We’re here, once again, for the 18th time believe it or not, to play some more Marvel games. It’s been awhile, yet again, since the last one. I’m just, uh, building the suspense for these you see. Yes, that’s it, that’s why I take such breaks between entries.
What’s up next, save for the usual barely contained crash out as I’m forced by no one but myself to play more mediocre Marvel games to the point where it’s soured my opinion on some of the source material and I find myself wishing more and more to distance myself from a medium I used to cherish? Why, two lesser known PlayStation X-Men games, the first of which we’ve already played the absolutely abysmal GBC port of, a sequel from a different company to the stellar Spider-Man, and mother****ing Blade…the movie tie-in game, of which we’ve already played the surprisingly okay GBC port of.
X-Men: Mutant Academy
Developer: Paradox DevelopmentPublisher: Activision
Platforms: PlayStation
Year: 2000
It was a brave move to try and muscle into Capcom’s territory with this one, a 2.5D X-Men based six-button fighter with three punches and three kicks and quarter circle based special attack inputs with normals-into-special cancels and super moves. You may think ‘wait, that literally sounds like a Capcom fighting game’ and you’d be correct, but it’s at least a competent pastiche. This is essentially the 2000s Capcom fighting game we never got, really taking inspiration from their Vs. series.
Flash Ki- I mean, uh, Cyclops Kick!
There’s no real story to speak of here, with the opening cutscene just being a rad as **** little sizzle reel of the various characters in action, complete in pre-rendered 3D glory. The game was intended to be a tie-in to the first Fox X-Men movie, actually releasing the exact same day as it. What’s interesting is the game’s look is generally more inspired by the comic source material, for the characters default costumes; as I guess some nod to the movie, the characters who appear in said movie also have an alternate costume inspired by the movie at least. It’s a strange tie-in in that sense, with the movie it’s supposed to be representing feeling tacked on.
The roster is generally your pretty safe picks, with one or two interesting cuts. You have your movie inspired essentials with Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, and Jean Grey/Phoenix but also Beast, my favourite furry. Oh, and Gambit I guess. How could I forget about him.
I make no apologies to Gambit fans.
Unlockable Brotherhood villains round the roster out with Magneto, Mystique who employs a ridiculously large laser cannon for some reason, Toad and Sabretooth, aka the Brotherhood line-up from the Fox movie, only Toad looks nothing like his movie counterpart. Again, it’s a little strange.
Gameplay wise it’s very much a Children of the Atom disciple. Like I said in the opening, it’s a six button fighter complete with Capcom style quarter circle special moves and supers. I say it’s following CotA in that it has a similar limited normal chain system; certain moves on characters can chain into another, generally higher strength tier normal with some exceptions. You can then cancel these into specials of course, which is the backbone of the whole shebang. There’s also a simple juggle system thrown in, with you being able to generally get at least one hit in on an opponent after you throw them around, move depending.
Every match, each player gets three counters you can use by either hitting Triangle+Circle (MP+MK for those in the know) or simply L1 which counters an enemy move if you time it right. It’s a pretty simple little addition but it helps all the same. Throws of course break right through this, and you only get the three so it never feels too powerful. The game also has some shenanigans baked into its three levels of super meter, each granting you a specific super. Your first bar, your weakest, is the usual attack with no gimmick. But, the second super for every character has this little minigame where direction inputs flash on your screen after you start it; if you hit them correctly, you increase the damage pretty significantly. The strongest third super has the most intrusive gimmick where once you fill the bar, you then have to mash X until it fills again before you can use it. It’s…something. You can also drain meter from one bar and give it another by holding a specific button and then hitting a direction and it’s all a little much.
I find most of these super bar ideas aren’t really well implemented. The second super’s directional inputs are fine considering the game freezes for you so you can do them, but the last super’s X mashing is just strange to incorporate into a fighting game. It kind of feels weird to have to start mashing light kick in a corner for a few seconds so you can use your big one. The whole meter exchanging thing I don’t think I ever was able to use considering you’re having to hit a direction input while also still fighting at the same time. Never worked out for me, like I don’t think Storm’s skin tight midriff barring leather late 90’s outfit ever did for her; she’s a classy lady, come on.
