X-Men vs Street Fighter

X-Men vs Street Fighter is where the whole Capcom cross over craze started. Before we had the Marvel vs Capcom series this is what we had. I played the hell out of this on the PlayStation back in the day, but it is the Sega Saturn version I am talking about today as that is the better version. While it may not be as “crazy” and over the top as the games that would follow, this is still an excellent fighting game that is not to be missed.

The Fight Is On

While it is easy to talk about this game as the first in the Vs series. What some people forget is that X-Men vs Street Fighter is actually the third in another series! You see before this we had X-Men Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes, both of which are great games. This one has Apocalypse the villain from X-Men as the main villain and it is up to our heroes to stop him.

There are 16 characters (well 17, but Akuma is a secret one) you have eight from Street Fighter and eight from X-Men. You have characters such as Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li on the Street Fighter side and Wolverine, Cyclops and Gambit on the X-Men side. The character roster is awesome, but it is interesting how the Street Fighter characters appear to be more based on their Alpha version.

Tag Me In!

The big gameplay gimmick here is the tag feature. You pick two characters, any two that you want that X-Men vs Street Fighter offers you and you need to defeat a series of teams before facing off against Apocalypse. Now, the Sega Saturn version has this feature and it is awesome, but the PlayStation was not able to handle it so they stripped this feature away! This was very annoying, but the game is still a lot of fun. By today's standards, I must admit that the game is very lacking in terms of game modes. You have your standard arcade mode, the ability to fight a friend, and a training mode and that is all that is on offer here.

Fighting To The Max

Once you have picked your two characters, you then start to fight. The game is a six-button fighting game as you would expect from Capcom. If you have played any Street Fighter or even one of the previous Marvel games, you know what to expect here. The game actually has far more in common with Marvel Super Heroes than it does Street Fighter.

The game has super exaggerated attacks and these awesome air combos that you can do. In all, it is just so much flashier and more exciting than anything we had before. You have a super meter that fills and you can use these to unleash devastating attacks. Working your team is key, you can change any time you want so be sure to let a heavily beaten character rest before they are fully defeated!

I loved this game back in the 90s and I still play it from time to time to this day. It may lack the flash of the later games, but I always have a fun time when I fire up X-Men vs Street Fighter. It is pretty perfect if you find the Marvel vs Capcom game to be a tad too over the top. It has a great roster of characters and while there is a lot of skill here as is the case with all Capcom fighting games. You can button mash and have a good time with this as well.

Pros:

• It has a great roster of characters
• The game looks fantastic
• It was the first Capcom game to do the tag gimmick
• It is very challenging
• Playing against a buddy is a lot of fun

Cons:

• The PlayStation version does not have the tagging stuff!
• It is lacking in game modes

X-Men vs. Street Fighter finally arrives on the PlayStation, only to be KO'd by an evil tag-team of choppy graphics and slow gameplay. Add in the discarded change-fighter feature, and X-Men vs. SF quickly tumbles to the bottom of Capcom's PlayStation brawl barrel.

Right off the bat, the game suffers a major setback in this translation: Unlike in the Saturn import, you can't change fighters at will during a match. Instead, your partner can only briefly enter the fray during a Team-Up Move or Counter. This reduces the game to a one-on-one fighter and removes the diversity that made the arcade version so much fun to play.

Even as a straight one-on-one fighting game, though, X-Men vs. SF has huge problems. The biggest villains are the flagging animation and torturously slow gameplay. The fighters suffer from jerky animation, and some of the screen-filling super moves bring the action to a grinding halt--which ruins your timing. Even the highest turbo setting doesn't hasten the game's pace.

If you're dying to pit the super heroes against the Street Fighters, X-Men vs. Street Fighter is worth a cautionary rental at best. Otherwise, steer clear of this unheroic home translation.

Graphics

The hand-drawn fighters look great, but only when they're at a standstill. Moving characters display jerky animation, and the gameplay is riddled with slowdown.

Control

All the super moves and special moves are easy to execute, but the slow gameplay ruins your timing--especially when you're trying to execute a high-hitting combo or a precision air juggle.

Sound

The music is excellent, but some audio effects, like punches and kicks, are muted and sound like they were recorded through a pillow.

Fun Factor

X-Men vs. Street Fighter belly-flops onto the PlayStation with a resounding thud. Fans of both X-Men and SF will find nothing but slow gameplay, choppy graphics, and extreme disappointment.

Take one group of well-known comic book superheroes and mix in characters from the hottest fighting game titles ail you have an epic clash of good vs. almost good. Based on the arcade original. X-Men vs. Street Fighter is expected to grab home players' attention as much as its premiere form did this past year in the arcade. The title features totally unique backgrounds from other Marvel/SF games and has leveled off the fighting balance so most of the characters have a chance to stand up against the others in their side-scrolling arenas. This year. Capcom seems to be putting more than the usual emphasis on games that involve superheroes.