Genre: Fighting
Developer: Paradox Development
Publisher: Activision
# of Players: 1-2
Memory: 1 block
ERSB: Teen
Also On: Playstation, Xbox
Features: No Progressive Scan and/or Dolby Pro Logic II

Introduction:

Activision has been known for delivering some great Marvel based videogames over the past few years; all of them featuring The Amazing Spider-Man. Unfortunately the publishing giant’s X-Men games have failed to match the quality of the web slinger’s titles and X-Men: Next Dimension is no exception.

Read on to find out why the X-Men should have never left Capcom…

Presentation:

X-Men: Next Dimension doesn’t get too many things done correctly but surprisingly this is one area where it does not utterly disappoint. When first powering on the game you’ll notice that you are at first treated to some excellently done FMV that present gamers with the X-Men story, it is done so well that it gives you the false impression that this game might be any good. More FMV is used throughout the game to progress its story mode and provides to be entertaining at times and with Patrick Stewart providing some excellent voice acting for Professor Charles Xavier the game doesn’t suck as much. Load times are pretty short but there are tons of other nuisances found in the game that will just downright piss you off. Frame rate is also pretty solid but who gives damn…

Gameplay:

X-Men: Next Dimension tries to accomplish so many things, but fails miserably. You control your fighters with the D-Pad or analog stick and the faults of the game start here. Using the analog stick feels bulky and unresponsive, and using the GameCube’s miniscule D-Pad is a nightmare to begin within any game. So basically the game handles like a good Titus game which basically means terribly. Special moves are performed in a Capcom like way, quarter circle punch, etc… all other attacks are executed by random button mashing. Taking a page out of the Street Fighter Alpha series X-Men also features super gauge moves, fill up one gauge of 3 (fill all gauges for your most powerful attack) in total and unleash an attack by pressing the combination of the A and B buttons and a direction. The game truly is a button masher and nobody should bother actually learning how to “play” the game. Unlike most 3D fighting games X-Men: Next Dimension features aerial attacks, but most of the time these attacks are useless since most of the fighting is done on the ground and if you attempt to let’s say kick a grounded opponent while you’re in the air you won’t be able to; because no matter how well you position your jumps you will always land over your opponent. Some of the combos are pretty cool especially anyone of Wolverine’s but they are extremely cheap so expect plenty of one sided fights with an opponent executing the same move over and over again. Blocking is not as simple as it should be, to block an enemy’s attack you must press the R trigger to the point to where it digitally clicks the moment they attack you. Basically the blocking system is a deformed version of a parrying system except each parry you execute has a follow-up attack ala Dead or Alive. Not only does it feel bulky but it plays slow as well, a simple speed adjustment option could have made this more enjoyable but alas it’s nowhere to be found.

If I did not get across that this game plays horribly already let’s not forget about the vast amount of glitches and camera problems this game has. Let’s just discuss a few of them, such as since when does pressing forward on the analog stick mean your fighter moves in the opposite direction, or how can my character become airborne without even pressing the jump action? Also, how can I lose a match when I can’t see where the fighters are when the entire screen is black?

The game does feature a good amount of game modes, such as story arcade, versus, and tournament but most likely you will be turned away from playing any of these modes within the first 15 minutes of playing the game. Story mode is well done though, it features that post apocalyptic X-Men story we all know and love and is told by some excellently done FMV sequences. But unfortunately players are not given much of a choice of who they can select in this mode since certain characters can only be used to progress the story, Forge sucks!

So much potential, but it’s obvious this game was rushed…

Visuals:

Three dimensional fighters have almost always showcased the power of a console, X-Men: Next Dimension would fail to showcase the power of the Nintendo 64. The game has this dull look about it that I thought I would never see again after the 32-64 bit gamin era and in cases like this Retro isn’t the way to go. Character models are pretty decent but the textures featured in the game are just plain terrible causing everything on the screen to look smudged. The arenas are the only things in the game that look remotely impressive since they are rather large and do feature some decent geometry and lighting but I can’t seem to get over the poor texture work and dull look of the game. One the plus side, the game does feature a solid frame rate.

Audio:

Dull, boring, almost non existent… I could end it right there, but why should I when I could pound on this game some more? Voice acting is terrible aside from Patrick Stewart’s excellent job as Professor Charles Xavier during cutscenes but during battle retarded comments come out of the fighters mouths at the most unnecessary of times and as well as that the fighters’ voice overs all sound monotone. Music in the game is poorly done as well, so poorly done that you forget music even exists in the game. I now understand why the game’s developer decided not to implement Dolby Pro Logic II in the game, because they suck!

Lasting Appeal:

X-Men: Next Dimension is such a mess of a game that you can barely force yourself to finish one run through story mode. If you don’t want to play the game then why should you go ahead and unlock the 4 secret characters? It’s not any fun in two player versus either, actually it’s worse than playing against the CPU since most likely your friends will dismiss this game as being pure and utter horse manure much more quickly than you will because they weren’t foolish enough to by this game.

Final Thoughts:

This game had lots of promising things going for it but unfortunately it fails to deliver in almost every area. Stay away from this game at all costs even if you are the most die hard of X-Men fans, this game doesn’t even deserve your hard earned money for a week’s rental. X-Men: Next Dimension is just another one of Activision’s poor attempts to cash in off another one of Marvel’s franchises.

This game sucks so hard it could suck a golf ball through a garden hose…

The Good:

-Patrick Stewart provides some great voice acting in Story mode
-Storm wears a thong…
-Story mode features a great story for a fighting game

The Bad:

-Glitches and camera problems galore!
-Control feels bulky and unresponsive
-Visuals have N64-ish look

The Stupid

Moms and Dads make you sure your little ones know that when Rogue kisses her opponents it’s an attack and not some hidden lesbian message… but I personally enjoyed it.