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Broken

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 14
Date: June 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Let me just go straight to the point and say that, if you're actually harboring any thoughts of buying this game, DON'T. No, not even when they included Magneto (he's an exclusive playable character for the DS version of this franchise) into the thick of the action for this DS version of the X-Men's latest movie adventure. Quite simply, X-Men: The Official Game for the DS is just another eagerly hashed up game going its rounds in milking a major summer blockbuster. Confusing gameplay, horrible graphics and forgettable audios are just some of its key features.

I'm not sure whether it's the DS' fault. You know, this machine has a touch screen, and somehow, some developers just feel compelled to make use of this innovation, just so that the "DS version" of their game won't feel so run-of-the-mill. As such, instead of the usual button controls for what is essentially a hack and slash game, X-Men: The Official Game uses the stylus extensively for controls. You'd still use the D-pad (or the ABXY buttons, presumably to provide a solution for lefties) to move your characters around, but for every other action, you'd have to use your stylus. The idea is good, if it's used on a complementary basis. It's not, when you end up bashing up bad guys with your stylus, when the good old button-smashing way of doing things is more effective. True, dragging objects across the room with Magneto is an interesting way of doing things. But on the other hand, tapping an enemy to engage in a fight is just plain silly.

It doesn't help when this team of superheroes are so limited in their abilities. Yes, these characters have vastly distinctive mutant powers, and the game make use of them for specific situations. So, if you need to brawl through an area quickly, you'd use Wolverine's brute. If you need to take on a ranged enemy, you'd use Iceman. You get the picture. However, one can't help but feel that the game is focusing a lot on what these characters can't do, instead of what they can. For example, despite his strengths, Wolverine can't hit a flying enemy. Magneto is totally pants when it comes to melee, even though he's really good in manipulating metal objects. Iceman is good for aerial and ranged attacks, but put him in a tight situation and he's a goner. And Nightcrawler, what can I say about him? For all his teleporting abilities, he's largely used to slow time instead of engaging into something more destructive. I understand that the developer will want the player to switch around the players during the course of a mission, and mind you, they made the switching really easy (just tap the shoulder buttons). But the over reliance on stylus play, and the mutants' inabilities to do simple functions make the game feels really restrictive and subdued.

The gameplay isn't the game's only pitfall. For a game that's developed for a "current-generation" handheld in the DS, the presentation of X-Men: The Official Game is just horrendous. I know that the DS is not exactly your PSP, but it certainly isn't a GBA as well. The character models are ridiculously blocky and distorted, and the background details are totally uninspired. The only reasonably done aspect of the graphics is the animated cut-scenes, which (vaguely) resemble comic panels. And even som these sequences are few and far between. The sound effects are also weak and repetitive, offering nothing of note for a franchise that you'd expect to be more cinematic than others. I don't like to use the word, but short-changed is exactly how I felt as I played through the first few levels of the game.

All in all, X-Men: The Official Game for the DS just doesn't live up to the hype that the movie is generating. Inept elements aside, if you're playing the game just for the backstory to X-Men III: The Last Stand, you'd be terrible disappointed, since the explanation for Nightcrawler's disappearance in the movie is as badly conceived as the game itself. I've not rated a game so poorly in years, and I hope that this is the last time that I come across something so painfully bad again.

Awesome game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 9
Date: June 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game and it is my favorite game to date. X-men has great graphics, an interesting plot, characters are in detail, and the action is intense and amazing for such a small game. Main point is that this game I would reccomend to any gamer who likes alot of action.

The worst version of the game by far

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

With the release of the X-Men: The Last Stand movie, naturally there is a video game tie-in that is on every platform. This version for the DS is by far the worst version of the game by far, which is really saying something considering how boring the home console versions are. Playing as Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Iceman, and Magneto (an exclusive character for this version, Colossus is an exclusive playable character for the GBA version), the first thing you'll notice is that like it's counterparts, the game is a by the numbers beat 'em up as you take on generic looking goons and have a boss thrown in every now and then as well. The graphics are just plain ugly looking, and the characters themselves are awfully tiny looking as well. Not to mention that while playing the game, you'll get the feeling that the characters' powers aren't used here to the capacity that they should be. Considering that this is the DS, the game attempts to make some use of the stylus and touch screen, and it does to a point, but the touch screen isn't as responsive as it should be. Not to mention that the gameplay becomes much more frustrating than it should be when you have to switch between characters when one can do what one can't, which was done in an effort to possibly spice things up gameplay wise, but it's done very poorly. The animated comic style cut-scenes are nicely done, but there's not enough here to save X-Men: The Official Game for the DS from the scrap heap. Isn't it funny that for a game to hit all the major systems, this joins Monster House, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith as having the best version of the game on the GameBoy Advance (that version is an above average side scroller which is much better put together than this or the console versions), and in the end, it's just another hastily put together licensed game that fails to deliver the goods.

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