1992 Beat 'em Up made by Konami for the arcade, in the vein of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons arcade games. Taking on the roles of Cyclops, Colossus, Dazzler, Storm, Wolverine or Nightcrawler, up to six players (or just four, depending on the cabinet) progress from left to right and fight endless swarms of Sentinels, along with villains such as The Blob, Wendigo and, of course, Magneto.
Essentially, you just roam through the level, fight, use some special attacks here and there, die a lot, and then deposit another coin to come back to life.
The game is loosely based off of Pryde of the X-Men, a failed 1989 pilot for an animated X-Men series that was totally different from the one that eventually made it on the air a few years later.
Fondly remembered by many players for its sheer cheesiness. Magneto, the main villain, taunts players by calling them "X-Chicken" and the villains introduce themselves with the corniest catch phrases you can imagine. There's an announcer who excitedly shouts out the name of each character when he joins or rejoins the game after running out of lives. And the plot is totally random — in character, yes, but random.
The game was remade in December 2010 for Play Station Network and Xbox Live Arcade. The biggest addition is drop-in/drop-out online play, making getting a six-player match going very easy to do - just join a game that already has a large number of players. The other addition is unlimited credits: Pushing the jump button after your last life is lost results in you immediately rejoining the game, making death meaningless. Not to mention that you keep your score, making the newly added leaderboards mean nothing, except for those genuinely good players who can get high scores and few deaths (the number of deaths is still tracked on the leaderboards). But because of these elements, the game was very popular online for quite a while after its release.
The game is now available for iPod, iPhone and Android devices.
This game provides examples of:
- Ascended Meme:
- In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Deadpool will tell Magneto "Welcome to die!" when they square off.
- In the X-Men table in Zen Pinball 2, the game's attract consist of Magneto taunting Xavier, with Xavier making some kind of retort. One of these is "X-Men, go and save the city!", inflected deliberately in a way that references the same line in this game. Magneto also occasionally calls himself the "Master of Magnet(ism)" on that table.
- In one of the chapters of the Facebook game Marvel Avenger Alliance, Magneto will appear to be the main boss. But upon starting the fight, it will be revealed that Mystique is impersonating Magneto. After the fight, Cyclops will remark "Alas, that was Mystique, not Magneto."
- Badass in Distress: Xavier gets captured too.
- Beast Man: The crocodile-men, some of whom can breathe fire.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: Thanks to English not being the first language of the Japanese programmers, Magneto's voice actor delivers the following clangers completely straight with
Ham and Cheese to spare.I am Magneto!! Master of MagnetCome, X-Chicken!Shiiiiieeeeeld!Kill You!You. Are. Dead. Hahahahaha!I Kill You, X-Chicken!And of course the ever delightful "X-Men! Welcome... to DIE!" - Boss Banter: Assuming they're not being pummeled by six people at once, some of the bosses have some really hammy one-liners to deliver. Especially Magneto, who won't shut up unless he's being smacked around. (See the YouTube link in Large Ham down below)
- Boss Rush: On Stage 7, all the previous Bosses except Pyro and the Living Monoliths attack at once. They have half their health. Players can fight up to three bosses at once, including Magneto.
- Button Mashing: Hit the attack button, and hit it again. And again!
- Cane Fu: Storm fights with a jewel-tipped cane.
- Cast from Hit Points: Your "Mutant Power" costs three bits from your health bar. You get a "mutant power sphere" at the beginning of the level for one power use if your health bar is too low to pay the cost, and you earn an additional sphere every time you finish a level. The Japanese version of the game reverses this, using the Mutant Power spheres first, then using your health bar.
- Caught Monologuing: The Blob cannot stop talking about how nothing moves him which leaves him open to attacked in the middle of talking followed up with him being knocked down on his rear-end and then on his back if done from the front.
- Color-Coded Multiplayer: Going by the player name tags above the characters:
- Cyclops: Jack of All Stats
- Colossus: Mighty Glacier
- Wolverine: Glass Cannon (oddly enough)
- Storm: Stone Wall
- Nightcrawler: Fragile Speedster
- Dazzler: Squishy Wizard
- Cutscene Incompetence: The X-Men walk right into a trap set by Mystique, that happens to lead to the sixth level.
