Developer: Digital Eclipse
Publisher: Activision
Released: September 26, 2001
Completed: March 28, 2020
Rated: E for Everyone
Remember Konami's awesome X-Men arcade game, the beat 'em up that allowed up to six players at once to team up with huge, colorful sprites, smooth animation, and some of the most famously bad voice acting ever? At a glance, you might assume X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse to be a spiritual successor to that all-time classic. It is also a beat 'em up with some pretty decent animation, and lots of recognizable characters from the storied comic book franchise. That is, unfortunately, where the similarities end.
Reign of Apocalypse is dull, dull, dull. What stings even worse is that it's such a missed opportunity. There are only four playable characters - Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, and Rogue - and no unlockables despite numerous X-Men showing up as bosses. I don't remember the story reason for it because the story is forgettable tripe, but Gambit, Nightcrawler, Cable, and Phoenix all make appearances, among others. Not that additional characters would save the game from being a bore that can be beaten in under and hour, utilizing only the basic moves.
You could pretty much sleepwalk through this game. Between the braindead enemies and the generous health refills, it's harder to die than to beat the whole thing in one sitting. There are 12 stages total, but none of them are particularly lengthy. You start off in the X-Mansion, and you'll visit the Canadian wilderness, fight on top of the Blackbird, infiltrate a sentinel base, stop over in the Savage Land as well as the mutant slave island Genosha, and even sightsee at landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge. Thing is, none of these locations are that impressive. Between the short length of the levels, the grainy backgrounds, and the uninspired combat, it doesn't really matter where you're mashing the attack button. To its credit, the sprite animation is pretty fluid and characters are instantly recognizable.
Between stages you can assign points to improve your character's attributes. There's no distinct difference. It feels like something that was shoehorned in, but is strictly cosmetic and doesn't actually do anything. I suppose it may give you more health, but who needs it in a game this easy?
The audio doesn't fare much better than the graphics or gameplay. There is one music track that plays through the entire game. One. It's a short loop, so you will get sick of it before the end of the first stage only to realize with increasing annoyance that it accompanies every stage. There is also one generic voice sample that I can recall. I wouldn't expect anything on the level of the X-Men arcade game, but why even bother with the one grunt at all at that point?
At least it controls well enough, not that you'll need anything other than the attack button. Each character has a mutant power and a meter to govern its usage, but there's really no reason to use it. I am not exaggerating when I say the entire game can be beaten with the basic attack string. I could forgive the grainy backgrounds or the single music track if the gameplay was fun. At best, it works, but it is not entertaining. You can play it, but why would you want to - let alone replay it with a different character?
It may be unfair to compare a Game Boy Advance game to an arcade game on much more powerful hardware, but gameplay is not dependent on hardware. Of course the arcade game is going to look and sound better, but there's no reason this game should be this unfulfilling. Digital Eclipse had a perfect blueprint to use, a great license, and completely squandered it with one of the most bland beat 'em ups I've ever played. It's functional, but the first three letters of the word are as close to fun as it gets.
X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse was played via the Game Boy Player on GameCube with no cheats.