First look: X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse

The first X-Men game for Nintendo Game Boy Advance is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up reminiscent of Konami's classic four-player X-Men arcade game from the early '90s. In it, you play as X-Men characters such as Rogue, Storm, Cyclops, and Wolverine and interact with more than 40 X-Men characters in all.

X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse offers two modes of play: story and versus. In versus mode, you can compete head-to-head against up to three other players at the same time. In story mode, you must fight your way through the forces of the ancient mutant Apocalypse in an alternate timeline (introduced to comic readers during the "Age of Apocalypse" storyline) where he rules the earth.

In this twisted world, events have turned many of your friends into enemies and many of your enemies into friends. Your goal is to find a way to alter the timeline back to its original form, but you'll have to hit a lot of people over the head before you can do that. The game promises more complexity than your standard beat-'em-up, though--you can earn points by performing special moves and use them to improve your character's skills.

X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse is expected to be on display at the upcoming E3 in Los Angeles. We'll have more details on it then.