Their power is unlimited. Their battles are unbelievable.
- NA release: 22nd October 2002
- EU release: 29th November 2002
- JP release: N/A
- Developer: Paradox Development, Exakt Entertainment
- Publisher: Activision
- NGC Magazine Score: 55%
- Mods Used: Widescreen Code
With an impressive opening cutscene, narrated by Patrick Stewart as Xavier (even though this isn’t based on the films) and a large cast of playable characters, X-Men: Next Dimension starts off very promising. The moment you get into gameplay, though, all that hope is lost and you just have a slow, frustrating 3D fighting game.
The controls are rather strange. The control stick provides Tekken-style 8-way movement, while the D-pad lets you move forward/backwards, jump and crouch. Then the C-stick activates your character’s flying (if applicable), which means that there’s two analogue sticks and the D-pad involved in just movement alone. The rest of it is fairly standard fighting game affair, although the special moves are unreliable at best.
There are a decent amount of modes, including a story mode that makes you play as certain characters for each fight. One strange thing is that the verses mode doesn’t let you fight a CPU opponent, so if you want a specific match up, you’re out of luck (what is it with fighting games’ aversion to letting you pick who the CPU plays as?). There’s a ton of characters to unlock, but none of them are exciting to play as.
Fine
The game smells – nay, reeks – of mediocrity. If it was really, truly diabolical, we could have lots of fun ripping it into tiny pieces, but it’s merely uninspiring. The four main buttons are your two punches and kicks. The L-button throws enemies, the R-buttons counters, and… oh, sorry! Nearly drifted off there. All you have to do is button mash until your power meter fills up, then execute an easy, high-damage super move. They look fairly pretty, and, well… that’s it.
Tom Mayo, NGC Magazine #75
Remake or remaster?
If there’s somehow a collection of all X-Men games, then sure, although rights would never allow for that.
Official Ways to get the game
There is no official way to get X-Men: Next Dimension.
GameCube Games by Date
2002: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2003: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2004: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2005: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2006: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
