Customer Reviews

X-Men: Next Dimension

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I had seen this game in the store several times and didn't pay it much attention. My friend who works in the game store told me I would enjoy it. Once I started playing I was hooked. Unlike other games that have used X-men characters, this one really seems to bring them to life. I don't know how this game plays on the other two systems but it plays beautifully on Gamecube. Load times are short, graphics are smooth, and gameplay is flawless.

First off, it is a 3-D fighter. The gameplay is reminiscent of Tekken. There are two punch buttons, two kick buttons, one throw button, and one counter button. This game is all about timing. The counter button is tough to use but nice to have, since you're timing has to be great. You hold back to block like Tekken. Unlike Tekken, where characters have lists of 40+ moves and some very complicated patterns, the move list is shorter, usually about 20-30, and are not too difficult to execute. If you like games where the moves are overly complex, you will not like this game. This is the type of game where a decent gamer, who may not be a master at games like Tekken, can master a number of characters in a relatively short time and not get bored. Sidestepping and jumping are easy in this game.

There are similarities to DOA in this game as well. The backgrounds are interactive. You can knock somebody up against a car and it will blow up, or a control panel and receive a serious jolt. Other than the danger room, all of the boards have multiple areas. If you hit a character hard enough and in the right direction you can knock them into another area. For example, you can start in the mansion hallway, knock them into the study, out the window onto the basketball court (which opens up like the movie), fall down into the hangar, knock you're opponent onto the elevator and wind up back in the hallway again. You're not restricted to one backdrop for an entire match. Even the danger room has multiple holographic backdrops, such as a Roman coliseum and a WWII battlefield. You can even use poles and walls to bounce your opponent off of. There are 7 boards, some with up to four different areas.

Now one thing that makes this game more fun to play is the power-up bar for your X-powers. It fills up Level 1, then Level 2, then Level 3, and once all three Levels are filled, you can use your Level 4. Each characters super moves require slightly different combos to get off but nothing too difficult to remember. Now lets say that you don't like your characters Level 1 move and prefer their Level 3 move, or vice versa. You can move the energy from other bars to the one you want. Press and hold the Z button and B, Y, and X will pop up over your meter at the top. Press the button corresponding to the meter you want to use and simply shift everything to it.

All of the moves and super moves in this game exploit each mutant's abilities to the fullest. Unlike all of the Marvel vs. Capcom games that treat each character like a Street Fighter character, this game treats each like an individual X-men.

One addition to this game that is much like a Capcom 2-D fighter is air attacks. I haven't quite figured out how to use them but if you knock your opponent up in the air, you can continue to hit them once they're airborne and even execute a super move. In fact, all characters have one super move dedicated for use while in the air.

There are 24 characters total. You start with access to 17. 3 are visible but locked. 4 are hidden by question marks and have to be unlocked through certain actions. Each character has 8 costumes. Some costumes are slight variations while others are drastically different. Characters for immediate play include: Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, Storm, Beast, Phoenix, Toad, Mystique, Sabretooth, Magneto, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Forge, Juggernaut, Betsy, Havok, and Lady Deathstrike. Sentinel A, Sentinel B, and Bastion are visible but locked. Psylocke, Bishop, Dark Phoenix, and Blob are hidden and must be unlocked. All characters are equally dangerous and well-balanced. Most have projectile weaponry of some sort, and those that lack it, make up for it in other ways.

On top of the nice blend of different aspects of various fighting games, the graphics are top-notch, the music is sweet and makes you feel like you're in a movie. The voice acting is great and you really get a feel for your character. Throw in great movies, which you can watch again once you have unlocked them, several different modes (Story, Arcade, Versus, Survival, Time Attack, Team, and Practice), and the fact that Patrick Stewart does the voice of Charles Xavier, and you've got one great game. Plus, if you don't feel like going through the trouble of unlocking everything, there is a code that does it for you: quickly press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B, Start, Start at the main menu. A message will confirm correct code entry. Then save it to your memory card.

Its nice to find an X-men game where Wolverine is not automatically the best character. I highly recommend this game.

I wanted to like this game; I really did. I love the X-Men series and love my Gamecube. However, this game wasn't even good enough for me to convince myself that I could pretend to enjoy it. It's simply a bad game.

The controls are incredibly awkward, first of all. Even on the easiest setting, it was so clunky that I couldn't figure out how to put together any type of offense. Despite my frustrations, I really tried to get a feel for the controls. Sadly, it never happened.

The game's only redeeming quality is the roster of X-Men it contains. I'm a huge fan of Gambit and Beast, and after not seeing them in the first two X-Men movies, I was excited about their inclusion in this game. It's just too bad that the game wasn't worthy of them.

Definitely rent this before you buy it. Don't waste your money like I did.