Here’s an example of what the second super attack gimmick is, seeing you have to hit two directional buttons quickly to add on damage. Also, the game has a pretty solid tutorial/training mode; props for that.
I like Mutant Academy. It has some tasteful cinematic camera angles on characters super attacks, and the fighting is fluid and feels great, having essentially just taken CotA and made it into a 2.5D experience. It also I think has fun. There’s the comic costumes which I was excited to see at least, playable Beast, plenty of unlockables, Beast, and this really funny thing where Cyclops wipes his visor off like a windshield wiper for his round win animation, complete with a little squeegee noise. Oh, and Beast is playable which is a bizarrely rare thing in an X-Men video game. Did I mention Beast is playable? He’s pretty cool, man. Everyone should play as Beast.
All in all, this is a good time. It’s not some brilliantly deep fighting game or anything, but it doesn’t have to be; if you’re just looking for something to throw down in for a bit and have some fun, I recommend it. I have some fond childhood memories of playing this over many a few rental weekends back in the day, throwing down with friends and family with optic blasts and Wolverine, uh, clawing you a lot. The fighting system is solid, outside of a few of the super gimmicks, and if you’re going to pay homage to Capcom at least do it right and make it fun.
Score
3 X-Genes out of 5.
Blade
Developer: HammerHeadPublisher: Activision
Platforms: PlayStation
Year: 2000
It’s almost impossible to find anything about this game in the form of a paper trail. I did find an interview for Eurogamer from 2000 where an unnamed representative of UK-based HammerHead stated “the only sad point is that we have had to restrict the more involved intricacies of Blade’s strong characterization, because he is just too complex. To try would just be foolish, slowing the game down to where it would hurt the overall experience. With an involved story and lots of action, we have limited background and character…” A lot of words to say ‘we couldn’t write this thing’, basically.
In my two hours with Blade on the PlayStation, it became clear that it had an idea here that was perhaps a little too ambitious, but wasn’t a bad one; it’s a shame that the technology they had and likely inexperience led to the game coming out like it did. This is neither here nor there, but I wanted to share an interesting tidbit; Blade is running on the Quake 2 engine according to that interview, which makes sense given that HammerHead were the ones responsible for the actually surprisingly competent Quake 2 PlayStation port.
It’s a typical action game of its era, with tank controls and lock-on targeting. After locking on to an enemy a circle next to their health bar in the upper right will start to fill, the speed based on your current weapon. Once it fills it will kinda flash, then turn translucent and if you shoot an enemy in that second you’ll do a critical strike on them and usually instantly kill them, if not do at least heavy damage. It’s a cool idea, kinda representing Eric- I mean, Blade’s accuracy, but the combat rarely ever really lasts long enough for it to pop off. I was maybe able to do it once or twice as usually either I’d be dead before it would go off or they would be. Cool idea, not executed; Blade in a nutshell.
Blade is an equal opportunity monster-puncher; he punches zombies just like he would vampires.
You start with your trusty katana and a pistol and your bare Wesley Snipe hands, and can gather a decent little arsenal. I ended up getting a shotgun, the essential Blade machine pistol, and a grenade launcher thing. Each also has different ammo types useful against different opponents. I was a little unclear on what types of ammo would be better against what, but maybe if I could actually read the manual that would have explained it. It was a fine little system, honestly, making you feel like you had a bonafide arsenal at your disposal.
The weirdest thing about Blade’s gameplay is the fact that enemies are strangely coded to being weak to certain weapons but tough against any others, and in ways that don’t make quite the most sense. Like it makes sense that the vampire enemies are weaker to silver shotgun shells, that’s fine, but it falls apart when you learn that the normal human enemies take almost no damage from your katana, and only get almost instant killed by your various guns. Why don’t they take much damage from your katana? Is it coated in ‘only works on undead’ oil? How does that make sense? You start finding zombies a little into the game, and they only take significant damage from your fists. What?
