An HD port of 1992’s arcade version, X-Men was released with upscaled sprites, re-recorded audio and online/local drop-in play, along with adjustable multiple difficulties, matchmaking and the ability to select either the American or Japanese version of the game. 

As your typical beat-’em-up, you select one of six X-Men and “beat up” all of the enemies that show up on-screen, until you reach a boss fight: Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus and Dazzler. Each character has a Mutant Power that makes them unique, though activating it results in losing HP. The major feature that separated X-Men from other arcade titles was the capacity for 6 players to participate simultaneously, and the game supports it online (and locally on the PS3). 

X-Men Arcade wasn’t really created for unlimited play, and it shows. It’ll take you less than an hour to burn through the game’s 8 stages. While the American version of the game gives you a bonus Mutant Power (which is stored like an item) after every boss fight, the Japanese version has both health and Mutant Power items that you pick up through each stage. However, because the game gives you an infinite amount of credits, there’s nothing stopping you from just using mutant powers over and over and respawning to refill your life.

X-Men is worth your money if you either unabashedly love old school fighters, the X-Men series, or have friends to play the game with over and over, whether it’s via online play or locally. Aside from a few easy achievements, there’s not much replay value to it other than to hear the game’s infamous dialogue over and over.