Konami's beat 'em up arcade games were classic sights back in the early 90's, and besides the TMNT arcade game, none may be more recognizable to gamers who grew up in that era other than the one based on Marvel's own band of mutant adventurers, the X-Men. Yes, the very same X-Men arcade game with awkward dialogue (Magneto's "X-Men, welcome to DIE!" comes to mind) was a quarter/ token eating machine, sporting simple and highly addicting gameplay that remains true to this day. Depending on what kind of arcade cabinet you were playing on, 2-6 players could team up to beat the game from start to finish, facing off against armies of Sentinels and evil mutants to put a stop to Magneto's plans of world domination.
I fondly remember days where I'd stay in the mall for the entire afternoon, sticking tokens in and playing with other peeps determined to finish the game. Difficulty ranged from mediocre to extreme, and regardless of what setting, boss battles were notoriously hard either way. Heck, I found this game harder to play than X-Men for the Sega Genesis and X-Men: Children of the Atom, and that's saying a lot since the former is a platform entry, while the latter is a fighting game entry developed by the same people behind the Street Fighter series, Capcom. Even as new life is given to this game as a downloadable game in consoles and mobile devices, the X-Men arcade game is seriously a tough cookie to beat if you plan to do it in one playthrough. Rest assured, you're going to keep playing and continuing until you reach Magneto and kick his ass for good.
Konami is notorious for providing some kick ass music to their beat 'em up games, and in the case of X-Men, I'd have to give a thumbs up to the first stage's theme, aptly titled "Here comes the hero". Getting a nice adrenaline rush as you start a game never gets old, and tunes like these only adds fuel to your determination to make all the lives count and finish the game as best as you can!
