Review of X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (SNES)

X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse for the Super Nintendo is a good game with some big flaws. For the most part it's a straight forward beat em' up with not much thinking and large amounts of fun. Let's go over the individual elements.

Story : The story isn't very relevant as this type of game focuses more on game play. However, the story is sufficient enough to be a device for fighting various villains in the X-Men mythos. You play as one of five X-Men: Cyclops, Wolverine, Psylocke, Beast, and Gambit. The villains you encounter are: Magneto, Apocalypse, Exodus, Tusk, Sentinels, The Brood, Omega Red, and Juggernaut.

Graphics : All of the characters are well drawn and animated. Every character's signature attacks look exactly as they do from the comics, both heroes and villains. The backgrounds are detailed and vary from stage to stage quite a bit, ensuring you don't get too bored. Nothing in the background is particularly annoying.

Sound : The music in this game is fantastic, as are the choices of tones. Every piece of music features a lot of harmony and melody. The music also fits the stages and characters perfectly.

Game play : All the characters are responsive and fluid. Each feature their signature attack from the comics and are easy enough to use. The enemies for the most part provide a good enough challenge until the end of the game, where the difficulty level skyrockets in regards to the final three bosses: Exodus, Apocalypse, and Magneto. If you aren't a gaming God or have tons of patience, these three bosses will frustrate you to your last nerve no matter which character you're using.

The levels are linear but not boring. The lack of exploration perhaps lends itself to the game's simplistic fun. The level length is very good. None of the levels drag on too long and most of them feature interesting bosses from the comics at the end.

The game features a short password system which is very convenient. Perhaps the only glaring flaw is the end of the game's difficulty. Those looking for a great X-Men game need look no further. This game defeats nearly all other incarnations that came before. The NES games pale in comparison, both X-Men and Wolverine's solo game. This game also is much than the Wolverine solo adventure on SNES. Once again, if you're looking for an X-Men game then this is it.

Re playability : The game is extremely re playable, save for the end sections which will test your patience.

Overall: 8/10. A mostly excellent game save for some difficult bosses.