X-Men: Mutant Academy (PS1 vs. GBC) | All Throws & Special Grabs

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Published on September 30, 2022 8:30:59 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn9APVTSDcA

Game:

X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000)

Duration: 4:05

1,306 views

17

Select your fighter:

[PS1 & GBC]
Cyclops - 0:00
Wolverine - 0:12
Gambit - 0:28
Storm - 0:56
Phoenix - 1:16
Toad - 1:35
Mysterio - 2:01
Sabretooth - 2:29
Magneto - 2:50

[PS1 only]
Beast - 3:25

[GBC only]
Pyro - 3:57
Apocalypse - 3:59

X-Men: Mutant Academy is a 2.5D / 2D versus fighting game featuring characters from Marvel's X-Men comics. Paradox Development worked on the PlayStation version, while Crawfish Interactive made a Gameboy Color version. The games were published by Activision.

Released in 2000, the game served as a tie-in with the first live action X-Men movie. It is possible to use costumes from the movie in the PS1 version. Characters who were absent from the movie have been given outfits in the same style.

The PS1 version features an impressive selection of creative throws, given that the developers could explore the superhuman abilities of the characters. The game also contains classic grappling action, with the character Sabertooth having wrestling techniques like a piledriver and German suplex.

Each character has three standard grab moves which are selected depending on whether the player presses forward, backwards or no direction with the throw command. Some characters also have special and super grabs which use Mortal Kombat style input commands.

One criticism of the gameplay is that the player must micromanage their power meter in order to pull off the super move. This involves transferring power from the special meter into the super meter, and then tapping the X button to charge it up. The problem with doing this is it uses buttons which are assigned to punches and kicks, meaning your character will perform unintentional moves during the fight.

Something else I noticed when editing this video is that the PS1 version has a totally banging soundtrack, in a nu industrial style. The energetic nature of the music fits the fast-paced gameplay well.

The Gameboy Color version of X-Men: Mutant Academy looks very underwhelming when juxtaposed with the PS1 game. However, when considered in its original context as an early portable colour game, the gameplay doesn't seem so bad. While its not on the same level of quality as Crawfish Interactive's port of Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams, it's certainly more playable than their WWF / ECW games.

Each character only has one standard grab in the Gameboy Color version, with Storm also having a throw as her "Rage" move. The grab moves are somewhat disappointing, since some characters merely do boring striking combos. The moves for Mystique and Magneto are pretty much identical, and the same is true for Storm and Phoenix. However, at least some attempt has been made to have a variety of moves for other characters.

The control system for the special moves is very poor indeed. The commands rely on double tapping buttons, which almost always fails to register. I've had more success by holding a button where it was supposed to be double tapped. Certain moves which require quadruple tapped buttons simply don't work at all.

The Gameboy Color version has been criticised for being too easy, as it is possible to win by spamming the A button which fires projectiles for some characters. I still prefer this to the difficulty of the PS1 version- Expert mode is virtually unplayable due to the cheap and repetitive AI.

Overall this was a very interesting game to check out, thanks to the cool characters and creative move sets. If liked watching this video, remember to subscribe to All Throws for more grappling goodness.

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