Back when Marvel didn't suck -- I remembered one of the best games ever done was the X-Men arcade game done by Konami. Okay, just take note that I'm not a comic book purist and most of my criticism here will be based on what I thought were better alterations or the worse. Now for the whole game.
The X-Men that cast here are mostly from the Pryde of the X-Men pilot. You have Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Dazzler and Storm -- all the while Kitty Pryde is still a newbie would-be X-Man. I just wonder why the original pilot didn't include others like Gambit or Jean Grey for the roster. It could have been cool to have Gambit instead of Dazzler or why was Dazzler later replaced with Jubilee for Saban's X-Men cartoon? We could have also had Jean Grey instead of Dazzler. Just my thoughts on my preferred roster.
X-Men arcade game has realigned lots of villains who weren't part of Magneto's original Brotherhood such as Emma Frost (she was a member of the Hellfire Club), Juggernaut is changed into a mutant when he isn't in the comics (and I think making him a part of Magneto's Brotherhood would have added more conflict with his stepbrother Professor Xavier), Pyro and Mystique never truly worked for Magneto (yet I prefer that plot over the comics where Mystique and Magneto weren't truly aligned) though I wish we had Sabertooth over Wendigo.
The intro scene is just funny. So when did Magneto end up controlling the mutant-hunting Sentinels? We know he hates them -- but remember he's a tech genius! Sentinels are made of metal which he may have suddenly decided to reprogram and USE THEM against the humans. If he did then that's genius. He leads his mutant terrorists to attack various parts of the city. Magneto plans to obliterate humanity from Avalon and the X-Men must stop him.
This was one game where you realize you can't use powers all the time. Using the mutant power depletes your health so you had to rely on normal attacks AND use your ability as a last resolve (such as bosses). Wolverine and Colossus had abilities not really in the comics. Since when did Wolverine possess such a dangerous slash or Colossus release energy? This had me thinking about the number of times I didn't notice that. Yet it was far more enjoyable than that idiotic Captain America and the Avengers game by Mindscape. The game was full of crazy teams that you needed pals to help you get pass this rather difficult game.
The bosses are either irritating or fun. The final level has you fighting almost every boss (again) except Pyro and the Living Monolith for some reason. Then you had to fight "Magneto" who was actually Mystique. Mystique could only copy the form and voice but never their DNA -- which made the "final battle" too good to be true. Then we discover Magneto is one motherf*cker that you can NEVER mess with. His powers aren't purely ferromagnetic as seen in earlier shots. We saw him release dangerous bolts of electromagnetic energy which he uses a lot in forming his shield and firing highly damaging attacks. You can't mess with someone who has the FULL spectrum of magnetism.
The comics Magneto had access beyond ferromagnetism -- something the movies always ignore. I mean, think could you keep this version of Magneto in a plastic prison? Nope. He would have still blasted his way out with electromagnetism and his ability to create dangerous blasts of magnetic energy. This version of Magneto almost gave us a preview of the 1994 X-Men: Children of the Atom game where Magneto is an unplayable boss who's loaded with extremely dangerous attacks -- all the while the fight takes place in the space station called Avalon.
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