X-Men is an arcade game produced by Konami in 1992. It is a side-scrolling beat 'em up based on the characters of the same name under license from Marvel Comics. The animation of the X-Men and the supervillains is based on the 1989 X-Men pilot episode titled Pryde of the X-Men.

The player chooses one of six X-Men: Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, or Dazzler. Their objective is to stop the villain Magneto from wreaking havoc on human civilization. They must fight through an army of hundreds of Sentinels and supervillains such as Pyro, Blob, Wendigo, Nimrod, The White Queen, Juggernaut, and Mystique. Later, Magneto kidnaps Professor X and Kitty Pryde, prompting the heroes to go on a rescue mission. The heroes fight their way to Island M and ultimately to Magneto's base on Asteroid M where the final battle with the Master of Magnetism takes place.

X-Men contained several unique features including the ability to hit fallen opponents to prevent them from getting back up (as first seen in the arcade game Crime Fighters by Konami (1989) and its sequels), as well as a character-specialized "mutant power," which could clear most of the screen of enemies (like the 'crowd control' attack in Final Fight achieved by hitting both the jump & attack buttons together).

Depending on the machine, the maximum number of simultaneous players varies from two to six. The six-player version used a multiple screen set up, similar to The Ninja Warriors.^[1]

Summary: The object of the game is to progress as far as possible while surviving attacks from Magneto and his minions. A character's health gradually drops as s/he suffers attacks. When a character loses all ten life points, s/he loses a life. When all lives are lost (usually between two and six), the game is over.

Scoring: A player gets a point for each enemy defeated.

Controls: The character is controlled with a standard joystick, an attack button, a jump button, and a mutant power button.

Movement: In addition to right and left, the character can move up and down the screen as well. This adds a 3-dimensional feel which gives the game more realism than some of its predecessors. Characters may also jump - the height and length of the jump can be controlled by holding the jump button down for greater lengths of time and also by moving the joystick. It is even possible to change the direction of a jump in mid-air. Every character handles differently in this regard. Nightcrawler and Dazzler are very nimble jumpers while Colossus is not.

Attack: Every character is able to fight with punches, kicks, or other close combat attacks. For most opponents, three hits will knock them down. A downed enemy can be struck very easily. The kind of attack varies based upon the distance from the enemy when the attack button is pressed. All sorts of special attacks are possible, too, including jump-kicks, backwards attacks, and more. Each character also has a special close combat attack which can be used to throw an enemy across the screen and instantly defeat him. This attack is very useful since the thrown enemy can also be launched into other enemies, but it can harm other players, too, if caution is not excercised.

Mutant Powers: Each character has a unique mutant power which can be used to defeat all or nearly all enemies on the screen. The use of a mutant power is very effective, but also costly since it causes a character to lose three health points. Normally, a character who drops below four health cannot any longer use mutant powers, but it is also possible for characters to obtain bonus mutant powers which can be stored like items (similar to Golden Axe 's magic powers). These special mutant powers can only be used once a character has fallen to less than four health and can be earned at the end of each stage. No more than nine bonus mutant powers can be held by a character at any given time.

The X-Men arcade game features 8 stages through which the characters must pass before ultimately finishing the game.

Stage 1: "Go and Save the City!" - The easiest of the stages. This stage introduces the weakest of the X-Men's enemies, the purple-and-red and purple-and-green sentinels, as well as several others such as the green and red heavy gunners. The stage boss is Pyro, who attacks by creating fire dragons and using acrobatic kicks.

Stage 2: Secret Hideout - Twice as long as the first stage, the Secret Hideout ups the action by requiring the team to traverse several floors within the Hideout while fighting through even more sentinels and gunners. This stage introduces the yellow robot laser and the green robot laser while also facing the characters with stronger sentinels (orange-and-blue) who can not only take more punishment, but who also shoot missiles from their hands. The X-men face The Blob at the end of this stage, who attacks with a heavy mace and his sheer size.

Stage 3: Island M - Stage 3 takes the characters to a jungle setting where they do battle with mutants who are loyal to Magneto including yellow gatormen, flower-human hybrids, and crawling brown blobs. Stage 3 also introduces the concept of secondary bosses. Halfway through the stage, the characters do battle with a giant wasp who shoots at them with its stinger. If the characters survive to the end, they will fight with Wendigo, who is guarding the entrance to the cave.

Stage 4: The Cave - This underground stage introduces grey gatormen (who breathe fire) and features a metallic bat as the level's secondary boss. Players need to watch out for enemy vehicles which rocket across the screen, striking everything in their path. At the end of this stage, the team fights with Nimrod and at last rescues Kitty Pryde.

Stage 5: Rescue the Professor! - The enemies faced on this stage are similar to those faced in earlier stages, but there are also a few new surprises. The deadliest of these are cliffs which a character can fall from - no matter how much health a character has, this means instant death. Flamethrowers debut on Stage 5 as do The Reavers (cybernetic punks whose legs have been replaced with motorized chassis). The secondary boss is the White Queen, and the end of the stage awaits Juggernaut.

Stage 6: The Trap - Unwittingly, the characters fall into a long-forgotten Egyptian Tomb where Magneto's minions make their move. Heavy machinegun mounts, laserbeams, and Silver Sentinels all appear for the first time during this stage. With more cliffs, multiple Pyros, and a boss fight that pits the X-men against not one, but three Egyptian statues, this is one of the most difficult stages.

Stage 7: Asteroid M - The X-Men leave Island M for Magneto's base in outer space. The Gold Sentinels in this stage are the strongest of their kind. The highlight of Stage 7 is the return of nearly every boss in the game, followed by the appearance of Magneto himself. Once the battle ends and Professor X is freed, it is revealed that this was Mystique in disguise and that the fight with Magneto is yet to come...

Stage 8: The Master of Magnetism - The most difficult boss fight in the game is the players' reward for making it this far. The fight is harder and lasts longer than any other fight in the game. Magneto blasts at the X-Men with deadly beams of energy while all the while mocking them in classic comic-book fashion. If Magneto is defeated, the players are treated to an end cinematic along with the credits which include panels from the comics.

Later Stages: Following the defeat of Magneto, the game returns to Stage 1 and the game repeats.

The game is fondly remembered by those who played it for its fun, addictive gameplay and colorful graphics. However, it is also sometimes criticized for its wooden voice acting and often ungrammatical, engrish-like script, particularly from Magneto ("I am Magneto, Master of Magnet" and "Welcome to Die!"). The Japanese version of the game featured enemies that would drop health and Mutant Power refills upon their defeat. These enemies were absent from the American release of the game.

The line from The Blob which goes "Nothing Moves The Blob!" was popularly satirized on the popular website YTMND.^[2]

• X-Men video games on Marvel.com
• X-Men at the Killer List of Videogames
• Gamespot - The Greatest Games of All-Time
• The Best and Worst Comic Book Video Games
• X-Men Walkthrough (Arcade Version)
  • X-Men (Arcade) FAQ By "White Mage"
• Character Guide version 1.02