X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse
It’s portable, and it’s online. But is it any good?
Published: October 21, 2005
Let’s just get this out of the way: for the most part, this is almost a carbon copy of the experience you’ll get with the console version of X-Men Legends II. This review will mainly highlight the differences; for story and gameplay and general gripes, head on over to that link above and get the skinny. Here, we’ll just talk about what makes the PSP version tick.
With that out of the way, I will venture a “wow,” if only because I didn’t think a system as woefully underpowered as the PSP when compared to full-on consoles could be running a product so impressively close. Credit PSP developer Vicarious Visions (they of Game Boy Tony Hawk fame) and their Alchemy engine that XML2 runs on for that.
Perhaps it was their experience in tweaking what began as an experience on a 12-button DualShock controller to the Game Boy’s decidedly less available complement of buttons, but the way the camera, attacks, mutant powers and character switches were accomplished is damned impressive.
The d-pad controls using mutant power or health refills with left and right, and turns on or off the mini-map (as well as makes it bigger if you need more detail). Normal and strong attacks, picking up items and jumping.
By using the shoulder buttons as toggles -- holding L lets you switch characters with the d-pad and use mutant powers with the face buttons, while holding R lets you rotate the camera with the face buttons – they effectively condensed everything down and made everything available with about a five minute learning curve. It may not be as immediately accessible, but it absolutely works.
Sure, they had to cut corners here and there, but overall, the dialogue, levels and characters are all brought over part and parcel here, and thanks to a little deal-making on Sony’s part, there’s actually more content (quite a bit of it) that not only adds to the initial value, but the levels added are almost pure fanservice additions for X-Men freaks. Hooray freaks!
Hidden throughout the normal game are a handful of comic book covers, each unlocking a side mission specifically designed around that issue or story arc. It’s an awesome addition to things, because it not only gets you more levels and allows you to play through more X-Men mythology, but allows for the PSP-exclusive players (which I’m still grey on even being able to talk about) to be used a little more and at times in a far more fitting setting than the PS2 version allowed.
That said, it’s hardly perfect. The limitations of the PSP show themselves almost immediately after the gorgeously remastered introduction by Blur plays through, the loading begins, and short of the actual game that’s playing on the screen, the amount of loading thanks to the UMD access times grinds the game to a halt.
This is nowhere more apparent than trying to play the game online, which already suffered from some coordination issues. Sure, you can play online, but it’s laggy, susceptible to lost syncs and generally doesn’t play well – especially without the coordination that would come from using some kind of input device to communicate amongst players. If any players should have to pause the game to update stats and the like, not only are the wait times horrendous, but anyone not upgrading their characters must still wait.
With that out of the way, I will venture a “wow,” if only because I didn’t think a system as woefully underpowered as the PSP when compared to full-on consoles could be running a product so impressively close. Credit PSP developer Vicarious Visions (they of Game Boy Tony Hawk fame) and their Alchemy engine that XML2 runs on for that.
Perhaps it was their experience in tweaking what began as an experience on a 12-button DualShock controller to the Game Boy’s decidedly less available complement of buttons, but the way the camera, attacks, mutant powers and character switches were accomplished is damned impressive.
The d-pad controls using mutant power or health refills with left and right, and turns on or off the mini-map (as well as makes it bigger if you need more detail). Normal and strong attacks, picking up items and jumping.
By using the shoulder buttons as toggles -- holding L lets you switch characters with the d-pad and use mutant powers with the face buttons, while holding R lets you rotate the camera with the face buttons – they effectively condensed everything down and made everything available with about a five minute learning curve. It may not be as immediately accessible, but it absolutely works.
Sure, they had to cut corners here and there, but overall, the dialogue, levels and characters are all brought over part and parcel here, and thanks to a little deal-making on Sony’s part, there’s actually more content (quite a bit of it) that not only adds to the initial value, but the levels added are almost pure fanservice additions for X-Men freaks. Hooray freaks!
Hidden throughout the normal game are a handful of comic book covers, each unlocking a side mission specifically designed around that issue or story arc. It’s an awesome addition to things, because it not only gets you more levels and allows you to play through more X-Men mythology, but allows for the PSP-exclusive players (which I’m still grey on even being able to talk about) to be used a little more and at times in a far more fitting setting than the PS2 version allowed.
That said, it’s hardly perfect. The limitations of the PSP show themselves almost immediately after the gorgeously remastered introduction by Blur plays through, the loading begins, and short of the actual game that’s playing on the screen, the amount of loading thanks to the UMD access times grinds the game to a halt.
This is nowhere more apparent than trying to play the game online, which already suffered from some coordination issues. Sure, you can play online, but it’s laggy, susceptible to lost syncs and generally doesn’t play well – especially without the coordination that would come from using some kind of input device to communicate amongst players. If any players should have to pause the game to update stats and the like, not only are the wait times horrendous, but anyone not upgrading their characters must still wait.
