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Review: X-Men vs. Streetfighter (alternate) |
The Sega Saturn has been marred with so-so conversions of fighting games throughout its lifespan. Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men: COTA, Virtua Fighter, the list goes on. You may notice that 2 of those examples are Capcom’s games. That being said, a lot people didn’t have the highest aspiration s for X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, even with the new 4MB expansion that came with it. How clouded, and VERY wrong those people’s minds were.
X-Men Vs. Street Fighter is a 2 on 2 battle between characters from the X-Men comic universe, and the Street Fighter universe. All your favorite people are here: Ryu, Ken, Wolverine, Chun-Li, Cyclops, etc. The gameplay is much akin to Marvel Super Heroes, with psychotic super moves, air combos, chains, etc. This game is much more animation-heavy than the previous 2 Marvel games, but with the extra power of the 4MB RAM cart, it is nearly arcade perfect, save a few (literally) seconds of load time.
On the topic of “arcade perfect”, that is EXACTLY what it is. Not like Tekken 3 or Virtua Fighter 2, which were really close. If you put the arcade version and the Saturn version side-by-side, I don’t believe you could tell the difference. The graphics are all there, with no slowdown whatsoever. Even though the Saturn should be “inferior”, this simply whips the Playstation’s ass (with the help of 4 extra megs of RAM, though).
The sound and music are sort of boring, in my opinion. I never really enjoyed listening to the music during gameplay sessions, I usually just put on something on the stereo. The sound quality, however, is good. “Arcade perfect” can be used to describe the sounds also, leaving yet another “Saturn vs. Arcade version” topic to fight over.
Unlike Dark Schneider, I really enjoy the gameplay of the Vs. series, even more than the Alpha series. Not that I don’t like Alpha’s gameplay, but to me, the Vs. series gameplay is more fast and furious, and is overall more fun. Yeah, a beginner could kick an intermediate (or maybe even expert) player’s ass with a lot of luck, but that makes the game more interesting for 2 players. Super moves and jumping, infinites, variable counters, push blocking, air combos, team supers, and more make this game a whole lot more fun to play than Alpha, and I’m sticking to that.
If you need an example of how the Saturn can do better than the Playstation in a few categories, look no further than X-Men vs. Street Fighter. The only thing wrong is that its TOO arcade perfect. What I mean by that is that there are no extra modes of play, like in the Tekken series. Just arcade mode and vs. mode. Outside of that fact, XMvSF is an awesome fighting game, and well worth importing if you have a modded Saturn, or a 5 in 1 Action Replay cart.
- Stormhawk
