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Message: [QUOTE="What's His Face, post: 66283, member: 125725"] [ATTACH type="full" size="376x265"]22405[/ATTACH] This is the first game to get Spider-Man's controls RIGHT. I also greatly enjoyed how each level was designed to work against the characters: [LIST] [*]Spider-Man: Unfinished buildings full of Spider Slayers, exposed rebar, and surfaces he can't crawl on. [*]Cyclops: Underground/mines where he would slowly use his power as his Optic Blasts (eye lasers) are solar powered. [*]Storm: She's claustrophobic, so chuck her in a tank of water where the only escape is to raise the water level slowly making the ceiling close-in on her. [*]Wolverine: I read [I]somewhere[/I], and I'm sure the devs did to, that Wolverine had a fear of clowns - so chuck him into a fun house full of acid-cream-pie-chucking Obnoxio the Clowns, toy soldiers and toy WWII bombers (referencing his military service), etc. [*]Gambit: Meh, he's the new character that had to be included to gain the interest of newer X-Men fans, nothing is known about him except him always carrying power cards...so chuck him in an elaborate chess game. [/LIST] The game is bad, no doubt about it. But not due to any of the typical issues. The game is relatively bug-free. It looks decent. It has a killer soundtrack by the legendary Follin Brothers. The controls are spot-on. Sooo...what happened? [LIST] [*]Only 5 characters, and the designs of 2 are based on the pre-Jim Lee revamp that the hit cartoon was based on. [*]Small character graphics. [*]Boring combat. [*]Poor stage/level design - despite what I wrote above, these levels only make sense if you REALLY know your pre-Jim Lee comics and know your X-Men lore. The manual helps to an extent, but again it's in the manual. [*]Poor boss design. Apocalypse jumps high and throws a stretchy-arm punch, repeat. Shocker jumps and shoots yellow squiggly beams. Juggernaut chases you. Rhino runs back-and-forth between two girders. A...hydro-electric dam-thingy? Carnage just runs hops around tossing red spikes. A giant poker card with The Black King's face on it. Sentinel robots with one point of articulation (it's arm that it raises to fire'n its lazers). A giant robotic Black Queen (which sounds awesome until you see that all she does is sit on a throne shooting lasers are something). N'astirh...as a large red bat-thingy. Mastermold...which just shoots plink-lasers and flies over head a few times. Arcade as a Russian Doll. [/LIST] Oh, and those poor level designs? Spider-Man's levels are genuinely fun...mostly... [LIST=1] [*]The opening level is all about Spider-Man collecting security devices as they activate in a specific order to get used to the controls...err...enter the evil villain lair. His real first stage is a maze of climbing up a maze-like construction site, and part two is swinging along the rooftops with giant stage lights in the background showing that he's still indoors. [*]Storm's are the [B][U]de-facto WORST water levels ever designed[/U][/B]. Swimming in an electrified maze, with your health being your air supply, while being attacked by robot fish & scuba-divers. [I][B]YAWN[/B][/I]. [*]Wolverine's first level is climbing to the top of a maze themed after a circus...but after 2 minutes you've seen it all. His second stage is being chased by Juggernaut while staying JUST close enough to cut ropes holding anvils atop his head. That's it. [*]Cyclops is dropped in a mine that he must go DEEPER into by going down...and riding mine carts! Everyone loves mine cart rides! While avoiding falling stalactites, being shot at by robotic Genoshan Magistrates (think Judge Dredd but racist & without the cool), and H.G. Wells' version of robot Morlocks who reflect your eye lasers back at you...so you HAVE to use Cyclops' clunky kicks to destroy them. [*]Gambit's initial stage is being chased by a giant spiked ball while destroying chess pieces and bits of walls with his cards (which fly 52-card pick-up style and NOT in a straight line), and his second stage is an auto-scroller akin to being on an elevator and needing to shoot the same walls but now from below. Oh, and he can run out of cards if you're wasteful. [/LIST] The only good stages for the X-Men are when they beat their respective Murder Worlds and wind-up back-stage, which are short levels. [LIST] [*]Cyclops is straightforward platforming where you can just optic blast everything in front of you. [*]Wolverine is the same except he's clawing everything. [*]Gambit is the same again except he has better jumping and his platforms are more spaced [I]for challenge. [/I] [*]Storm is OUT OF THE WATER and can jump real good while shooting lightning bolts at everything in revenge for being dumped in the worst water levels in the history of video games. [*]Spider-Man is a climb DOWN a short section of construction that's only one-screen wide. The final boss is also a let-down - only Spider-Man is playable, with the other four X-Men in stasis fields on either side of the screen who will occasionally shoot at the various pop-out Russian Doll robots with Arcade's stupid face on them - each robot being easier than the last. [/LIST] The ending, however, SUCKS. If this game hadn't had Spider-Man and the X-Men in it, no-one would've bought it. The concept of the game is rock solid, but the execution was exceedingly poor despite getting the basics (graphics, control, music) right. It may have LJN on the label, but Spider-Man & The X-Men in Arcade's Revenge was made by Software Creations...and it shows. When Americans call a game "Euro-Trash", this is what they mean. One of the only play-throughs that are entertaining, if you MUST subject yourself to this game: [MEDIA=youtube]-U1sVm0Pthg[/MEDIA] [/QUOTE]

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