This pudgy normal human security guard took triple the amount of sword slashes as the vampire in the room before him. Make this make sense.
I’m guessing this was to make you have to switch weapons frequently, which is a cool idea for a character established to be a walking weapon dispenser like Blade, but again; not executed. It was really goofy **** to be swinging my katana on a security guard only for him to take like 5 or 6 hits, while a vampire meanwhile died in 2 slashes.
The idea of carrying an arsenal of undead killers with different ammo types, dynamically switching melee and gunplay between them to combat different enemies could have been a good game; maybe even something a little ahead of its time, considering that kind of dynamic combat didn’t take hold until maybe the mid-2000s. It’s just terribly executed and feels very rough if not outright non-functional. Enemies sometimes wouldn’t react to me walking directly in front of them, your melee attacks have some really wonky hitboxes, you take far too much damage too quickly and the game is full of some really cheap bull**** when it drops an enemy directly in a corner you can’t see around, mid constantly-spinning-sword swing. It does this frequently, and with the lack of mercy only a soulless ****ing bloodsucker would have.
The weird tactical military ninjas constantly swing their swords, even during a cutscene when you’re nowhere near them. This was a sweeping camera shot of him constantly swinging his swords, entirely alone.
Objectively, I have to rate this pretty low but subjectively, I’d much rather play this than 90% of the other bad games I’ve played across this retrospective; I’d rather have something at least interesting like Blade than god ****ing forbid an Iron Man and X.O Manowar In Heavy Metal. It’s rough, but it’s on a the higher tier than games of an equal score just on its interesting potential, if that makes any sense. Also, the soundtrack ****ing kills it just like the movie.
Score
2 ½ Sunglasses out of 5.
X-Men: Mutant Academy 2
Developer: Paradox DevelopmentPublisher: Activision
Platforms: PlayStation
Year: 2001
This hasn’t happened often where we review a game’s sequel in the same article I don’t think. There was the draining Amazing Spider-Man trilogy on the Game Boy/Game Boy Colour; I definitely didn’t have to look through my own articles to even remember anything about them. Thank ****ing god we’re not playing one of those and X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 actually improves on the original.
With only a few changes, Mutant Academy 2 is very similar to the first game. But, those few changes are really good ones and even fix some of my mild complaints about the first go. First change worth mentioning? A much expanded roster, adding in several 90’s X-Men staples. You got Havok, and Juggernaut, and everyone’s favourite other blue furry Nightcrawler, and- holy **** is that Forge? Goddamn, I love me some Forge.
**** yeah.
Well anyway, there’s a few more like an unlockable Psylocke and- oh my god, playable Rogue.
I’m not obsessed, I swear. I just, uh, really like Rogue.
Forge, Beast and Rogue; this game was actually made for me. Hallelujah. I cannot stress enough how completely rare it is for these three characters to share playable status in a video game, or in the case of Forge to even be included at all. Thank you, Paradox.
They’ve also changed up the few issues I had with the original’s super meter gimmicks, by removing the weird ‘mash X’ thing for your final round-winning one. The meter exchanging mechanic is still in, but at least you can just ignore that still. Even more than that however, they’ve greatly expanded on the first games chain normal and juggle system, in that they completely removed any and all limits to it. You can now chain every normal into the next higher tier one, making this game jump from being a simple CotA clone into a XMvsSF one, aka the best game in the pre-MvC Vs. series. You can also freely juggle opponents once you get a scoop going, really expanding the games combo system for the better.
But wait, there’s more; it also incorporates the aerial rave system from XMvsSF too, as again if you’re going to copy a Capcom game you do it right and take all the meat. Character’s have certain specific launcher normals that hits the opponent into the air, and lets you follow them up and start chainin’ just like they were on the ground. With the also there addition of aerial special and super moves, this game just let’s you go ****ing nuts combo wise. Rounds can end real fast in this game if you know what you’re doing.
But wait, there’s even more they took directly from the Vs. series; some characters can fly. They fly now. Combined with the new aerial rave chains and air specials this makes some characters insanely fun. Like Rogue, just as a random example.
