X-Men

X-Men is an arcade game produced by Konami in 1992. It is a side-scrolling beat 'em up based on the characters of the same name under license from Marvel Comics. The animation of the X-Men and the supervillains is based on the 1989 X-Men pilot episode titled X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men Unleashed TV Show From 1990 to 1999

Plot
The player chooses one of six X-Men: Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, or Dazzler. Their objective is to stop the villain Magneto from wreaking havoc on human civilization. They must fight through an army of hundreds of Sentinels and supervillains such as Pyro, Blob, Wendigo, Nimrod, The White Queen, Juggernaut, and Mystique. Later, Magneto kidnaps Professor X and Kitty Pryde, prompting the heroes to go on a rescue mission. The heroes fight their way to Island M and ultimately to Magneto's base on Asteroid M where the final battle with the Master of Magnetism takes place.

Features
X-Men contained several unique features including the ability to hit fallen opponents to prevent them from getting back up (as first seen in the arcade game Crime Fighters by Konami (1989) and its sequels), as well as a character-specialized "mutant power," which could clear most of the screen of enemies (like the 'crowd control' attack in Final Fight achieved by hitting both the jump & attack buttons together).

Depending on the machine, the maximum number of simultaneous players varies from two to six. The six-player version used a multiple screen set up, similar to The Ninja Warriors.

Controls and Gameplay
Summary: The object of the game is to progress as far as possible while surviving attacks from Magneto and his minions. A character's health gradually drops as s/he suffers attacks. When a character loses all ten life points, s/he loses a life. When all lives are lost (usually between two and six), the game is over.

Scoring: A player gets a point for each enemy defeated. Controls: The character is controlled with a standard joystick, an attack button, a jump button, and a mutant power button.

Movement: In addition to right and left, the character can move up and down the screen as well. This adds a 3-dimensional feel which gives the game more realism than some of its predecessors. Characters may also jump - the height and length of the jump can be controlled by holding the jump button down for greater lengths of time and also by moving the joystick. It is even possible to change the direction of a jump in mid-air. Every character handles differently in this regard. Nightcrawler and Dazzler are very nimble jumpers while Colossus is not.

Attack: Every character is able to fight with punches, kicks, or other close combat attacks. For most opponents, three hits will knock them down. A downed enemy can be struck very easily. The kind of attack varies based upon the distance from the enemy when the attack button is pressed. All sorts of special attacks are possible, too, including jump-kicks, backwards attacks, and more. Each character also has a special close combat attack which can be used to throw an enemy across the screen and instantly defeat him. This attack is very useful since the thrown enemy can also be launched into other enemies, but it can harm other players, too, if caution is not exercised.

Mutant Powers: Each character has a unique mutant power which can be used to defeat all or nearly all enemies on the screen. The use of a mutant power is very effective, but also costly since it causes a character to lose three health points. Normally, a character who drops below four health cannot any longer use mutant powers, but it is also possible for characters to obtain bonus mutant powers which can be stored like items (similar to Golden Axe 's magic powers). These special mutant powers can only be used once a character has fallen to less than four health and can be earned at the end of each stage. No more than nine bonus mutant powers can be held by a character at any given time.