The Uncanny X-Men (video game)

The Uncanny X-Men
North American front cover of The Uncanny X-Men
Developer(s)	LJN Toys Ltd.
Publisher(s)	LJN Toys Ltd.
Distributor(s)	Nintendo
Series	X-Men
Platform(s)	NES
Release date(s)	NA 1989
Genre(s)	2D action platformer
Mode(s)	Single-player
Media/distribution	4-megabit cartridge (Physical)

The Uncanny X-Men, sometimes referred to as Marvel's X-Men, is an action video game developed and published by LJN exclusively for the NES in 1989. It is a licensed game for an exclusively North American market based on the series of X-Men comics of the same name by Marvel Comics. The lineup of characters in the game is very close to those appearing in X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, the only animated incarnation of the X-Men existing prior to the X-Men animated series on Fox.

Gameplay

The object is to use several X-Men characters, each with special powers, to complete a series of missions. The powers of each character come in handy on particular missions. For instance, Cyclops' optic blasts are useful on the factory level. The game allows for either one or two players. If the 1-Player mode is selected, the player will be joined by a poorly programmed AI ally. The playable characters available are Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Iceman. There are five bosses in order of appearance: Boomerang, Sabretooth, Juggernaut, The White Queen, and Magneto.

Each character has an unlimited attack (either a punch or some type of projectile) and a special move that uses their energy and would kill the character if it was used up too much. The game required the player to fight their way to the boss in each stage, sometimes requiring the collection of items such as keys. After the boss is defeated, the player has to quickly fight their way back to the beginning of the level before a bomb goes off. There are five missions: "Practice", "Future City Street Fight", "Search And Destroy The Robot Factory", "Subterranean Confrontation" and "Battle Through A Living Starship".

Magneto's level can be accessed upon the player's completion of the first five levels. To access this level, the player must press select, up, B, and start on the NES controller. Instructions to access the hidden level were printed on the back of the game's cartridge, but the instructions on the cartridge do not instruct the player to press select. In an attempt to help gamers find the information on accessing the final level, the game frequently tells players to seek help from Professor X if they are unable to access the final mission.

Reception

The game is considered by many to be poorly designed and unfairly difficult.^[1] One of the game's criticisms is that the player is forced to choose one of two directions in which to chase the boss. If the player guesses wrong, they have to fight their way to the beginning again and head the other way. Adding to the game's frustration was the fact that the final level could only be accessed with a secret code, which is never hinted at in the game nor in the manual, but rather is merely discreetly printed on the game cartridge's label.

Skyler Miller at Allgame gave the game one star out of five, calling it a "strange, laughably bad mess of a game" and even went as far as stating that it's "one of the worst games ever produced".^[2]

References

1. ^ seanbaby.com
2. ^ Allgame review

External links

• The Uncanny X-Men at GameFAQs
• The Uncanny X-Men at MobyGames