For the first time in its history, Konami’s X-Men Arcade has arrived on a portable device.
Identical in every way to its arcade counterpart, the iPhone version retains the action and gameplay of the coin-op. All six X-Men made it to the portable version: Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Night Crawler and Dazzler. The side-scrolling, beat ’em up action takes place across 8 stages as you try to rescue Kitty and Professor X from Magneto.
Wolverine and crew battle through a war-torn city, a factory, a jungle, a cave, and eventually Magneto’s base. The action is non-stop as the screen fills with sentinel droids, mutated lizard men, mud creatures, and familiar villains like Juggernaught and White Queen.
Most iPhone beat-em-ups suffer from glitchy or non-responsive controls, but this isn’t the case with X-Men Arcade. Konami worked diligently to improve the in-game controls and the overall result is incredible. The X-men characters respond to the joystick inputs flawlessly, and the punch, jump and special attack buttons work just as well.
The Solo game is very challenging; you can choose between easy, normal and hard difficulty settings, but don’t expect easy or normal to be very forgiving. Even on easy, sentinel droids will corner you, mutated creatures will beat you senseless, and the bosses will mop the floor with you in seconds. While this may sound intimidating to newcomers, X-Men Arcade does have unlimited continues.
The local multiplayer feature is where X-Men Arcade really shines. The multiplayer feature supports up to four players via Wi-Fi with Open Feint, Facebook and Game Center support. There is a leaderboard and 10 unlockable achievements.
X-Men Arcade retains the flavor of the coin-op while delivering modern connectivity through social networks. The gameplay may become repetitive over time, but that’s the beauty of classic beat ’em ups – the repetitive nature fades when the experience is being enjoyed with friends.
iPhone gamers looking for a new gaming experience shouldn’t overlook X-Men Arcade. Not only is it addictive and challenging, but it’s a lot of fun while playing with friends. Plus, it’s available on the App store for $2.99. Overall, X-Men Arcade is a game that no serious iPhone gamer should be without.
Mike Pittaro
Platform: iPhone 4
Compatible with iPhone; iPod touch, and iPad
Requires: iOS 3.1.3 or Later
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Rated 9+ for the following: Frequent/Intense Cartoon or fantasy Violence
Size: 51.4MB
Price: $2.99
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |  |
| The retro graphics still look good even today. | |
| Sound | |
| The digitized voices and music are arcade perfect. | |
| Gameplay | |
| Addictive and challenging, X-Men Arcade will keep you busy for hours. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Serious iPhone gamers should add X-Men Arcade to their game library. | |
