Today, the universes of Marvel and Capcom are mortal enemies, but for a brief time in the 1990s, Capcom released video game titles prominently based on characters from the Marvel universe. A prime example is X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, a merciless game with a difficulty high into the heavens. This game, as you would suspect because of the title is a hard game, and I'm not talking about Ghosts N Goblins or Ninja Gaiden hard, I'm talking about super mega ultra hard that will wanna make you throw a Hadouken right into your television.
There a five classic X-Men characters you can play as in the game, Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, Psylocke, and Beast, each character having their own specialty move and attacks. During the gameplay, you will run into an onslaught of blood thirsty enemies like machete wielding masked dudes, tiny midget robots that shoot lasers, giant cyborgs that shoot nuclear balls of destruction, carnivorous flying Broods that feed on human flesh, vicious blood sucking "Tuskettes" that suck on you for like a minute, teleporting telephone operators that also shoot nuclear balls of destruction, whip whipping Sentinels and several other classic X-Men baddies like Juggernaut and Omega Red. The plot of the game involves Apocalypse captures several mutants and holding them captive on the prison island of Genosha. During your quest to free the mutants, you will go through places like forests, Sentinel factories, sewers, the Danger Room and Magneto's headquarters, Avalon.
The gameplay in this game is fluent and spot on, but it almost has to be that way, otherwise it would take an eternity to beat the game, for it will take your agile hand movements and claw slashing, stick whacking, sonic punching, eye blasting, head butting skills to surpass each erratic levels where dozens of enemies might gang up on you and give you quite a showdown. And trust me when I say this, it can be quite a pain in the butt sandwich to make your way past these highly trained and skilled enemies, but with a couple of quick dodging and jumping, it can get a bit easier. The bosses in these games are kinda odd. Apocalypse, which is the final boss you fight on Genosha, is perhaps the easiest boss you will fight in the entire game. Why the most powerful mutant in the world is so simple to defeat (especially with Wolverine) is far beyond thought.
Holodeck, I mean, Danger Room simulations of Juggernaut and Omega Red are also some of the antagonists you will fight in this game. At first, these fellows will put you out of your misery quite often, especially with Juggernaut's infamous leg "shanking", but overtime, with the constant use of the pillars present in the level, you can say sienara to both of them. But the greatest challenge lies with the last levels of the game, which take place on Magneto's giant starship, Avalon. With teleporting Acolytes and a brief encounter with Exodus, Magneto's second in command, each X-Man will have quite a challenge battling holographic shape-shifters, rocket missiles, and a weird cocoon shaped generator thingy. The final battle with Magneto is unforgiving, once you die, you start all over again on Avalon. And don't think that Magneto is as easy as Dracula in Simon's Quest, no, he is very very tedious and manipulative, and if you are not quick enough, you will fall prey to his constant throwing of metal blades and solar balls of annihilation.
Overall, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse is one of the hardest games ever released for Capcom's SNES library, but it is still a great game none the less. What makes the game iconic, I guess, is it's clear and crisp video game effects and perfect edging on the characters as well as it's comic book like appeal (similar to Capcom's Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems for the SNES). It's just as crippling as other classic X-Men games like Konami's X-Men in the arcade, and X-Men: Clone Wars, but for a home video game based on one of the most well known super hero organizations of all time, it was pretty intriguing and exciting, but also very frustrating and mind stretching. I'd recommend it to any hard-core super hero video gamer or any fan of the X-Men, especially a fan of the epic 1990s television series.
But I didn't tell you what really bothered me about this game, but it's in fact right after you beat the game. All the characters reunite with other members of the X-Men, but poor Wolverine is solemnly sitting there looking down at the floor in disappointment.
WHERE IS WOLVERINE'S GIRL, HUH? WHY WASN'T HE WITH STORM? WHY IS THE ONLY ONE BY HIMSELF AT THE END? LOOK HOW SAD HE LOOKS? WHAT GIVES CAPCOM!
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