- Most "traps" involve the floor/ground being destroyed, sending the team into a pit of some kind. The problem being that Storm can fly and Nightcrawler can teleport.
- Damsel in Distress: Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat), who apparently forgot she can walk through solid matter. (Possibly justified in that, during the Pryde of the X-Men special, she hadn't mastered her powers yet)
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: In the remake. Unlimited credits means that some players actively commit suicide just to refill their special attacks.
- Degraded Boss:
- Pyro in Stage 6. Health is a lot lower thanks to using 1 Mutant Power to wipe all of them out. However, depending on version, the 4-player arcade machine surprisingly has 8 Pyros at once while the 6-player machine and the PSN/XBL versions have 6 Pyros.
- On Stage 7, Blob, Wendigo, Nimrod, White Queen, and Juggernaut. All of them are fought with half their health.
- Desperation Attack: Uses up three units of life, unless your life is low, then it uses a special attack unit...in the U.S. version. In the Japanese version, this is reversed.
- Difficulty by Region: The Japanese version has powerups to help you along the way.
- Drop-In-Drop-Out Multiplayer - Technically present in the original arcade game, at least the "drop-in" part. The remake allows anyone to drop in or out of an online or offline game at any time, thus making it easier to get a six-player game going.
- Dual Boss: The Living Monolith's two stone doubles.
- Evil Is Hammy: Just ask MAGNETO! His minions are pretty hammy too.
- Excuse Plot: Loosely based off of the pilot TV series episode Pryde of the X-Men. Magneto is causing trouble in the city and kidnaps Kitty and Professor X. Beat shit up with your favourite mutant til you save them and pound Magneto into dust.
- Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Magneto's Brotherhood consists several characters who, in the comic, have no real common agenda other than antagonizing the X-Men. They all fight alongside the mutant-hunting Sentinels.
- Finishing Stomp: Nightcrawler's pursuit attack has him jumping up and down on a fallen enemy.
- Flash of Pain: Bosses flash colors when hit, and flash faster and faster as they get close to death.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: Everyone can perform pursuit attacks. Cyclops and Dazzler literally kick downed enemies while Wolverine and Colossus punch them. Storm and Nightcrawler have more unique pursuit attacks.
- Large Ham: MAGNETO! As seen here
. - Mad Libs Dialogue: Some of Magneto's taunts are clearly spliced from other recordings. See in particular, "You are DEAD!", where "DEAD!" was blatantly recorded separately, and the "You are" is taken from another catchphrase, "You are nothing!" He even shouts "DEAD!" by itself from time to time with the exact same inflection.
- Mecha-Mooks: Sentinels of course. Some of them are spawned in one level by a gigantic Sentinel from its mouth (Possibly meant to be Master Mold)
- Mythology Gag: One of the lines the Blob yells as you're fighting him is "Nothing moves the Blob!", the same line he used before trying to take on Nightcrawler in Pryde of the X-Men.
- Out-of-Character Alert:
- Finally, Magneto is here, but he fights like a Badass Normal. Only kicks and punches, that is all. Alas, that was Mystique, not Magneto.
- Mystique does this earlier, as well. At the start of the sixth level, Professor X leads the player characters into a temple, and then... stands up?!? "He" then lets out an Evil Laugh that changes pitch as Mystique takes her true form.
- Palette Swap: It would be a case of Underground Monkey, but only a few enemies actually change their attack patterns. Bosses with low health have "Konami seizure time", which causes their colors to change when they get damaged.
- Pokémon Speak: See the following quote.Wendigo: "Wendigo!"
- Prepare to Die: The aforementioned "Welcome to die!" line by Magneto.
- Random Events Plot: While the plot fits the source material, the many events feel arbitrary and seem to come out of nowhere.
- Screaming Warrior: Colossus when you use his special attack.
- Shock and Awe: Storm's pursuit attack has her electrocute downed enemies. Her desperation attack is her firing off a lightning-charged tornado.
- Sphere of Destruction: Colossus' special attack, Power Spark. It nearly engulfs the entire screen.
- Sword Beam: Or rather claw beam in Wolverine's case. His desperation attack, Adamantium Laser Blade, has him fire off a huge light beam slash.
AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Tropers, welcome...TO DIE!!