Is the line still played out? I’M THE JUGGERNAUT, BI- eh, it’s still played out.
Weirdly enough this game also continues the same ‘kind of a movie tie-in game?’, despite coming out a little over a year after the movie. Mutant Academy 2 includes some random movie concept art for the characters who actually appeared in it. I mean they’re not much, like three or four pieces of unused costume designs, but it’s just weird how this was a year after it came out.
On a technical level, the game is about the same as Mutant Academy. Nothing really major has been improved in the graphics. The returning cast have the exact same moves and animations, but given that there’s some substantial changes around those, I think the game gets away with it.
Oh sorry, I forgot about two new characters earlier actually, my bad. The game also has Xavier and Spider-Man as unlockable characters, with Spidey clearly being inspired by the Neversoft game complete with Rino Romano still voicing him. Oh, and Prof X fights in his wheelchair, can’t jump and makes his opponent punch themselves.
Entirely comic accurate power set.
Mutant Academy 2 is an improved version of the original, and I would definitely recommend this over the first. It’s more exciting, has a playable Beast and Rogue and Forge, changed my few minor complaints about Mutant Academy, has Rogue, added in some fun unlockables, is bigger and better, Forge is in it, and decided to just cut loose and go nuts this time around with a greatly opened up combo and juggle system. It’s again not some intricately designed fighter, it’s just fun. Oh, yeah and there’s a playable Rogue. She’s really cool, man. Everyone should play as Rogue.
Score
3 ½ X-Genes out of 5.
Spider-Man 2: Enter: Electro
Developer: Vicarious VisionsPublisher: Activision
Platforms: PlayStation
Year: 2001
I cannot unsee the extra colon in this game's official title, it bothers me like you wouldn’t believe. Why is it ‘Enter: Electro’ instead of just ‘Enter Electro’, no colon? Why?
This is a sequel to Neversoft’s seminal classic Spider-Man, done by a different company under Activision’s crushing iron grip, Vicarious Visions. They’re a company well versed in licensed video game releases, but for Marvel games prior to this they had only done the GBC port of Spider-Man. Afterwards they’d really get to work in the Marvel mines, focusing on handheld titles. They were the ones who were responsible for Mysterio’s Menace and X2: Wolverine’s Revenge among a few other GBA titles we played. Enter: Electro is specifically a sequel to the console version of Spider-Man, but got beaten to the punch of making a sequel first by Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six on the GBC but that was only a sequel to the GBC port of the first Spider-Man which had a different storyline, and then Enter: Electro came out and had a sequel later with the GBA’s Mysterio’s Menace which is a sequel to the console continuity despite being a handheld, and despite also being made by Vicarious Visions. It all entirely makes sense and isn’t a mess at all.
You have the exact same moves, and the exact same awkward web-slangin’ controls. The only real gameplay innovation is the ability to shoot web balls in the air which I never really needed at any point in my just shy of two hour time with the game, but assume later there’s likely some situation it’s probably useful in. The combat system it’s a carbon copy of is something simple and great of course, so I have no complaints here really; it’s still just as fun as Neversoft’s Spider-Man. It’s things around the basic gameplay that are a little worse off than its prestigious predecessor.
The first thing you’re likely to notice is very downgraded level design; nothing of what I saw pops like Spider-Man, or is really as exciting. There’s a lot of rooftop swinging, only without anything as memorable as the police helicopter chase from the OG and is mostly just you slangin’ around some buildings with a few goons on them until the level ends. It lacks some of that measurable oomph, that special sauce that Neversoft had. I think it’s also brought down from a much smaller presentation of the whole thing. There’s no big opening cutscene like with Doc Ock’s Science Expo in the original to set the tone of the whole thing; there’s a pretty quick one with Electro stealing some piece of tech then leaving, then it's immediately into Spider-Man randomly stumbling onto him during a routine patrol. It lacks that sense of exciting scale, I think is ultimately my complaint here. The rest of the cutscenes have this similar rushed feeling, just presenting the immediate issue in front of you without any of the fun or style previously seen on the web-slangin’ game.
