"Welcome to die!"
X-Men: The Arcade Game uses practically the same engine that TMNT and The Simpsons used. It's a side scrolling button mashing fest that lets you hammer away at hordes of enemies. There are a couple of new gameplay features that make X-Men differ from the previous games. One of them is a screen clearing special attack that uses bars of energy from your life meter. You also have a back up special attack that can be used when you're at three bars of health or lower. The other is the ability to ground attack an enemy lying down.
The cast of playable X-Men is as follows: Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and the less popular Dazzler. Sadly, you cannot chose to play as a different X-Man if you're playing by yourself. Each mutant has their own unique attack animations and special attacks. Some are more effective than others, so it encourages playing the game with different characters to learn which one you like the best. You'll mostly be fighting color palette swapped sentinels, but you'll also come across lizard men and robotic flying menaces. Bosses that you'll encounter range from Pyro, The Blob, Juggernaut, Mystique and of course the diabolical Magneto.
If you remember how hard TMNT and The Simpsons were, you'll be alleviated to know that X-Men is a bit on the easier side. Still, it packs more than its fair share of cheap shots and deaths, because that's how arcade games earned their money. You have unlimited continues in both the online and offline games, so theoretically, you can spam away with your special attacks, die and come back fully armed again with no worries.
X-Men has several options you can select from. Whether you create a local game or an online game, you can choose from the American or Japanese version of the ROM. There isn't much difference other than the Japanese version has Japanese subtitles and power pills that you can find only in online mode. After you chose the ROM, you can select whether you want to play the four player or six player cabinet. Not only does this control the maximum number of players, it also dictates the screen size. Neither version will take up any dimension of your TV screen, but you can stretch out the image if you can live with the distortion.
Graphically, X-Men: The Arcade Game is a pixel perfect port. It was one of the best looking arcade games of its genre back in 1992, and it still manages to look pretty decent today. The animations are as fluid as can be for a game this old, and the cutscenes contain some nice comic book artwork. The special effects all around are flashy and full of life, especially the mutant power attacks. The presentation could have been a bit better, though, such as allowing you to chose different kinds of backgrounds.
Audibly, again it's a perfect translation. It sounds just like it did in 1992, with loud explosions and baps of fists meeting sentinel. The music is a lot of fun, keeping the tempo of the game moving along. The real charm of X-Men has to come from the cheesy voice acting and dialogue. Magneto's line "Welcome to die!" is so classic, they actually titled a trophy after it. In fact, the final battle with Magneto is the best part of the game because of all the ridiculous things he says, such as calling the team "X-Chicken!"
X-Men: The Arcade game doesn't offer the player much for 10 dollars. The nostalgia will wear off rather quickly if you only play it by yourself. The real fun is playing online with five other players, just as the six-player cabinet intended, but thanks to unlimited continues, you might get tired of seeing everyone spamming their special attacks since they can just die to get them back. It's a great way to make up for the game's cheapness, but it also circumvents any need to play strategically. Also, each session is less than thirty minutes long, so make sure you play with a group who loves the game as much as you, or you'll be back to playing solo in no time.