X-Men Next Dimension Preview

By Ricardo Torres, GameSpotPosted Sep 4, 2002 6:33 pm PT

We check out Activision's upcoming fighter that stars Marvel's X-men.

With the success of the X-Men movie, Marvel's atomic poster children for mutation have never had a higher profile. Activision and developer Paradox have teamed up again to offer mutant fans a fighting game featuring a bigger roster of characters, a bulked-up fighting system, and larger fighting arenas. We had the chance to check out an early preview build of the Xbox version of the game to see how the mutant fighter's evolution is progressing.

Beauty and the Beast fight it out in front of the mutant academy.

The game's story draws on several recent plot threads that have run through the various X-Men comic books and snowballs into the sweeping life-or-death epic clashes the comics are known for. Fans will recognize the game's antagonists, the well-known robotic villains Bastion and the prime sentinels. The trouble all begins when the prime sentinels liberate Bastion from prison and then set out to destroy the X-Men by using one of their own against them. The mechanical menaces capture X-Man Forge in order to exploit his mutant ability to create any device he can imagine. In this case, Bastion intends to use Forge to re-create a weapon to wipe out mutants. Professor Xavier and the X-Men, obviously taking issue with Forge's kidnapping and Bastion's "kill all mutants" agenda, set out to thwart the robotic menaces.

Our build of the game let us check out five of the game's modes: story, arcade, versus, survival, and practice. The story mode takes you through the aforementioned events and follows the X-Men's efforts to rescue Forge and stop Bastion. This mode offers a twist on the linear structure you'd expect from a story mode in that you'll engage in a series of one-on-one fights that are broken up by cutscenes that move the story along. The twist is that you'll have the opportunity to choose a character to use out of a rotating selection of characters in between battles for a bit of variety. While the story mode offers something new, the rest of the game's modes are what you'd expect. Arcade is a standard run through a series of fights, while versus lets you take on a friend. The survival mode challenges you to get through as many fights in a row as you can. Finally, practice mode lets you familiarize yourself with any available character without the hassle of being assaulted by an overeager AI-controlled opponent.

A massive sentinel prepares for battle.

In terms of the game's roster, our build of the game gave us limited access to the selectable fighters. We were only able to try Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Phoenix, Toad, and Havok, but we were able to get a glimpse of the rest of the combatants. Along with the previously mentioned six, you'll also find Gambit, Storm, Mystique, Sabretooth, Magneto, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Forge, Juggernaut, Psylocke, Lady Deathstrike, two different prime sentinels, Bastion, and four slots with question marks on them.

The game's fighting system has been expanded from the one seen in the X-Men: Mutant Academy games on the original PlayStation. You'll have access to two punches and two kicks that you can chain together while attacking to create lengthy combos. You'll also be able to throw your enemies and counter their moves once you get the timing down. You'll even be able to move in eight directions à la Soul Calibur. Each character will have its own unique set of special moves that will reflect its unique mutant power, as well as four different super moves that will vary in strength according to your character's super meters.

prev next

0 Comments

Refresh comments

X-Men: Next Dimension Quick Links

GameSpot Score6.4fair
Critic Score5.925 reviews
User Score6.6217 votes
Your Score N/A
hover & click to rate
- 1
- 1.5
- 2
- 2.5
- 3
- 3.5
- 4
- 4.5
- 5
- 5.5
- 6
- 6.5
- 7
- 7.5
- 8
- 8.5
- 9
- 9.5
- 10