X-Men: Next Dimension (Game Cube, 2002)

I'm not normally a fan of fighting games in general because I usually feel like unless you invest a lot of time learning a long string of combos, you're basically just in for a butt-kicking everytime you play. And that's kind of how I feel about this game. I love the X-Men and being able to fight with such a diverse group of characters with a variety of different powers and moves is cool. But once the novelty of sparring mano-a-mano with everyone's favorite mutants wears off, I found the game controls to be too complicated to keep the game fun. Additionally, the camera will sometimes get stuck so you can't see the screen and other times an opponent will actually get stuck inside a wall. Having played this game on both Xbox and Gamecube, I can also say the Gamecube version has subpar graphics. On the plus side, though, the Gamecube version has a wider variety of options for types of fights (game types like "time-attack" don't exist on the Xbox version). If you're a fan of Street Fighter style moves and combos, than the fighting controls should work for you just fine. Since the only fighting game I've ever really liked has been Super Smash Bros. Melee, I just find the controls a little too clunky and old school for my tastes. Especially since you have to use the D-pad rather than the analog stick to really enact any of the special attacks. If you really like Street Fighter-type games and love the X-Men, you shouldn't be disappointed with this title. For everyone else, I'd say it's most likely a renter rather than a must-have.

This game's lay out is pretty basic: it's a 3D sort of version of games like Street Fight and Mortal Kombat, but as the X-Men characters. I say 3D sort because even you you'll only see the profiles of the characters in combat, you can go up and down and explore the different battlegrounds you'll be fighting in. The game is pretty good, a standard fighting game: melee attacks and mutant powers, use them to drain your opponents energy and progress to the next opponent. There's a basic story involved to keep you fighting and to keep some sort of plot tied into it. You'll be able to pick from numerous characters and the more you play, the more you can unlock and you can get alternate costumes for them too. The fighting is pretty good - you can use a variety of punching, kicking, throws, but the meat lies in the unique mutant attacks that each character has. Also, you can string together some pretty nice combos to thoroughly kick the butt out of the opponents. The graphics are fair - not realistic looking, but not comic looking either. The music...is just sort of there, nothing good or bad. The controls can be hard to understand at first, but nothing a few rounds of practice can fix - especially if you're trying to master the mutant power attacks. You'll have a certain bar that lets you unleash a different level/strength of mutant attack, pending on how much is in that bar. It's a fairly good game, but you will notice it's really nothing more than Street Fighter with X-Men characters; that doesn't necessarily make it BAD, but it really doesn't help it stand out as a unique game. I think X-Men fans will enjoy this. Fans of previous games such as Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat may enjoy this, but some of the schematics from those games aren't present here...so be wary.

A great fighting game for the fans of the series. Great graphics, good gameplay, and all the most famous characters in one game.