Revisiting arcade games from my youth tend to generate mixed feelings. I find myself excited about playing something that once occupied many hours of my life and took countless quarters from my mother’s pocketbook. Heck, when I think about arcade games in general I get all mushy and have to remind myself to take off the love goggles. It’s not that all the games from that era where bad, but the recipe was pretty much the same and the experience did have magic about it. You and some of your best friends or random kids you met while on the sticks tear through a side-scrolling coin draining beat ‘em up with little to no elbowroom. So when Konami decided to dig into their bag of legacy titles and bring X-Men Arcade to the XBLA and the PSN I had mixed feelings. The game is here, our quarters have been exchanged for Microsoft points and our joysticks have been traded in for Dualshocks and Xbox controllers. Will things be as good as we remember?

Look and Feel

You get to take your pick from six X-Men: Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Dazzler. Unlike when we were kids it really doesn’t matter who you select, because this time around they’ve allotted unlimited lives, so poor character selection comes without penalty. As far as graphics go you have to consider the game was originally released nearly twenty years ago. Keeping that in mind the game looks pretty good. Your control layout is simple: stick and four buttons, that’s all you’re gonna need for this adventure. Just about anybody can pick up a controller and play, and it seems that’s what they were going for here hence the unlimited continues. This game is more than a beat ‘em up, it actually has a light hack ‘n slash feel. You’ll cruise through hordes of Sentinels and other less memorable bad guys. This all leads up to boss battles against some more memorable villains leading up to a showdown with Magneto. The game is fun but the magic of the arcade experience just isn’t there. New features like online co-op and little to the experience. I’d hate to keep whipping a dead horse but the unlimited continues is what really cripples the experience. It makes the game feel like less of a challenge, like anybody can beat this game with little effort, just keep on continuing.

Bottom Line

If you’d like to take a trip down memory lane, this is definitely the game to do it with. With the addition of Achievements and Trophies you’ll have something extra to shoot for, but after beating the game and logging in your console’s extras there’s not that much left. Considering the $10 price tag, you may want to give the demo a try before diving in. However, if you’re the collector type this will make for a decent pickup. Just be sure to call up some of your friends for that first run through.

Final Verdict: 7 out of a possible 10