X-Men Legends

X-Men for the Sega Genesis was one of my favorite games for that system. Considering the obvious influences of Contra and Altered Beast, it seemed like a natural evolution of cooperative play. Of course, you could sometimes die if you couldn't keep up with your impatient teammate, but that just forced you to stick together. Wielding the mutant powers of a handful of X-Men was always loads of fun, and what other game required you to actually reset your console as part of a mission?

X-Men Legends awoke fond memories of that game, which allows up to four players to simultaneously control their favorite X-Man through the game's 20-odd missions. And because Legends adopts the format of the standard stat-building RPG, you earn experience for killing enemies that in turn allow you to purchase skill upgrades and mutant abilities for each character. You can also find equipment to outfit the members of your team, boosting attributes like defense, agility or attacks.

Although not as forced as the multiplayer combat in Tales of Symphonia, X-Men Legends still requires in-between single player wanderings before you move on to the next mission, delivering a kind of intermittent multiplayer experience. But if you compare Symphonia's bite-sized monster encounters versus X-Men's sprawling maps to explore, it becomes fairly obvious what the second, third and fourth players will find more acceptable. Though for pure multiplayer RPG action on the Gamecube you'll still have to turn to Crystal Chronicles.

X-Men Legends begins with the rescue of a new mutant, codenamed "Magma". Pursued by the Brotherhood of Evil mutants for her catastrophic powers, Professor X sends his X-Men in to save the day. You end up adopting Magma as your own avatar for the "adventuring" part of the game in between the missions. The X-Mansion is the launchpad for most missions, as the Danger Room was for X-Men on the Genesis. The X-Mansion is fully explorable, complete with a fully functional Danger Room that you can use to improve your skills while not in a mission, as well as spar with other X-Men to test out your moves. This opens potential for a combat mini game, and although mostly serves as a diversion, the fact that it was included at all adds more to the package. The scenarios you can unlock in the Danger Room depend on "Danger Room Discs" you find hidden throughout the game's missions.

Various bonus content is also hidden throughout the X-Mansion and the missions, such as viewable comic covers, bios for the X-Men and enemies you encounter, and concept art. Even a trivia game can be accessed, which is pure fan service - but I loved it. The experience bonuses you gain for each correct answer make it worth playing.

Combat is in real time, and enemy rush tactics make the game feel like a beat 'em up similar to Captain Commando or the original X-Men arcade game. You can execute special attacks in sequence to make combos with each member of the party, dealing extra damage or in some cases creating an area effect. There really isn't much strategy to it, and the game becomes more about who kills the most enemies and garners the associated XP. You also get "X-credits" from killing enemies, which can be used to purchase equipment or resurrect fallen comrades.

But it's not like the game doesn't provide a challenge. The amount of enemies on screen can be overwhelming, and although health and mutant power potions are abundant, there never seems to be enough to go around to prevent your party members from dying. The maps are pretty linear, with invisible walls and "placed" debris telling you where to go. There are also hot spots requiring the use of one of your mutant's special powers, something that should go without saying when you're presented with a seemingly impassable chasm and Iceman in your party's ranks. Most objects such as walls and debris can be destroyed to clear paths or just for the sake of demolition. Although there were obvious areas where you needed to destroy a wall to continue, having the option to destroy everything in sight seemed like an end in itself and weirdly amusing while controlling characters like Wolverine and Colossus. Objects like boxes and exploding oil drums can also be picked up and flung at enemies.

Interspersed throughout each level are "X-traction points" (clever, that) which allow you to save your progress, purchase new equipment or change up your squad as the need arises. Additional X-Men are gained as you progress through the game; the full roster can be seen here.

Call me biased, but the Gamecube controller is probably the best of the big three consoles. And I find that every multiplatform release with the possible exception of Soul Calibur II has used the button layout in the most convenient and ergonomic of ways. Though not my preferred way of playing the missions because of the difficulty, controlling your party solo is made extremely easy in this regard. Like Tales of Symphonia, you can also set AI behaviours for each character, making sure they aren't using their most powerful mutant abilities carelessly while you're in control of the main character.

Every third person console action game usually suffers from the same ailment of a poorly designed camera system. The camera is almost always at the mercy of the game designers, and as such your playing experience can quickly become frustrating. Put simply, the default angle in Legends sucks: it's not quite isometric and it's not the traditional "behind the shoulder" view of the main character in the party. The limited camera movements you are entitled to are more of an insult than an act of kindness. If the party is separated for any reason, it becomes difficult to group up again if a player gets stuck in a view-blocking obstacle (such as under stairs, or under a bridge). Additionally, some physical obstacles such as chasms or high cliffs are unviewable from the angle you're given, and upon exploration you will more than likely fall to your death.

The graphics are decent, rendering some impressive and appropriately comic-bookish environments. However the character models are faceless and have flippers for hands, which is most noticable in the game's cutscenes. Outlined/cel shaded polygons have been done before - and a lot better - in Tales of Symphonia. The artwork for loading screens in between major mission areas is pretty terrible, and was clearly commissioned for use with this game. This is a real shame for a game based on such a huge property with countless sources for artwork. I'm also not a fan of the X-Men's new look. Although timely (it's just based on the current X-Men comics), the mid-90s X-men would have been better, but that's just a personal preference.

As a licensed product, X-Men Legends does its namesake well. As a game, there are a few things that prevent me from recommending it unconditionally. Legends doesn't drift too far from the conventions set by games like Dark Alliance and other console action/RPGs, and as a result will be little more than a distraction for most multi-platform gamers in this season's tidal wave of releases. And though the multiplayer makes it a fun game to pick up with friends, being at the mercy of the camera can make most missions a chore to complete. I'm thankful that X-Men Legends manages to provide a decent experience on the Gamecube, but I think it will find most of its audience in fans of the source material - not those looking for an RPG.

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