X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse is usually billed as something between a platformer and a beat-em-up, and while both genre names come with certain expectations, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse is better considered a mix of the two that, while it won’t be hitting the heights of either genre’s best examples, manages to combine the traits of its inspirations into something that is better for having integrated both.

The story kicks off with the superhero mutant team the X-Men launching a split assault on the island of Genosha where other mutants are being detained by the villain Apocalypse for an unknown insidious plan. The initial levels of the game seem to follow this idea of an assault on the island fairly well, each member of the team given a different role for this infiltration mission, but it’s quite clear that Capcom wanted to squeeze in as much interesting X-Men content as they could get away with, later levels sort of devolving into just an excuse to fight recognizable villains who have no business being there like the alien monster the Queen Brood. They do at least justify why you fight the likes of Omega Red and Juggernaut by framing it as a training simulation between missions, but more interesting conflicts are definitely being prioritized over having them make narrative sense.

When the game starts off, you have five levels you can tackle in any order you please, each character having a level built specifically for them to overcome. Choosing between Psylocke, Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, and Beast, you take them through a stage meant to get you acclimated to them as later on in the game you will be able to choose which character you want to use to tackle specific missions. Levels are usually designed as sequences of small combat encounters broken up by simple platforming challenges, and each character has unique abilities that can help with both. Gambit is definitely the best off combat wise and likely to become a favorite in the stages where you pick who you play as, his basic attack combo pretty good and his special abilities giving him both a horizontal and vertical projectile to better repel enemies with. Cyclops also has a fairly good horizontal blast that reaches across the screen, while Wolverine’s lack of long-range strikes is made up for by his quick combos, a rushing attack, and the ability to climb up walls with his metal claws. Beast has the most unique navigational advantage, being able to stand on ceilings to add an odd extra layer to combat that is more than just a simple jump, but Psylocke feels like she doesn’t have anything to make her stand out. She has the most special moves, but the are mostly flashy attacks that don’t give her a clear edge over the others, although her low attacks are probably the best for keeping a crowd at bay.

Executing special attacks is a bit more complicated than a player might expect. While your regular attacks are mapped to one button and jump to another, you must do certain directional inputs while attacking to execute some of your special skills. Some are easy enough to figure out, like pressing up twice and attack will make Gambit launch an explosive playing card upwards, and for people familiar with games like Street Fighter, the quarter circle-attack combo best known for unleashing Hadoukens there is used here for a few mutant powers. If you do know the inputs, the only limit on them is your ability to pull off the button presses, but it can be a tad finicky for more complicated ones or not worth the trouble compared to your basic strikes. Psylocke has the most special attack options, but combat is usually not complicated enough to justify them. The challenge with most regular enemies is making sure they don’t gang up on you, and since this is also a 2D platformer, you only have to worry about your left, right, and very rarely things above you. While no move directly deals with being boxed in on your left and right by goons, crouching and kicking is usually good enough to push one side away so you can focus on the other. The combat isn’t too flashy and regular enemies are repeated often, but the combat is less about the fight and more about its context as an obstacle. Many battles in the game come down to learning how an enemy behaves and then dodging it properly and attacking during openings, the complexity coming from finding the proper reaction to each style of opponent. Boss fights tap into this approach excellently, caution necessary to learn their patterns and striking when the opportunity crops up. Recklessness is bound to get you killed, and while the game is pretty good at placing health pick-ups after potentially tough moments, your health is still not something to waste lightly.

The platforming is not so demanding as the battles. While jumping and positioning are definitely important and there are definitely perils if you fail at it, it’s often a supplement to battles to give them extra layers to consider or just a brief challenge like trying to outpace a lava flow or hopping across moving platforms. Some of the designs evoke memories of Mega Man X, especially things like Wolverine’s wall-climbing segments essentially being like the wall jump shafts from that game. Since a lot of boss battles are about dodging, jumping around the boss arena is a necessary skill, with some fights like Beast’s battle with a machine or Psylocke trying to destroy a missile are almost platforming challenges but with a villain-shaped obstacle you need to overcome.

