The Monkey Part 3

First Previous

Print-N-Pixel: X-Men the Arcade Game – Part 4

Is the pixelated and physic defying world of video games a perfect playground for the over-the-top characters found in comic books?  There is only one way to find out:

What is Print-N-Pixel?

Print-N-Pixel is an in depth Group look at Comic Books In Video Games. Print-N-Pixel is more than just playing comic book related video games, its also a “book club,” a month long video game AND comic book club.

Even if you don’t play video games and you only read comic, or vise versa, stick around and participate in thediscussion of either the game or the comics. And if you missed the introduction to Print-N-Pixel you can find it here.

Part 4: X-Men the Arcade Game Around The Internet

With the game played and related comics discussed, it’s time to let the Internet write the conclusion to the first game featured in Print-N-Pixel: X-Men the Arcade Game.

The first time I saw the cabinet for X-Men, my jaw dropped. It was enormous! Easily, this game was twice as big as your typical cabinet. And it had two monitors, too! Six, count ‘em, SIX joysticks on the control panel. It was arcade heaven. My friend and I played all our quarters out, right then and there. The gameplay was fantastic: a marriage of Double Dragon and the X-Men comics, cranked up to 11.

http://www.co-optimus.com/article/196/Co-Op_Classics__X-Men__The_Arcade_Game.html

Another thing that was awesome was the graphics. It was 1992 and we had just barely gotten our minds wrapped around Super Nintendo, so even for an arcade game, X-Men had and incredibly slick, vibrant look plus wicked G.I. Joe-quality animation sequences. But as killer as the graphics were, the sound was even better, as the boom of this game echoed through the arcade, which rocked since it was ridiculously quotable, whether the Blob was insisting “Nothing stops…the Blob!” or Wendigo was screeching his name time and again as you beat the white fur off him.

http://thecoolkidztable.blogspot.com/2009/09/remember-x-men-arcade-game.html

I know at least one person that will disagree with me on this, but I really enjoyed the audio on X-Men Arcade. Like I mentioned in my description of the attract mode’s intro, I was really disappointed if a particular X-Men machine had the sound turned down low of muted completely. I really felt that the music and sound effects were crucial to really enjoying the game and getting into the action.

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/arcade/2007/09/review-xmen-arcade-6-player-beatemup-bliss.html

And unlike other multiplayer games in which it’s not only possible to make the journey alone, but preferable, as you don’t have to compete with another player for bonus items or worry about him/her fudging up your combos, you really f***ing needed the help in X-Men, given that the game saw our mutant heroes beseiged by insane amounts of enemies at once.

http://www.scary-crayon.com/games/funnest5/

While everyone wanted to be Wolverine, conventional wisdom had it that Colossus and Nightcrawler both had the best special attack. Cyclops was pretty good as well, but then you’d be playing as Cyclops, and you couldn’t have that. Even on the cartoon Cyclops was the X-man who just came across as smug. Seriously, who likes that guy? The movie doesn’t help, he looks and acts like the guy who beat you up in middle-school. Maybe that’s why everyone likes Wolverine, he’s the guy that always gets all up in Cyclops’ business.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2006/05/4062.ars

[At the end of the game] You move into what looks like the next room and Magneto pops out of the wall saying, “I am Magneto, Master of magnet!” Aside from the poor translation, I would have thought the X-Men would have caught on to that by that point after all, his name incorporates the word magnet. I could only imagine Wolverine asking, “What’s this Magneto guy do?” and Cyclops responding, “I think he has power over bunnies or something.” The version of Magneto that you fight is one of the best Magnetos ever, when best means awesome in a corny way. He will kick you with his magnet powered kick boots, and shoot you with magnet rays a lot like King Ghidorah, all the while taunting you with things like, “X-Chicken!”

http://www.digitalmonkeybox.com/x-men_arcade.htm

Bonus Content:

The Best X-Men the Arcade Game Related Link: The X-Men Guide To Unlocking Your Financial Mutant Powers

Man vs Debt wrote an interesting article relating all of the characters from the video game “to personal finance topics based on their given powers.”

Here is the Juggernaut’s anlaogy to his evil equivalent in the financial world:

Juggernaut: Credit Card Debt

Real Name: Cain Marko

Mutant Power: Super-strength, Unstoppable while in motion

In the game/series: It’s widely known that the Juggernaut is not actually a mutant, but instead derives his power from a gem worn in his helmet. His strength is second to none and it’s said that he doesn’t require food, water, or sleep to stay active. Once he gets moving, he’s impossible to stop, often plowing through anything in his way. In the game, he is even equipped with a Bazooka!

Financial explanation: This was the easiest of all! Juggernaut represents credit card debt, of course. High interest credit card debt is on of the most dangerous financial pitfalls, especially once it’s able to gain momentum. The actual credit cards are the proverbial helmet, which is the source of the high interest debt’s power. Often times, the fastest way to defeat this beast is to ‘remove the helmet’ by cutting up and canceling the credit cards themselves. Even the Bazooka can be directly related to the shady techniques employed by credit card companies!

http://manvsdebt.com/x-men-guide-financial-mutant-power/

Conclusion

And with that, we conclude this edition of Print-N-Pixel. Just because this is the last article with X-Men the Arcade game featured in Print-N-Pixel, doesn’t mean we have to stop playing and discussing it – the forums are always open and I always need a good excuse to play a great comic book based video game.

Next on Print-N-Pixel:

References:

  No Comments In the Forums  

Posted by Fred on February 11, 2010 @ 9:30 PM Under: Pint-n-Pixel
  • Share/Bookmark