X-Men: Children of the Atom

Overview

X-Men: Children of the Atom is a 2D superhero fighting game developed and released by Capcom for arcades (running their CPS-2 hardware). It was first released in Japan on December 17, 1994 and then released worldwide on January 5, 1995.

Set during the Fatal Attractions crossover story arc in Marvel's various X-Men comics, Children of the Atom pits the eponymous X-Men against the forces of Magneto, who plans to use his space station Avalon to conquer humanity. Developed by the studio behind Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, the game features a similar cartoonish visual style and fast-paced, combo-heavy gameplay.

The game was originally ported to the Sega Saturn as a console exclusive, released first in Japan (on November 22, 1995, published by Capcom), and then worldwide (in April 1996, published by Acclaim). It was later ported by Probe to the PC (in May 1997) and Sony PlayStation (in February 1998), both published by Acclaim and both only released outside of Japan. It was later included in the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics compilation.

It later received two sequels, with Marvel Super Heroes bringing heroes and villains from other groups in the Marvel universe and X-Men vs. Street Fighter being a tag-team crossover with the Street Fighter Alpha series. The the latter sequel spawned a long-running series (known as Marvel vs. Capcom).

Gameplay

Each player has an "X-Power" gauge similar to that of Super Street Fighter II Turbo as well as the "Special" gauge in Darkstalkers. The "X-Power" gauge builds up as the player performs moves during a match and has two levels, in which the player can then perform "X-Ability" which uses a smaller amount of the gauge and the "Hyper-X" which uses a lot more of the power gauge. Also, countering throws will also drain some of your power gauge.

X-Men Children of the Atom also introduces to fighting games, the ability to do super jumps, roll toward or away from an opponent after a throw to perform more attacks, and also being able to determine projectile attacks, such as Cyclops' Eye Beam. As well the player can choose between manual or automatic blocking, but some in game features will not be available if the player chooses automatic.

Characters

The game includes 10 playable fighters, 2 unplayable bosses, and one secret guest opponent. All characters (other than the secret guest opponent) are voiced by their voice actors from the X-Men animated series.

X-Men

• Colossus
• Cyclops
• Iceman
• Psylocke
• Storm
• Wolverine

Antagonists

• Omega Red
• Sentinel
• Silver Samurai
• Spiral
• Juggernaut (sub-boss, only playable in the console versions with cheat codes)
• Magneto (boss, only playable in the PS1 and Saturn versions with cheat codes)

Other

• Akuma (secret opponent and guest character from Super Street Fighter II Turbo, playable with cheat code)