X-Men: Children of the Atom is a fighting game developed and published by Capcom for the CP System II arcade in Japan on December 8th 1994. It is the first fighting game produced by Capcom using characters under license from Marvel Comics, and is widely praised for its faithfulness in capturing the spirit of its namesake comics, by using colorful animation and voice actors from the X-Men animated series, such as Cathal Dodd as Wolverine.
The game was later released in other parts of Asia at the end of 1994, and North America and worldwide in 1995. It has since been re-released worldwide on the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and MS-DOS.
The game was not selected to be part of the Marvel vs. Capcom Origins compilation due to licensing reasons.[1] However, 5 years after Fox acquisition to Disney, and the revival of Marvel 90s cartoon series' seasons since X-Men '97 in 2024, it is finally be included in Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.
Story[]
X-Men: Children of the Atom is loosely based on the storyline. Members of the X-Men set up a fighting tournament to determine who is strong enough to defeat the mutant supervillain Magneto, who wishes to eliminate the human population from his space station Avalon in order to free the oppressed mutants.
Gameplay[]
X-Men: Children of the Atom follows the same controls and conventions as Capcom's Street Fighter video games, where the character selected has moves that can be executed by pressing the attack button and moving the joystick in specific positions such as 
.
The game, along with , is considered one of the first fighting games to popularize the now often-used ideas of super jumps, super combos, and Technical Hits. A meter called X Power Gauge fills up as the player lands a hit or takes damage. Once the gauge reaches Level 2, the moves X Ability and Hyper X can be performed. Throws or grapples are also a mechanic in the game, which can be escaped if a player has at least a Level 2 Gauge (about half the total bar). While some characters simply land on their feet or recover in mid-air, other characters escape the throw entirely, and a select few can even reverse the grapple.
Characters[]
In addition to the six playable members of the X-Men, the game features X-Men villains who want their own personal gains from defeating Magneto; such as Omega Red and Silver Samurai. Akuma was included as a secret character, as the game was released shortly after , using the same sprites and animations.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Some voice samples of Colossus, Silver Samurai and Juggernaut are used as attack moves for the secret character Akuma. This just like how Akuma uses voice samples from Ryu / Dhalsim (a shared KO grunt), Zangief (Goshoryu and Tatsumaki Zankukyakku), M. Bison (Gohado) and Balrog (the latter's KO grunt was only in Hyper Street Fighter II) in his debut game.
- When you get to play as Akuma, the way the end credits from this game also uses the same way they did on Super Street Fighter II Turbo except they used dizzied character sprites of the characters defeated by him instead of portraits.
- Akuma's moves, Tenma Kujin Kyaku, and the Super Arts Messatsu Gohado and Messatsu Goshoryu, as well as the sprite pose used for universal Street Fighter mechanic (namely Alpha Counter/Reversal from Street Fighter Alpha, and Parry Street Fighter III) first appeared in this game.
- Following the announcement of Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, which X-Men: Children of the Atom will be part of, it is unknown whether Akuma's portrait will change to the visible ones which was shown in Super Street Fighter II Turbo (opening and ending only), and properly used for his portrait in Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers.
References[]
External links[]
- Marvel Database:
- Capcom Database:
- Wikipedia: X-Men: Children of the Atom
- Sega Retro: X-Men: Children of the Atom