A potential deal-breaker in X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse though is its difficulty. The need for a careful approach, good platforming skill, and an understanding of your mutants’ abilities is key to making it far in the game, but right off the bat many players might be put off by the five stages you must complete first to reach the more lenient later levels. Each character has their own set of lives, and if they run out of them, they are no longer playable unless you can find the appropriate character token in another mutant’s level. There is a training mode you can access on the front menu to help you learn the game’s ropes and level layouts before hitting the story mode though, and I would highly recommend it to at least feel out the inputs first. You can’t beat the game in training mode of course, and oddly enough it simplifies the X-Men’s movesets by letting you press X to use a mutant power unlike in the main game, so it can also give a bit of a false impression about the difficulty. Just like the individual enemies and bosses though, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse is a game about paying attention and being patient, learning how to approach situations rather than rushing in and hoping you’re strong enough to push through them. Most of the difficulty is designed around that approach and it makes it incredibly satisfying to overcome a level for it, many of the stages mercifully short so you don’t have to worry about too many factors while keeping your health bar up. There are some moments of unfair difficulty, Psylocke’s stage containing a crumbling bridge designed to get a cheap kill on you, and it is likely you will lose X-Men along the way, but after you clear that first set of five short levels, you get a password on completing all subsequent stages that you can easily put in to retry a level after you’ve learned the ropes.

Without this password system though, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse would likely be too brutal for its own good, its gameplay asking for you to test your limits and which X-Men works best for each situation. Picking the wrong X-Men can lead to a harder experience, but figuring out the how and who for each stage once you’re free to pick who you wish makes the second half of the game much more interesting. For example, the Omega Red fight is its own stage, and if you pick someone who is a good up-close brawler, you’ll see the boss packs a strong attack that can shear off half your health bar. However, Cyclops’s optic blast is perfect for keeping your foe at a distance. Something that might be difficult for one character might be a cakewalk for another, and there are small tricks you can exploit to help you win battles and overcome what might otherwise be roadblocks. The final level of the game mixes things up a bit though, in that every character has a unique stage they can go through to reach the last boss, but you only need one character to make it and beat him to finish the game. It’s an excellent way to reward you for learning the characters, allowing you to choose the playstyle you like best to wrap the game up with.

THE VERDICT: X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse does simplify both halves of its identity by including platforming that is mildly challenging and beat-em-up combat that has a limited selection of moves, but by combining the elements properly, it makes a title that focuses on approaching obstacles and battles intelligently, learning the behavior of your enemies and the skills of the X-Men. The difficulty may scare away some players, but if you commit to learning the levels and finding the right mutant for the situation, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse will open up and give you content that is better since you have to overcome it through a thoughtful approach rather than merely moving through it recklessly.

And so, I give X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse for the Super Nintendo…

A GREAT rating. Admittedly, when I was younger I played this game and was immediately put off by its difficulty, but I didn’t bother to learn its moves, I tried to rush in, and I was thinking of the game as much simpler than it actually is. Nothing is ever so complex that you can’t learn it with patience and experimentation, and putting what you pick up in the moment into effect makes taking down bosses more thrilling. There are simple moments between it all and some solutions you may discover may not be incredibly entertaining to execute, but X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse’s overall design guarantees a challenge and getting through it all is rewarding because it doesn’t pull its punches. The five stages at the start could have probably used a password system to break them up and there is no good reason why the main game hardly uses any buttons while training mode shows they could have mapped a few skills to the unused ones, so it definitely could have been a more welcoming game without compromising the more interesting aspects of its battles and level design.

X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse is an excellent choice for players looking to test their limits without dipping into it too far with overly difficult titles. With a simple set of actions you can perform, the battles and platforming never push beyond accessible challenge, the game only asking that you treat its threats with respect instead of blindly rushing in.