The X-Men Legends Series

Activision (the company that SADLY killed Fantasy Leader's favorite character Crash Bandicoot) released two awesome games called the X-Men Legends series. First, you must realize that the games are NOT canon to the normal Marvel Universe, it's more of a "What If" series where sometimes the game has characters that don't exist within the normal Marvel Universe. These games were released on the PC, Gamecube, XBox and the PS2. I only played the PS2 versions and here's what I thought of the series. For one, the games' RPG-like system for me is easier to adapt for me who is a non-RPG player. One controls a main character and chooses three teammates to which he can take over control with for specific tasks. One must get a balanced team and know how to set team-ups. For example, you might need Colossus to help with heavy stuff while you need Storm to fly around. I just figured out it was fun to try and use the characters.

The first entry of the series was a story of Magneto attempting to shadow the Earth, angry with how mutantkind is being mistreated. It is told in the story of the X-Men character Magma. There are two opposing sides namely OC character William Kincaid who was creating the mutant hunting Sentinels and Magneto, who plans to cover the Earth in darkness. It almost felt like an RPG, souped up version of the Konami X-Men game with Magma taking the place of Shadow Cat and some of the bosses namely Pyro, Blob, Juggernaut, Mystique and Magneto were in the arcade game. However it has a more intense part because we have Havok who starts off as a member of the Brotherhood, much to Cyclops' dismay. The final battle takes place on Asteroid M with a twist.

The second entry is where Apocalypse is the main antagonist with some differences from the Marvel story. For instance, Angel's story of how he became Death is different, Mr. Sinister is still working with Apocalypse (but plans to betray him), Beast and Dark Beast are merged into a single character, we have the fabled "Four" instead of "The Twelve", Living Monolith works for Apocalypse, Stryfe enters into the present without any explanation, etc. The second game itself has a more striking story considering it's my favorite X-Men villain Apocalypse that's working. I know I also like Magneto but I do love how Apocalypse really is a real conflict in the X-Men stories. The Brotherhood and X-Men must work together if they are to stop Apocalypse. The clues come together with the identity of "The Four" as Apocalypse seeks to use them to gain what he believes would lead to godlike might with their "harmonic DNA".

So far both games are worth a buy and has a nice "what if" concept of the Marvel Universe.