X-Men (C64)

X-Men: Madness in Murderworld... sounds like a nice place. Oh crap, it's playing clown music. That's never a good sign.

This is the second ever X-Men game, coming after Uncanny X-Men on the NES. And I really hope it's an improvement because Uncanny was pretty bad.

Okay so far this looks terrible, but it's still a step up from the last game because I don't hate it yet. At least the music has stopped.

I have a hero in blue tights standing in the road, some cryptic icons, a H bar and a P bar. Well I can't be bothered figuring out what they mean yet, so I'll go exploring instead.

Oh crap. Uh, I can't figure out how to attack. You know what, I think I'll go back to the last screen and figure out what all those buttons do.

The game flicks between screens rather than scrolling, and I'm hoping this guy will stay on his own screen rather than follow me.

Pressing space let me access the buttons. I've found disk options, sound options, drop item, pick up item, use power, and I guess the one on the top left is 'team status'. So it seems I've got a team with me.

Hey, I managed to switch to Storm! I almost feel like I've achieved something, even though this hasn't helped in the slightest.

Screw it, I'll go back to the purple guy and see if I can figure something out there.

Ah, holding the fire button and pulling left or right is attack.

He didn't stand a chance against my Storm-fu.

Alright, I've taken the dark green key 1, now I just need to find a door to use it on...

Well that's the first puzzle solved. If they're all as easy as this I'll have no trouble making progress.

Right, I see a box, and also a door. Now what do I do?

Well I can't seem to pick the box up, and apparently Storm's mutant powers have no use here.

But maybe if I had someone stronger...

Nope. Colossus can't pick up the box, and he can't break through the door. So, uh, I guess that's the end of my playthrough then.

Oh right, of course. Nightcrawler can teleport into the box to get the key! It's so obvious now.

Sorry cowboy, I don't know who you are or even what I'm doing here, but you're in my way and for that I'll have to punch you to death. Plus I'll throw in a few kicks for the hell of it.

Well I'm finally inside the building, but I can't see a damn thing.

The next few rooms have lights on, but all I can find are bats, rats and dead ends. It's a shame none of my mutants have night vision or else I'd be able to search that pitch black room.

Wait, what are Dazzler's powers again?

Well I don't know what she did, but that lit the cave up! Now I can see a ladder leading up.

I use Cyclops' eye beams to cut open the wax figure and find... a broken circuit board!

I try the broken circuit board on the only door I can find, but nothing happens. Well I'm out of ideas, I've found no keys to pick up and no boxes to teleport into. I guess I'll quit here.


Final score: four screens across into the Murder World building. To be honest though I doubt the game was going to get any better after that door, so I'm not wasting any more time on this. Not when there's other X-Men games out there to waste time on.