X-Men: The Official Game (DS)

CNET editors' rating: 2.0 stars Mediocre
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Overall score: 4.3 (2.0 stars)
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Gamespot editors' review

• Reviewed by: Frank Provo
• Reviewed on: 05/31/2006
• Released on: 05/16/2006

Like so many other movie tie-ins, X-Men: The Official Game for the Nintendo DS is a formulaic action game that is, mercifully, short-lived. Fans will barely recognize their favorite characters--partly because they're tiny and nigh unrecognizable, but mainly because Wolverine, Iceman, Nightcrawler, and Magneto have had their superpowers scaled back significantly in order to jibe with the character-swap mechanic that is central to the game's design. Ironically, the character-swapping gimmick and the stylus-oriented controls, which were no doubt meant to make the game more interesting, don't make the game any more enjoyable or playable than it would be if it were oriented around a single character and a standard button-oriented control scheme. In fact, very often, these nuances make the game more frustrating.

The DS version of X-Men makes rather poor use of its characters.

The game picks up right after the second movie left off, with Wolverine in pursuit of Lady Deathstrike and seeking information behind his origins and those of the Weapon-X program. While that's going on, the government kicks its anti-mutant campaign into high gear. Eventually, the two plot points come together, and the three X-Men are reunited, along with Magneto, who, just for the heck of it, has decided to help the heroes out. You alternate control of the characters while going through 40 short top-down levels filled with cookie-cutter thugs and the occasional boss. Levels can be replayed at any time to attempt to earn health and mutant power upgrades, and once you've completed the story mode, you'll be able to access additional survival and boss rush modes.

Generally speaking, the game is a "by the numbers" beat-'em-up, where you battle waves of enemy soldiers and dodge their gunfire while collecting health items and unlocking doors here and there. The interesting wrinkle is that every action is performed by tapping or dragging the stylus on the touch screen. This has good and bad implications. On the one hand, it feels very intuitive to tap on enemies to direct attacks and to send objects sailing across the screen using Magneto's magnetic powers. On the other hand, the touch screen isn't always quick to respond.

Central to the game's design is the ability, or rather, the requirement, to swap between characters on the fly. Nightcrawler has his own levels designed specifically around his ability to manipulate time and space, but most levels require the use of all three of the other mutants. Each character has had his superhero repertoire reduced to one or two actions, meaning that there are some enemies and obstacles that one character can handle and the others can't. Wolverine can slash enemies on the ground, but he can't touch flying drones. Iceman can hurl frozen projectiles, but he can't damage anything with heat-oriented shielding around it. Magneto can't attack human opponents directly, but he can use his magnetic powers to hurl objects in the environment at them. He can also shatter heavy metal doors that the other heroes can't get past. Routinely, you'll find yourself in situations where you have to switch between the characters multiple times to deal with a single room filled with a variety of enemies and obstacles.

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