They’ve unfortunately doubled down on the awkward targeting of the first game as well, in that there’s several points where you have to actually pick targets in the middle of a fight which was a ****ing nightmare, even with the added control of L2 changing your target. Take the first boss fight, Shocker. You can’t run up and punch him at all as he’ll just become invincible for some reason then knock you back every time. You have to dodge his blasts around the arena, get him in front of some overhanging crates and then yank them down onto him. Spider-Man keeps wanting to to target Shocker in front of him rather than the hanging crate behind him. Every time you jump or move around to dodge one of his blasts, which is constantly as he never stops shooting, the targeting defaults back to Shocker. I managed to beat it after not that long, but I don’t really remember anything like that in the original and it definitely wasn’t the most pleasant or exciting experience.
**** you, Shocker; the classic jobber was only saved due to some really unfortunate targeting frustration.
I ended up calling my time with the game after a very frustrating level in front of Hangar 18 (cue the Megadeth) where you have to sneak around to destroy 6 machine gun turrets that can kill you very quickly only they’re in the middle of open space and there’s no stealth system, then immediately getting slapped with a really silly and frustrating bit where you have to stop a runaway aircraft in said Megadeth reference by clearing out explosive barrels and opening hangar doors so it doesn’t run into them and explode. The previously mentioned targeting issues kept seeing Spidey turn around to try and web up the plane instead of the barrels in front of him, you can’t really navigate around it easily and I just gave up.
Enter: Electro isn’t all bad though. Every one of the original game’s alternate costumes returns, as well as some new ones that are pretty exciting picks or obscure deep cuts; MVP is the unused Alex Ross design for the original Raimi movie, with its black eye lenses and really sleek look. There’s even a pretty cool option to set up to three special suit powers for any of the costumes if you just want to **** around and have fun with whatever your cosmetic suit of choice.
Graphically the game is also an improvement over Spider-Man; Peter actually has web detailing on his costume now, and his fingers have a little more definition. There’s more varied henchman models, and they even behave I think a little smarter than the original game’s fairly dumb AI and there’s even modelled city streets you can run around in a few times.
Enter: Electro came out really quick after Spider-Man, being just over a single year. You can really tell. It just feels kinda rushed and lifeless compared to the bombastic Neversoft classic, and has a measurable lack of soul. There's only two character cameos I encountered, and even if they're both Beast and Rogue and I'm not making that up as a bit from earlier they're actually in this game, they can't make up for the lack of others. There's not even Black Cat. It feels like a rushjob sequel, which it objectively is. I think the game is still fine as I can’t really say it’s objectively bad considering it’s a near carbon copy of a great game; that being said, I’d much rather play the original over this. I may return to it at some point in the future to see more of it. But **** that goddamn plane.
He can’t just web the whole thing up, considering he can casually bench-press cars. No, that would be silly.
Score
3 Thwips out of 5.
And there we have it, every fifth generation Marvel video game covered and given a score. Our total, across 8 actually ranked games, is 15.5/40. Oof. This score is of course unfortunately skewed out of necessity; if I actually did score the Capcom fighting game ports, it would have been higher…if we only factored in the Saturn versions. We’d also have to add in the PlayStation ports which would have I guess entirely tanked the score anyway. See how awkward this is? Goddamn it, the terrible PlayStation port of Children of the Atom; this is all your fault.
What’s up next? The final stretch of this whole ****ing thing. We’re finally into the sixth generation, the PlayStation 2’s and the GameCube’s. It’s finally here. It’s going to be the longest leg we’ve undertaken yet, as there are in fact 24 games we’re covering. I’m still figuring out the logistics, as I know for a fact that I’m doing a good number of the games as stand-alone articles like I did with Spider-Man. The exact number is still being determined, so far it's at least 8 as **** me, but regardless it’s going to be a long goddamn slugfest. A very long slugfest. God, help us but then it's over. I’ll see you all on the other side.
Until next time.
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