Game:

X-Men (1992)

Duration: 2:08:05

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00:00 Starting Soon ("Noir" by Aaron Hodges-Boyle)
04:00 Beginning
06:00 Streets of Rage 2, Third Attempt (Sega; 1992)
57:25 MAME Struggles
1:09:20 X-Men: The Arcade Game (Konami; 1992)

Greg felt that, if I just avoided the error of switching to Max on my first continue, we'd be in a position to actually beat Streets of Rage 2, so we decided to give it another go. Suffice to say, Greg was right, but didn't heed his own advice, and we are undone by his decision to switch to Skate on his first continue! Perhaps at some point we'll make a fourth attempt with NO CHARACTER SWITCHING on continue!

Then, after some struggles with the MAME emulator (don't worry, gang: I've already figured out how to get The Simpsons working properly for next time!), we return to the arcades for the classic 1992 X-Men game!

Six players! Six playable characters! Double-screen wide-angle action! Gorgeous graphics! Voice acted story! Strong sound design! Almost a complete absence of depth to the gameplay! It's a fun experience that doesn't last long, which matches up perfectly with my childhood memories of beating this during a friend's birthday party with a small handful of quarters! Still: it's certainly a fun diversion, it was beautiful to look at, and "Welcome to DIE!" is an all-time video game villain line.

Next week, we tackle The Simpsons arcade game and officially complete Phase One of our project (Phase One is "all beat 'em ups we deem notable or notable-adjacent through 1993"). We'll round out the year with some retrospective content, and then it's on to Phase Two: ALL THE OTHER BEAT 'EM UPS through 1993!

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Greg and James Beat 'Em Up is our ongoing exploration of the beat 'em up genre! Broadcast on any Tuesday evening where schedules and Greg's health allow at https://twitch.tv/58DreamStreet

Intro Song: "Noir" by Aaron Hodges-Boyle. Aaron's got a wide catalog of "video game music to study or fall asleep to" over on his Bandcamp page: https://aaronhodges-boyle.bandcamp.com!

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