If you were a kid in the 90's and you loved the arcade, this is probably a title you're familiar with. This is one of the games I consider on the Konami Triforce. Of the arcade beat'em ups we played as kids, Konami created three of them that have landed themselves in Gaming History. Along with X-men, there was TMNT and The Simpsons. Of the three, this is the one that is my favorite. Not only are the characters truly meant for an arcade-style beat'em up, but they also have many different traits that lend them to such a genre.
Now, someone went and smashed a demo of the first level onto the Sega Saturn. It is so refreshing to see this sort of innovation still drives people to do unspeakably awesome feats! Hotrodx apparently wasn't satisfied with just having an arcade port and a game on the smart phone. No, he needed some X-men on Saturn and he put forth the effort. Was this a successful port? Most certainly! It has a few differences in the look but the controls and the mechanics are still present.
First, you can only play as Cyclops and Wolverine, boohoo, it's a demo, moving on. It is different in another way, though, and I'm not sure if this is something that was meant to be put in or if this is just a placeholder for the actual full version. Apparently, you are only given one chance to use your powers and you can only use it if you have the glowing dot on your healthbar. In the original game, you can use your superpowers once without penalty if you have a glowing dot available. When using your power again, it would also take a bar of health.
Another thing that has changed (and ugh, why?!) is that there are limited continues. This was not a problem in the first level, obviously, except for when getting used to the controls and finding out the mechanics. This makes it feel oldschool, of course, and while I'm not thrilled about it, I most certainly will not complain. These are acceptable changes and we can only hope that the work continues, as it has grown quite popular in the Saturn community.
Let's all give a big thanks to hotrodx! This is one of many different projects that are going on for the system and it warms my heart to see such love for such a great and underrated console. It's clear that the fanbase is still going places and that there is still a market for these games. If the inflated prices and the rarity of Saturn titles doesn't clue the market in the first place, I don't know what else to tell you. Just beat Pyro and let's see if we can make it to Magneto while drinking water.
