X-Men Legends Review

The music is definitely well suited for whatever you’re doing, because whenever the action picks up, it tends to increase in tempo and dramatic feel, but there really could’ve been more variety to it. Really the X-Mansion is the only location that has a slightly different mood when it comes to the musical theme. But since you hear it every time you have to navigate through it with Alison, it almost defeats the purpose. That doesn’t go to say that it’s not nice to listen to, but when it comes to variety in the music overall, this game is somewhat lacking.

But where the music is lacking, the sounds and voiceovers definitely make up for it! When thinking of what GameCube games have superb voice acting, games like MGS: The Twin Snakes, Tales of Symphonia and Second Sight come to mind. Well, X-Men Legends can just as easily join those titles when it comes to the quality of the voiceovers! Each characters’ voice sounds incredibly authentic when connecting them to their comic and tv counterparts. Wolverine has his “gruff and aggressive” sounding voice that sounds like he wants to tear you apart. Cyclops has his rather “nerdy yet intelligent” sounding voice. Even the various accents that some of the characters carry like Rogue’s southern accent and Nightcrawler’s German accent are truly evident in their dialogue! Raven should be commended for choosing the right people to voice these characters because there isn’t one that seems a little off or out of place, it’s virtually perfect! Heck, even Patrick Stewart who’s played Professor X in the X-Men movies provided his voice for this game, it’s just awesome to hear that!

As for actual sound effects, there are PLENTY of them in this game, and they do nothing but wow you at times! When you have a team like Wolverine, Storm, Colossus and Magma, there tend to be a lot of explosions and stuff being destroyed. Well when a big combo is executed and there’s a lot of destructible things in the area, you tend to hear a big “bang” when that happens. In the latter levels, there’s plenty of chances for this to happen and it’s great to hear! Even the powers themselves have really cool sounds. If you’ve seen the tv shows or the movies and know the sound of Wolverine’s claws coming out, it’s the EXACT same sound! Storm’s lightning bolt and tornado powers have sounds too, and they sound just like they might in real life! The only real downside to the sounds deals with the voices in missions. Each character has those beloved preset one-liners that just get repetitive after a while. Now that doesn’t go to say they’re not entertaining, because they really can add to the experience. But once you get to a certain point in the game, they become pointless rhetoric. There’s just something about one-liners that never seem to come off well in a game, so developers really should either do away with them or come up with a lot more.

X-Men Legends runs on a real-time and active battle engine. That basically means that action is taking place at every second because you’re always doing something. Whether it’s navigating your team through a certain area, doing battle with the Brotherhood’s minions or learning more about the story of the game in the X Mansion!

Four members of the X-Men will be active during each mission and you have 15 to choose from. Members like Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Iceman, Jean Grey and many others are at your disposable. Unfortunately for all the missions you pretty much have to stick with who you choose as your beginning four for a good while. That’s because the only way you can actually exchange members of your current team for new ones is through the Extraction Points. These are basically big blue circles with X’s inside of them where you have the option of saving, changing your team, visiting the Danger Room and eventually two people that you can purchase goods from. These can be far and few between in certain missions, so if you want to use all the X-Men in the game, you will have to find good combinations quickly or else it really isn’t any use.

But with that small issue aside, the actual game itself is simply a blast to play. Each X-Men member has his or her own unique powers according to the comics, tv and movies and they all feel incredibly authentic! Wolverine has his slashes of rage with his adamantium claws, Cyclops has the beams that come out of his eyes, Storm has her weather-based powers and so on. Each power is access through the use of the R button being held and either of the four face buttons. The A and B powers tend to be the more offensive minded ones, the X power tends to be a defensive or offensive boost and the Y power is the ultimate power for that particular member that can be unlocked at level 15. As pertaining to experience, your members gain it by both defeating your onscreen enemies as well as completing the mission objectives. What’s crazy about that is during the last few missions of the game, you can receive upwards of 5,000,000 XP for simply completing one objective!