Try to find a harder game to find info or advertising on then this one and you would be out of luck. That worried me greatly. I really wanted this game to be good. However, having no attention on it is usually a bad sign. I have no idea why, because this game is AWESOME! Sure, it's not very original. Sure it's not some fantastic new fancy-smancy style fighting game, however it is one of the best I've played & (lotsa) fun. Ok people...it's not Tekken & it's not Soul Calibur, but It's the best use of everyone's favorite mutants. I would even say better then the 3d fighters from Capcom. The powers are used much more in this game and have a much more variety of powers & super attacks....much more then Tekken & SC. The one thing that is VERY difficult to get used to is the control. It's a very wierd set-up on the GC controller. In fact, I hated it at first. Give it time though. After playing with it for an hour or so, it'll feel much better (It was extremely difficult to switch back to Smash Bros. right after....the controls are sooo different that it just messes you up completely). The other thing that bugged me was the still models of some of the characters. What's up with Cyclops', Storm's & Gambit's hair. Looks aweful. But the models used in the game look fantastic. Go figure. This game definitely has a flare to it. Each mutants powers are quite flashy and very fun. They difinitely look and move like you think they would. Some of the best examples is Gambit and Psylocke. The whole multi-level within a level thing is fantastic. This is part of the flare I was talking about. Gives you time to gloat and mock your friend right after a fantastic attack. Although, you may feel like you're watching your mutant attack then actually controling them, you press a button and they just go off on their own sometimes like a child hyped up on chocolate. The levels look amazing. They are vast and so detailed. We actually stopped playing to watch Apocolypse rise from his grave. Very, very cool. There are so many moves and ways of attack, I feel as if I've barely scratched the surface, and this is after 2 days of playing. I do wish there was a tag team mode in this game, like in the Marvel vs. capcom games. But, I can deal. I think this is a good game to hold everyone off for a while until Soul Calibur 2 comes out. With a lack of fighting games for the GC, this game is very welcome in my library. If you love X-Men and enjoy fighting games...you will difinitely enjoy this game (after learning how to work the freaking controls that is). Give it time though.

I have grown up with X-Men, Rogue, and Wolverine are my two favorite comic characters. I have over 30 years worth of back issues, and I am still hunting down issues I have yet to get.
Good X-Men games have been few and far between, however. Sega had two great ones, the Super Nintendo had a half decent one by Capcom, and of course ever since then every game with the X-Men label was a fighter game, which is kind of sad because I'd love to have a 3D action, or platform, or even RPG with the X-Men license. The Capcom fighters have all been great, fast, furious button crunchers with great collision detection, sensitive blocking, and over all tight control. Activision's "Mutant Academy" series has been pretty lackluster in comparison, but the series' third installment showed a great deal of promise.
I had ruled out the PS2 version some time ago, the decision was between the XBox version, and the GameCube version, meanwhile I had been reading many unfavorable or lukewarm reviews of both versions. Eventually the GameCube's extensive game play options won me over. The GCN version has things like Time Attack mode and such not found in the Xbox version, while the Xbox version has one character not available in the GameCube version... ultimately I shouldn't have bothered... The games graphics are downright horrible... These are not the X-Men! Even worse, Patrick Stewart's Professor X aside, the voice acting is so terrible I cringe... even play with the sound on my TV muted! These are not my X-Men! I wonder how hard it would have been to hire the voice actors from the original cartoon series like Capcom did? More importantly, collision detection is sub par, blocking is futile because no matter how hard you hold back you'll take the beating, and this aint no button masher! You must enter precise movements to get anything to work, something that seems archaic in today's fighters.
Don't get me wrong, this games a step in the right direction for Activision's series, but it's not that big of a step. While its better than the previous Mutant Academy games it still... [falls short]. Whether you have a PS 2, XBox, or a GameCube steer clear of this one. Like Star Wars, good X-Men games are few and far between. At best, be smarter than I was and rent this game first.

OK, this is an awesome game. It's pure X-Men action. With 24 X-Men to play as, including Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, Havok, two Setinals, Bastion, Pheonix, Dark Pheonix,Rouge, Beast, Magneto, Toad, Mystique, Blob, Sabertooth, and many, many more, along with great fighting stages, it will definatly keep you hooked. However, you will find story mode to be really difficult, because you play as Forge alot, and he really sucks, plus when ever you punch or deliver a good move, they ALWAYS block it. Game play can be a little chopy at times, but it's still worth it. It can take a while to unlock characters and costumes, but the more reason for you to buy it:the challenge. So go, now, buy this game! You won't regret it.

This Game is a must for X - Men fanatics. I t has allot of perks and a couple a downs. One of the biggest perks for me was the fact the put Gambit in the game. I'm a huge Gambit fan. The Controls are tricky the first time so make sure get the configuration. Graphics wise the game is a 4.5 stars they could be better but not by much.
Disciple of Apocalypse,
Mike

I've never liked seeing people who give bad reviews to good things, but trust me, I know alot about video games. Despite other reviews, this is a horrible game. The fighting is jerky and has no real movement to it. The style of fighting and how could I forget, the worst controlls for any fighter game I've ever played. Trust me. Wait til August and get Soul Calibur II.
Once again, I hate seeing bad reviews for good games, but this is a good review technically. Normally I would give it a zero, but thats not a choice so it gets more than it deserves.

In this game, the graphics are worth the graphics of Gamecube; although the is a few bit of clipping and cookie cutters. This game is good for arcade fighting fans. The inviorments are not interactable, but they are well put together. The controlls were a little sensitive, and the game didn't really follow the X-men trilogy.

This game is really fun, with the cinematic like moves, and all the costumes and characters. The topic that annoys me greatly is the graphics. Though it is Next Dimension, the graphics are like playstation or Nintendo 64. Though this game is enjoyable, I recommend renting it first and seeing if you want to buy it. If it comes down to a fighting game for the holiday season, I would say without a doubt Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance exceeds in every way.

And here's a code:
Press UP-UP-DOWN-DOWN-LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT-A-B-START-START on the main menu screen. It unlocks everything. ;-)

Okay, folks, let me first say that I am TERRIBLE at fighting games. Period. I have basically no skill, and I often think to much when I am spposed to be having fun. That said, this game rocks! It is fun, relatively easy to master for a decent gamer, and not too hard for someone like me to keep up. The graphics are excellent, and the movement is consistent - not too much waiting between screens (my least favorite part of the new 'CD-ROM style' of video games). The characters are true to form, and any X-Men fan will simply love it. I had a friend over who is a game fiend, and I actually fell asleep for a while; he kept playing until 2 am! It's that good! I definitely recommend this game for serious gamers and novices alike.