Those of you old enough to remember Gauntlet will recognize this game. Imagine Gauntlet with a bit of RPG character development thrown in for good measure. Those of you, who don't remember, Gauntlet was one of the first four-player arcade games, let me explain. It is/was a 1-4 player game in which you took control of one of four characters and ran around a scrolling top down viewed map, trying to kill anything that got in the way; simple idea, but great fun, especially with a couple of mates. It was re- released recently but is just too dated to warrant much attention. However X-men Legends takes this format and expands it. Firstly there are fifteen characters instead of four, all with varying abilities. I will not go into the story behind the game, because to be fair this will only appeal to ardent x-men fans, and if you want to read a comic there are plenty out there.

Another major expansion to the Gauntlet format is as I have mentioned earlier the ability to gain experience points and allocate them to the characters. After killing bad guys or smashing certain items, credits are dropped which once picked up can be used to buy things for you characters. Experience is gained by fighting or using special powers and you can level up at any point during the game, not just at the end of levels. As only four characters can be used at once, Activision have been quite cute here in that any character not used will gain points just by being left back in Xavier's mansion. This encourages you to use a lot more of the characters than you would normally use. However if you use a character more than others they will get slightly better than ones not used.

There is also an interesting training element to this game, being that in most games training is at the beginning of the game, however in this game you find special disks that allow you to train and gain experience at any time you like. The game is best played with a couple of mates. There are special combo moves which two players can link up and gain more experience.

Graphics:

The graphics are kind of cell shaded, which is true to the comic legacy, but they are slightly different from true cell shading and look quite original with black outlines. The backdrops are well textured and the use of lighting is not groundbreaking but very suitable for this type of game. The characters all have their own special powers, which are well depicted graphically, such as lightning bolts and laser beams etc. There is a lot of variety in this game, it is no Ninja Gaiden but is more than adequate and suits the games style.

Sound:

All of the voice acting is spot on, including Patrick Stewart and Lou Diamond Philips, which add authenticity to the game. However the soundtrack is pretty poor and in today's cinematic sounding game world does not add to the atmosphere, I turned it off. The sound effects are average with the usual dripping cavern noises and barrels exploding.

Longevity:

Longevity is good here too; 20-25 hours worth of main game, which can at least be doubled if you would like to use different combinations of characters to complete the game. It is the kind of game you can have a couple of mates over and stick on and all play without them having to read any instructions.

Round up:

This is a good game. It is one of those games that will turn up on every format for the next 10 generations. As we go on to Xbox 2, 3 and then 4, let's hope that developers don't loose sight of game-play, which is after all what it's all about. This is a game that if bought, will be played, and you will get your moneys worth. Then there is the added value for X-men fans. There is an abundance of X-men facts and figures here, plus comic covers to collect. A good few hours can be spent on just walking around the mansion, just checking out the character bios by logging onto the terminals. All in all great fun. Enjoy!