Some of you may remember that, roughly a year ago, I reviewed the awesome, but unreleased game of Thrill Kill. As I’ve said, nothing could keep that game from being released anyways, proven not only by the fact that it was released online, but also that parts of it appeared in other games. This is mostly due to the fact that its developers, Paradox Development, still had a right to the engine they made for the game; it was just the gory content that was banned by EA. The best example of its legacy would be Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style, which is pretty much a re-skinning of Thrill Kill (and a game I would LOVE to get my hands on), but the X-men: Mutant Academy series also uses its engine (though the game play has drastically changed). It’s also worth mentioning now that all those titles were produced by Activision (giving me another reason to why they’re my favourite company). So, let’s take a look at a game that uses the Thrill Kill engine, X-men: Mutant Academy 2 for the Sony PlayStation.
Have I used the term “standard 2D fighting” enough that you guys know what I meant by now? This is basically it, which is odd since the graphics are clearly 3D. Despite removing most of the awesome game play elements I like from Thrill Kill (3D roaming and kill meter) I was really surprised to find that this game FEELS like Thrill Kill. Whenever you move, hit or throw someone, it really looks the same way it would have in Thrill Kill. Anyone that has played that has played it would notice it right away in X-men: Mutant Academy 2.
There are also still meters in the game that fill according to how much damage you do to you enemy, but not quite like the kill meter in Thrill Kill. You have three different meters, which will fill depending on which attack you’re using. Once they’re full, you can press the corresponding button combination to launch a special attack towards your adversary. Also, don’t worry about not remembering the combo for the meter attacks, they are clearly displayed for you before each fight and are really easy to pull off. As a matter of fact, a lot of the moves in this game are really easy to pull off, which as always, is something I like to see in fighting games.
Here’s one last cool game play feature: while you’re playing, you’ll notice you have a red section to your health meter after you get damage. That section is health you get back over time. Though the section does get bigger the more damage you take, it still goes down, so it’s not unlimited. Also, if the green part hits the end, you still get K.O.’d. Still, knowing how to properly use this can mean the difference between your loss and a come from behind victory.
*Mystique: lick my boot*
This game has a good-WHOA, WHAT DID SHE SAY? *Mystique: “lick my boot” x2* Hehehe, sorry, Mytique has just been my favourite X-women ever since the second movie and-THAT GETS ME to my next point: the characters. Normally I have to describe them to you, but I mean, come on, this is an X-men game, these guys are pretty widely known. Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Sabre-tooth: you know these guys. They also added a lot more from the previous game, which is good, cause X-men has a lot of diverse characters and I think the selection in this game represents a fair microcosm of them. Though this does make me wonder: why are X-men fighting other X-men? I mean, I get things like Wolverine against Magneto and all that, but what does Cyclops have against Beast? This is really never explained, and as much as tried, I just couldn’t go a long with it. While I’m at asking questions relating to characters: why can’t Mystique change her look? That fighting element is used in other games, look at Mortal Kombat’s Shang Tsung. Sorry, some things just really bug me there.
No comments:
Post a Comment