really just turning the plot of a few comics into a fighting game, but come on now! Put some effort into making it interesting for those who've read the books before, will you?

Regarding the controls, you have a "punch one, punch two, kick one, kick two" system. Those expecting to be able to use Street Fighter punching styles from X-Men Mutant Academy are going to be very sorely disappointed. Oh, and just to add that extra-special flavah, Activation kindly switched the button configurations on us. Now, throw is r1 instead of l2, and so forth. The special moves are kind of interesting. Many of them are rather complex, involving such moves as ''right, square, square, square, triangle, circle'', and they must be performed at a certain range or else. And since there's no such thing as ''strong weak medium'' attacks anymore, you can't, say, get x and circle confused and have it be all right. Also, we still have super moves, but they're different now. You must get your ''power meters'' charged up. The more you charge them, the more moves you can perform. For instance, a ''level 4'' super move can only be done when all three meters are filled. How do you fill these meters? By crunching the snot out of your opponents, of course! Except, y'see, you can just as quickly punch the air to build up your super meter. (''This air is pissing me off! Triiiiiibaaaaaall spirits!'') Aggravating this is the fact that you can "switch" your super meter. That is, you can drain all of the energy from your level one super bar into your level 3 super bar to fill it up quicker. This tactic can make for a lot of cheap level 3 supers.

The counter system has been modified from Academy. Originally, you could push a button and if it was within about a half a second of the hit you would do a flashy little teleport flash kick shot thingy that damages your opponent while not allowing a strike in return. This used to work on anything except command throws. Now, instead of being able to just mash the counter button and watch with mounting amusement as your opponent beats the crap out of himself, you have to specifically block which kind of attack is being happily visited upon you. And they don't include the projectile attacks, some
of which *coughcoughcough* CYCLOPS!! *coughcoughcough* hit you at the same time they're shot, meaning you don't have a chance to know they're coming so you can block them. which wouldn't be so incredibly bad, except that the computer, even on very easy mode, is rather cheap. (This is probably the reason why I have never performed a successful counter in this game.) Also, now people can get stunned or knocked up into the air when they are hit. I guess its good for realism buffs, but lets face it: being hurled off of a skyscraper and falling on top of a light post before being run over by a Winnebago and than getting up again with about a tenth of your health gone is not all that realistic either. (Okay, mad props to the developers for letting you do that, but still.) Subzero's magical ability to break every bone in your body sixteen times over and not have it impact your character's ability to stand is OK, because playing a fighting game with a broken spine is no fun. So, I would appreciate it if such ''realism''
factors would be chucked out the window.

The graphics in this game are superb. The backgrounds have nice detail, can sometimes be used to your advantage. Especially pleasing is the Danger Room, as occasionally the surroundings will completely switch around you. This game gets major nostalgia points for letting you fight there. My only regret is that there is no way to pull an MK4 and start chucking severed heads at your opponent. As for the characters... Let me just take a moment here: OhmygodMystiqueyou'rethehottestmutantI'veeverseen! Thank you. As for some of the other characters being ugly... well let's face it, not everyone is beautiful. These are mutants we're dealing with, after all. Besides, how the hell is someone who has survived more knife fights than anyone else in the entire multiverse ever will expected to look?

Regarding audio, let's just face it: this game has the some of the worst voice acting for any game without Japanese dubbing. Wolverine's attempts to emulate the real Wolverine's badassery are truly sad to watch. I felt bad for the guy. Cyclops is the most arrogant sod I have ever heard in the history of video gaming. Forge is not nearly into his lines enough and Mystique & Lady Deathstrike are way too damned into theirs. Juggernaut sounds like he has been created by a text-to-speech synthesizer that never made it into betatesting. And don't even get me started about Rogue. As for the lines themselves... absolutely terrible. Let me just give you a few examples of the ''taunts'' thrown out by the characters.

FORGE: ''Cannon primed.''

CYCLOPS: ''For a better tomorrow!''

CYCLOPS: ''Heart is what wins battles.'' (Cyclops, incidentally, is the cheapest fighter in the game. I know that lasers shouldn't be avoided due to realism and all that, but please... Anyway, it isn't all that uncommon to have been beaten by Cyclops because he wouldn't stop shooting you, and then have him say ''heart is what wins battles'' in that arrogant manner of his.)

NIGHTCRAWLER: ''I'll turn you into schnitzel!''

JUGGERNAUT: ''Juggernaut rules!'' (ph34r his incredible chi p0wrz and his 1337 ninja crush skilz!)

TOAD: ''Toooooad is the grrrrrreatest!''

TOAD: ''Quit horsing around!''

MYSTIQUE: ''Human lover!'' (er... So what does that make you, doll?)

There are two shining points, however. First of all, of course, is Patrick Stewart, who plays the part of Xavier during the cut scenes. But considering he doesn't actually have to fight, I say he doesn't count. The second is Magneto. Fighting-wise he got completely screwed over, but in all other respects he is the leader supreme. Magneto is so cool that they actually programmed in some CGI where he makes a stairway out of metal plates for him to walk down, before he delivers a line like "Let none stand before my might." or "Humans... your time, has come." followed by "Muahahahahahahahahaha!", which, right, looks really dumb up here but sounds awesome in the game before making the plates circle him and then fly out of the stadium. Magneto has an aura of cool that will not be penetrated by anyone, except for possibly Bishop. Not Havoc, not Betsy, and certainly not those idiot poser wannabes Sentinel A or Juggernaut. (In Juggie's defense, though, his voice acting improves noticeably during the story cut scenes. Magneto, incidentally, gets noticeably worse, although that may be because the lines for him are ridiculously fruity. Basically, his problem is that he has the only "monologue" in the game, and he seriously rushes his lines. This is a lesson several voice actors all over the artistic spectrum could learn to benefit from. But anyway, I'm rambling.)

The music, on the other hand, is pretty good. The audio is very clear, the sounds aren't too bad (except for Forge's spider bomb, which I have nicknamed the pumpkin bomb for no reason whatsoever, and which sounds like someone blowing bubbles in a swimming pool) and the music doesn't detract from the fight, which is always good.

In conclusion, true believers, this game is very good, overall. The parts that are bad are abhorrent, but somehow I find myself able to obtain an immense amount of enjoyment out of the game as a whole, regardless. As a final note: kudos to Activation for making their game rated E. Now get on over there and do something about Spider-Man, will you?

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