Retro Review Friday: X-Men (Sega Genesis)

<p><em>It&&num;8217&semi;s <strong>X-Men<&sol;strong> week here at BagoGames in honor of the new film <strong>X-Men&colon; Apocalypse&comma;<&sol;strong> which opened this past weekend to the tune of &dollar;80M&period; On Wednesday&comma; we aired the Film Fallout Podcast episode on the new film&comma; which you can listen to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;film-fallout-podcast-17-x-men-apocalypse&sol;">HERE<&sol;a>&period; Yesterday&comma; we posted Dylan&&num;8217&semi;s review of <strong>X-Men&colon; Apocalypse&comma;<&sol;strong> which you can read <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;x-men-apocalypse-review&sol;">HERE&period;<&sol;a> And today we give you a special sneak peek at our upcoming Retro Review Friday series with a look back at <strong>X-Men<&sol;strong> on the Sega Genesis&period; Thanks for joining us this week for all of our <strong>X-Men<&sol;strong> coverage&comma; and be sure to watch for the official start of Retro Review Fridays in July&excl;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>The &&num;8217&semi;90s were a great time to be a comic book fan&comma; and they were an even better time to be an <em>X-Men<&sol;em> fan&period; Marvel was smart enough to start up a whole new <em>X-Men<&sol;em> series just to showcase the amazing writing of Chris Claremont and the stunning artwork of Jim Lee&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve been collecting since 1988&comma; so sometimes I don&&num;8217&semi;t remember certain things until I see an old comic&comma; an old picture or&comma; in this case&comma; Jim Lee&&num;8217&semi;s Magneto digitized on the Sega Genesis&period; Seeing that opening graphic really opened the floodgates for me&period; I remember being able to wait in line at my comic book store in California and having Jim Lee sign all of the variant covers that the first issue had&period; I actually had to put my controller down for a minute just to absorb all that I remembered from that one image&period; It is truly amazing what can be triggered when we see something favorable from our past&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Let&&num;8217&semi;s talk about the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Unlike the new movie which just released nationwide this past week&comma; the baddie in this game is the X-Men&&num;8217&semi;s old arch-nemesis Magneto and he plans on taking care of those pesky&comma; good-natured Mutants this time around&period; Magneto infects the Danger Room with a virus that disables the controls and safety limits of the room&period; The X-Men must battle their way through various Danger Room scenarios until they find a way to quell the virus and fight Magneto&period; I was able to visit the Savage Land with Wolverine&comma; Gambit&comma; Cyclops and Nightcrawler&comma; all of which are drawn in Jim Lee&&num;8217&semi;s style&period; The most glaring indicator of Lee&&num;8217&semi;s work is Cyclops&&num;8217&semi; new headgear that Jim Lee introduced in the early 90&&num;8217&semi;s&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;107184" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-107184" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-107184" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;03161813&sol;Cyclops&period;png" alt&equals;"&lpar;X-MEN - SEGA&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"414" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-107184" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>X-Men&comma;<&sol;em> SEGA&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The controls are simple&comma; but surprisingly complex for a Sega Genesis game&period; Let us start with the simple controls first&period; A is mutant power &&num;8212&semi; when you press it while playing as Wolverine&comma; his claws pop out&period; While punching and jumping with Wolverine&comma; your mutant meter slowly diminishes&period; This is the same for the other three mutants as well&colon; Gambit throws his playing card&comma; Cyclops uses his eye beams&comma; and Nightcrawler uses his teleportation to set off a sulfur bomb to damage enemies&period; Keep an eye on your Mutant meter though &&num;8212&semi; Jean Grey swoops in and saves you when you fall&comma; but she won&&num;8217&semi;t if you are out of Mutant juice&period; B is punch and C is jump&period; Pretty basic controls&period; What makes the controls interesting is that when you hit the &&num;8220&semi;start&&num;8221&semi; button&comma; you are sent to a menu where you can change you primary X-Man or you can call in a secondary X-Man for a special move&period; Storm&comma; Angel&comma; Ice-man and Rogue are your backup X-Men that have special moves so you can defeat the bosses easier&period; Use them wisely though&comma; as sometimes you don&&num;8217&semi;t get to call in all four on certain levels&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game is pretty short&comma; which saddens me&period; I miss these old beat-em up side-scrollers&semi; we just don&&num;8217&semi;t get as many as we use to&period; Sega really nailed the character models for this game&period; You never have to guess which X-Man you are or which evil Mutant you are fighting&comma; unless you&&num;8217&semi;ve never read the comic books&period; Level design is a little lacking as you have to hunt in the level to push a switch or pull a lever to open the path to boss&period; Sega made some of the levels difficult to navigate&period; There were caves in the Savage Land that I passed over due to the fact that I thought it was just part of the background&period; The music is okay&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s nothing really all that great coming out of this cartridge music-wise&period; I actually played the game with the volume turned down a bit just due to how screechy the music was&period; I wish they had included the <em>X-Men<&sol;em> Animated Series theme song into this game&comma; but then this game would have been a bit much to handle&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;107299" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-107299" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-107299" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;03160246&sol;hqdefault-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;X-MEN - SEGA&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"480" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-107299" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>X-Men<&sol;em>&comma; SEGA&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Solid <em>X-Men<&sol;em> and comic book fans should pick up this title&period; It is a solid brawler that you can play with a friend if you have one&period; I never got to play it when I younger just due to the fact I had no Genesis&comma; and I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t have played it at all had my buddy not given me his copy&period; This game is worth having on your shelf&period; I regret not adding it to my collection sooner&comma; but I&&num;8217&semi;m glad it is there now&period; Any time I need a flash back to the early &&num;8217&semi;90s&comma; all I have to do is pop this into my Genesis and wax nostalgic&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>This review is part of the Retro Review Friday series&comma; where we take a look back at a different classic game every week&period; This series officially begins in July&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;