X is for....

X-Men: Next Dimension

GameCube

The X-Men appeared in five games for the GameCube and this one is a fighting game featuring some interesting character choices but unfortunately not that interesting game play.

So first of I’ll start by mentioning the character roster which I found to be quite interesting in its selection. Yes there are the usual suspects like Cyclops, Wolverine, Sabretooth and Magneto but it was interesting to find the likes of Forge, Bishop, Havok and Lady Deathstrike included in the line-up, especially at the expense at more ‘popular’ characters like Ice-Man and Angel. Bastion is also included in the game as the main enemy instead of the usual Magneto which is good and obviously less predictable.

Moving onto the game play, there are two main modes that you can play through which are story mode and arcade. Story mode is interesting in the fact that some levels give you a pre-determined character to fight with whilst other levels allow for you to select from three or four characters which means that when the going gets tough you cannot fall back on your favourite character, unless the selected character is your favourite. The arcade mode is your standard select a character and fight through eight matches to finish the mode. The only real problems that I personally had was the seemingly lack of jump or duck which doesn’t half annoy me and the fact that like Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance the game felt quite clunky and not actually really that enjoyable which is a shame as with all the different characters and abilities/moves available you would think that it would be quite fun, such a shame.

Within the 15 minutes: Had won six fights on the arcade mode and three on story mode.

Will I play it again? I might at some point.

XG3: Extreme G Racing

GameCube

The third game in the Extreme G franchise that originated on the N64 manages to be even more like F-Zero with bikes, but is it as good if not better than F-Zero.

I’m sure you can guess what the answer is, a big resounding no. Despite being pretty similar games to the F-Zero series XG3 manages to actually be rather dull and boring. Before I get into that though the change to make it more like F-Zero (I promise I’ll stop mentioning the series after this bit) is the fact that they have removed the three nitro boosts and replaced them with a turbo boost that drains your shield the more you use it. So getting back to the dull and boring bit, despite being a game that is all about speed and going as fast as possible somehow the game ends up feeling pretty slow and uninteresting. As far as I can remember there are twelve bikes on the track including yours yet it feels like less as you very rarely seem to come across the opponents.

Another thing is the use of weapons. At the beginning of the league you get to select three weapons which includes the likes of heat seeking missiles, mines, EMP’s amongst other various weapons but they are all pathetically weak. They do absolutely nothing to damage or even put off the opposing riders, also they run out ridiculously quickly as you get a weapons bar that seems to drain massively when firing the weapons. To be honest I would say that there really isn’t that much of a need for the weapons which is a shame as they were quite good in the earlier games. Also this time round as mentioned previously you choose your weapons before the race by buying them instead of picking them up from the track which means that you are stuck with them which is annoying when the weapons bought are not very good.

Within the 15 minutes: Had played five races in the league.

Will I play it again? Cannot say I’m that tempted.