X marks the spot with fantastic third entry in Versus series
Are you ready, True Believers? In keeping pace with this issue’s tribute to Marvel vs. Capcom, I’m introducing another game that helped make this series renowned by comic book aficionados and fighting games fans alike. Yep, you bet your excelsior prayers, this is X‑Men vs. Street Fighter.
X‑Men vs. Street Fighter take place two years after the release of X‑Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes. The backstory is a legendary X‑Men villain, Apocalypse, appears stating that Earth’s survival depends on only the strongest being able to survive. Little does Apocalypse know, M. Bison and Shadaloo as well as Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants have their own plans for Earth. The X‑Men along with various Street Fighters hear this and now a battle with high stakes for Earth begins with unlikely teams battling against Apocalypse.
The controls are the usual set up in any Capcom fighting game, only this time you have control of two characters that can consist of any X‑Men or Street Fighter character. I enjoyed the ability to mix an X‑Men and a Street Fighter character together as a team. X‑Men vs. SF also features the super jump and aerial rave from COTA but introduces three features: the Hyper Combo Gauge, which allows for super moves; the Variable Combination, which allows both characters to execute their Hyper Combos; and, the Variable Counter allows you to pull off an offensive attack from a defensive block simply by tagging your offscreen partner. These new moves and features greatly increase the playability from the previous games and make X‑Men vs. Street Fighter a better playing game.
The graphics and presentation are like COTA and MSH, bearing striking resemblance in arcade quality. I enjoyed the scenery and bright backgrounds that took out guesswork of my point character and the visual theme of each stage. The music is energetic and on point thanks to Capcom’s sound team working their awesome wizardry.
While it’s fun to play, I do have some gripes. While I enjoyed the overall gameplay, I didn’t like the heavy reliance on touch-of-death combos and infinites. Also, while the music was enjoyable, the reuse of Street Fighter’s character themes was kind of boring and lazy. Yes, I realize they wanted to use something that is easily recognizable but sometimes I think they rely on it too much and it’s obvious here. My last gripe is Akuma. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hating on the OG, but come on Capcom, Akuma is pushed on every early Marvel Versus game like he’s a main player in the MCU. That’s overkill and too much use of the Red Demon will force paying clientele to think about spending money on future games where he is running amok. Moderation, Capcom. Moderation, please.
X‑Men vs. Street Fighter is enjoyable and helped establish the trend of comic books meeting fighting games. As Marvel and Capcom were the pioneers, other comic book companies and game developers followed suit, making it normal for the gaming industry. This is a good origin story for the Versus series.