X-Men: Children of the Atom

About X-Men: Children of the Atom

X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994) is Capcom's first fighting game with Marvel characters, a fast CP System II fighter with air combos and crumbling multi-level stages that laid the groundwork for Marvel vs. Capcom.

X-Men: Children of the Atom in Depth

The game follows the conventions of Street Fighter II and Darkstalkers, with ten selectable characters, six X-Men and four of their enemies, fighting best-of-three one-on-one matches. An X-Power gauge builds as the player attacks and powers X-Abilities and the more costly Hyper X moves, and breaking a throw or counter-throwing also uses some of it. New to Capcom's fighters were super jumps, long combos that can continue in the air, rolling away from or toward an opponent after falling, aiming projectiles such as Cyclops's optic blasts, and chasing a thrown opponent for follow-up attacks. Players can choose manual or automatic blocking, though automatic blocking disables some features. Some stages have floors that crumble, dropping the fighters to a lower level.

Loosely based on the comics' "Fatal Attractions" story, the plot has Magneto planning an electromagnetic pulse to plunge humanity into a dark age, with the X-Men's foes on his side. The single-player mode pits the player against six opponents and then the bosses Juggernaut and Magneto, and Akuma can appear as a secret opponent. The voice actors from the 1990s X-Men cartoon reprised their roles.

Making X-Men: Children of the Atom

Capcom released the game in Japan in December 1994 and in North America on 5 January 1995, building on its work on Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Darkstalkers. Next Generation praised its characters, mechanics, animation and voices while calling it "no better or worse than several others". The Saturn version, released in Japan in November 1995 and by Acclaim in the West in 1996, was hailed as near arcade-perfect; Sega Saturn Magazine called it "the first time comic book superheroes have been successfully translated to game format". By contrast, the MS-DOS version was mixed and the 1998 PlayStation version was panned for slowdown and missing frames, arriving after its own successors. Its fast pace, air combos and multi-level stages became the basis for X-Men vs. Street Fighter in 1996 and the Marvel vs. Capcom series that followed.