X-Men on My PC?

Historically, PC ports of arcade titles - especially those of fighting games - have largely proved to be watered-down adaptations. The impoverished state of decent arcade translations may soon see a glimmer of hope with Acclaim's latest entry into the fighting genre. The game in question is X-Men: Children of the Atom, a 2-D fighting game featuring the normal cast of X-Men comic book characters.

X-Men's art is hand-drawn, and several of the animations, such as complex attack moves and recoils, add to the game's over-the-top cartoon quality. As for the faithfulness of the translation? One source at Acclaim explained why the game looks so stunning on a PC: "We copied the original code from the arcade game line for line."

A free demo of the game has just been released, allowing the player to play as the characters Wolverine or Psylocke in single- or two-player mode. The demo version has been condensed by the company to facilitate downloading, but Acclaim assured GameSpot News that no frame of animation would be spared in the final release.

The final version of X-Men: Children of the Atom - as well as Acclaim's acclaimed puzzler, Bust-A-Move 2 - should be out sometime in mid to late June. Both games will retail at a reasonable US$19.99.

In more Acclaim news, the company is also hard at work transporting the comic book hero/dinosaur-slayer Turok from the N64 to the PC. The home computer version of the extremely popular, extremely grisly first-person shooter should be unloaded by Christmas, Acclaim sources said. Along with Direct3D compliancy, Turok's package will include support for several other 3-D chipsets.