April 21^st, 2003 (12:00am) - Activision and Raven Software are giving gamers and Marvel fans the world over the chance to build their X-Men dream team with the announcement of X-Men: Legends for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube. In this real-time RPG, players get the chance to assemble, train and lead their own X-Men fighting force in a battle against some of the deadliest foes in the Marvel Universe including the Morlocks, the Brotherhood of Mutants and robotic Sentinels. To be successful, players will have to draw on the powers of a diverse pool of X-Men and use teamwork to unleash the full power of their squad. X-Men: Legends is expected to ship in 2004.

"X-Men: Legends is the first game to capture the complete essence of the X-Men by allowing players to control multiple characters that fight together as a team," states Larry Goldberg, executive vice president, Activision Worldwide Studios. "The game will blend the best parts of the movies, comic books in a fantastic new adventure that allows you to develop your specialized powers as you succeed through your missions."

Penned by Man of Action, a studio of comic industry veterans, X-Men: Legends begins with the rescue of a young mutant and takes players through an engrossing plot that could unite mutant-kind yet destroy the human race in the process. Along the way, players will be able to assemble their ideal X-Men crew from over 15 of the most popular characters from the last 40 years, including Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Gambit and Beast, to name a few. However, before players load-up their squad with heavy hitters, they will have to take their foes’ abilities into consideration as certain situations may benefit from the abilities of specific X-Men. While Cyclops’ optic blasts and Colossus’ immense strength are great for clearing a path through hordes of enemies, players can opt to bring Wolverine and Nightcrawler along on a stealth intensive mission to help circumvent detection devices. Once the action begins, players can take control of any member of their squad and even execute multi-character combinations such as the famous Wolverine/Colossus Fastball Special. As they progress through the game, characters will gain experience points that players can use to upgrade the X-Men’s abilities and even learn new fighting styles.

Four-player co-operative mode is also planned, allowing multiple players to partner-up in X-Men: Legends. With dynamic joining, new players can join the adventure at any time, or gamers can take a break and pit their heroes against each other in the X-Men’s famed Danger Room.