Welcome back to Xavier’s school for gifted youngsters. This is part 2 of our special edition X-men $20 GOTW and lost classics. In the first part we looked at some of the lows of the X-men franchise. In this second part, we’ll take a look at the Marvel Vs Capcom series, as well as Activision’s X-men games. You can find pretty much all of these games in stores, and most of them retail for $20 or less.
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Today, we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, a man who has dedicated his life to equality between people of all races. In the 1960s, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the X-men, a comic book about a team of superheroes dedicated to equality between human and mutant. Even though the cast was all Caucasian at the time, the book explored race relations in a profoundly brilliant manner without the material being heavy handed. Over time, the team’s roster would expand to include heroes from many different backgrounds, from the Jewish Kitty Pryde and the African Storm to the Native American Mirage. Throughout their 40+ year history, the X-men have seen many ups and downs, both in and out of comics, and video gaming is no different. What better way is there to celebrate Dr King’s dream than to have a look back at the interactive adventures of Xavier’s finest? In the first part of this two part special, we’ll take a look at some of the earliest games starring the children of the atom. The second part, coming later this week, will feature the Marvel vs Capcom games as well as Activision’s X-men titles.
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Shortly after SNK’s Metal Slug proved that simple side-scrolling ‘run-and-gun’ games still rule, Saurus released this Neo Geo/arcade game that proved that simple top-down run-and-gun games still rule too. This game is best described as a top-down Metal Slug, as it’s wildly absurd and light hearted. You take control of one of 8 commandos, each with their own special abilities and weapons, as they rescue a kidnapped scientist and his granddaughter from a terrorist organization known as the Black Scorpions. You can either choose to play as in either lone wolf or team battle mode. Lone wolf mode is self explanatory while team battle allows you to pick from three of the eight heroes and switch between them at will. There is a dodge button allowing you to avoid enemy fire, and you can move and shoot in 8 ways. You can even strafe by holding down the fire button. You have your usual weapon upgrades and bombs, and the fire button becomes a melee attack when in close range of an enemy. You traverse through six levels. A semi-sequel, Shock Troopers:2nd Squad was released a short time later. While it only featured 4 characters, it still contained the fun shooting action as in the original. It’s a shame that this didn’t take off as well as the Metal Slug series, as fans of MS will love this game. This game needs to show up on an SNK compilation pack, Wii Virtual Console, or Xbox Live Arcade.

In 2004, developer Raven created the smash hit X-Men Legends. This game took Marvel’s merry mutants and sent them throughout the X-men universe in 4-player action rpg goodness. The game featured customizable stats, upgradable powers, and a huge load of fan service. Raven followed up the following year with X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse which addressed the small amount gameplay issues found in the original XML and featured a story which included even more of the X-Men universe, including elements from the Age of Apocalypse storyline. In 2006, Raven decided to let the whole Marvel universe get in on the act with Marvel Ultimate Alliance. This game allowed fans to experience their favorite (and not so favorite) Marvel super heroes in a way they never imagined possible.
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Don’t get too excited, this isn’t an actual game, more proof of concept.

An unidentified Japanese programmer made a version of Super Mario Bros thats controlled by your hand using a webcam. Watch Mario stumble through 1-1 twice before calling in for help.

Also completely not real: New Duck Hunt

Before Madden, ESPN/All-Pro 2k, NFL Gameday, NFL Blitz, or any other football game, there was Tecmo Bowl. Tecmo’s 1989 NES port of its arcade game was way ahead of its time. It had rosters and playbooks for each of its twelve fictional teams. Although there were no real teams in the game, (as Tecmo couldn’t get the NFL’s permission to use actual team names) an NFL Player’s Association license allowed the game to feature real life players such as Bo Jackson and Joe Montana. The game was surprisingly deep even with the small amount of plays available. Even though the gameplay was a bit unbalanced at times, the game was still downright fun. A sequel, Tecmo Super Bowl was released a year later, this time featuring actual NFL team names. In fact, TSB was the first home football video game to use actual NFL teams. The series continued on Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis before a final entry on Playstation. It didn’t do so well in its final years, but it was still loved by its fans. In fact, many rom patches exist on the internet that update the rosters for Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES. Thankfully Tecmo will be bringing back the series later this year to unspecified gaming platforms. Until then, football fans owe it to themselves to play one of the classics of the genre. It may not have a franchise mode, superstar mode, color commentary, or fancy graphics, but it has a certain charm that can’t be found in today’s games.

By the way, the virtual console version of Tecmo Bowl has obviously been edited, due to the fact that EA has exclusive licensing rights to the NFL and the NFLPA.

When we had an article back in October featuring our very own Mike Choi, I’m sure at least a few people were loudly expressing in their heads “I wish I could play game music on a piano too!”

Well, I’ve managed to find a place that could serve as a pretty good primer for those of you who don’t have adept skills are reproducing your favorite game tunes. NinSheetMusic.net features a steadily growing database of tunes from many of the popular video gaming series to date. Fan-submitted sheet music for the piano, using a freeware program called Finale Notepad, are judged and tweaked by the site staff before uploading. This provides a decent amount of quality-base, rather than everything submitted being automatically thrown up on the site. Originally, the site was only supposed to host tunes from Nintendo console games. However, as of fairly recently, popular demand has changed that status quo to the freedom to submit gaming music from *any* console. While this technically may make the site name a bit obsolete, I doubt many people will care.

Tunes range from fairly simple to rather complex, so your favorite themes may be beyond your ability at first. However, if you ever wanted to seriously sit down and try your hand at tickling the ivories, this would probably be a site to check out.

I can play Green Hill Zone! (…sorta)

In the realm of 2-D fighting games, SNK is second only to Capcom in terms of sheer longevity and quality. Even though Sammy’s Guilty Gear is the current reigning champion, the series owes its existence to SNK, Capcom, and the gameplay mechanics that they established. Throughout the years, SNK has produced a number of hit franchises, both fighting and otherwise. Any gamer worth their salt has been exposed to at least one SNK game, weather it’s Metal Slug, King of Fighters, Fatal Fury, Athena, or Samurai Showdown. This new fighting game is a celebration of SNK’s 20 plus year history. Even though many gamers will find this game a bit lacking (especially graphics wise), this game is a dream come true for hardcore SNK and fighting game fans.
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