Of all the infamous NES games, this is easily in the top 5. Its almost unplayable. Its certainly not enjoyable. Its a slog, with bad design decisions abroad.
You play as the X-men (Cyclops; Storm, Iceman, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler), the first three shoot projectiiles, the last three punch at close range, which is terrible. Most of the mutants powers don't really seem represented well in game. Nightcrawler's is, and its pretty awesome, he phases through solid stuff (not enemies tho). Storm and Iceman can fly, but honestly its just a hovering jump and doesn't seem to do anything I could find. This game is 1 or 2 players, but if you do 1 player, the CPU will unhelpfully be an AI companion for as long as they live, which is likely 20 seconds. You are supposed to walk through a long mess of similar weird colored backgrounds until you run into stairs/teleporters and have to navigate a small maze of screens, which is made harder because everything really looks the same. Once you find some 'keys' you can travel to where the boss is, good luck finding them or even making it that far. There are powerups, but their shapes are confusing as to what they do. The only distinguishable one, a magnet, is the only negative powerup. The stack of gold coins heals you, the gold coins with a red one makes you invincible, and the lightning kills all enemies on screen.
Graphics: 3 The main character selection looks good. The small art for each stage is bad, with a 'sewer' of bright green and pink, bronze and blue, its very bright, if any of it made sense. The powerups that drop, good luck figuring out what they mean.
Sound: 3 The music is OK, if unmemorable. The sound effects are classic arcade bloops and pings, and kind of annoying.
Addictive: 1 This game is very unfun. Even with a game genie invincibility code, its just a boring slog of similar backdrops until you can find a boss.
Story: 2 The setup seems OK, as you go on vague missions of 'destroy robot factory', when really all you do in this game is wander around and collect keys, then fight a boss at the end. You get a timer to escape, and get odd text that your mission was a success, without making it clear why. At least the bosses are Xmen villains, though like your heroes all they do is walk around randomly and shoot haphazardly.
Depth: 2 Character selection is dumb, there are a lot of stats when really the only ones that matter is punch/missle attack, and Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler is a fantastic char bc he can go through walls. On infinitte life, he makes the only CPU ally choice, as the AI is so bad . The mazes are confusing as they all seem to loop to the same locations, the cpu ally is infuriating,
Difficulty: 9 The char die quickly, forcing you to scavange the life powerups constantly. Your Ally AI in 1 oneplayer is so bad, they will get stuck on walls and impede your progress until you go to them, wait for them to realize its a wall, and move on. The enemies are unending, and important more for their drops than for any real strategy, most drop after 1 hit. There is just too many things firing at you, the coding has invisible walls you can't see, making pathing bizarre, and your char has the toughness of wet paper.
Uncanny X-men is a nightmare product. No one should play this, its so unfun and boring you will question your life choices. Be warned.
Of all the infamous NES games, this is easily in the top 5. Its almost unplayable. Its certainly not enjoyable. Its a slog, with bad design decisions abroad.
You play as the X-men (Cyclops; Storm, Iceman, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler), the first three shoot projectiiles, the last three punch at close range, which is terrible. Most of the mutants powers don't really seem represented well in game. Nightcrawler's is, and its pretty awesome, he phases through solid stuff (not enemies tho). Storm and Iceman can fly, but honestly its just a hovering jump and doesn't seem to do anything I could find. This game is 1 or 2 players, but if you do 1 player, the CPU will unhelpfully be an AI companion for as long as they live, which is likely 20 seconds. You are supposed to walk through a long mess of similar weird colored backgrounds until you run into stairs/teleporters and have to navigate a small maze of screens, which is made harder because everything really looks the same. Once you find some 'keys' you can travel to where the boss is, good luck finding them or even making it that far. There are powerups, but their shapes are confusing as to what they do. The only distinguishable one, a magnet, is the only negative powerup. The stack of gold coins heals you, the gold coins with a red one makes you invincible, and the lightning kills all enemies on screen.
Graphics: 3 The main character selection looks good. The small art for each stage is bad, with a 'sewer' of bright green and pink, bronze and blue, its very bright, if any of it made sense. The powerups that drop, good luck figuring out what they mean.
Sound: 3 The music is OK, if unmemorable. The sound effects are classic arcade bloops and pings, and kind of annoying.
Addictive: 1 This game is very unfun. Even with a game genie invincibility code, its just a boring slog of similar backdrops until you can find a boss.
Story: 2 The setup seems OK, as you go on vague missions of 'destroy robot factory', when really all you do in this game is wander around and collect keys, then fight a boss at the end. You get a timer to escape, and get odd text that your mission was a success, without making it clear why. At least the bosses are Xmen villains, though like your heroes all they do is walk around randomly and shoot haphazardly.
Depth: 2 Character selection is dumb, there are a lot of stats when really the only ones that matter is punch/missle attack, and Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler is a fantastic char bc he can go through walls. On infinitte life, he makes the only CPU ally choice, as the AI is so bad . The mazes are confusing as they all seem to loop to the same locations, the cpu ally is infuriating,
Difficulty: 9 The char die quickly, forcing you to scavange the life powerups constantly. Your Ally AI in 1 oneplayer is so bad, they will get stuck on walls and impede your progress until you go to them, wait for them to realize its a wall, and move on. The enemies are unending, and important more for their drops than for any real strategy, most drop after 1 hit. There is just too many things firing at you, the coding has invisible walls you can't see, making pathing bizarre, and your char has the toughness of wet paper.
Uncanny X-men is a nightmare product. No one should play this, its so unfun and boring you will question your life choices. Be warned.
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