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Good: Magneto, music

Bad: Visuals, gameplay, targeting system, boss fights, cheap deaths

Average mission length: 2 minutes

Amaze Entertainment's DS version of X:Men The Official Game is almost completely different than the Z-Axis console versions, both in story and gameplay. They both have one similarity, however. Both versions are disappointing and seem very rushed. Amaze tried to make this one unique by using almost purely touchscreen control, but it ends up being tedious and wholly uninteresting.

Throughout the game, you take control of Wolverine, Iceman, Nightcrawler and Magneto. Wolverine is the close-combat brawler of the group, and has the ability to go into a sort of berserker mode. Iceman fires projectiles, but they are rendered useless by enemies with heat shields. Nightcrawler has the ability to stop time and "bamf" from place to place. None of these characters really bring anything new or interesting to the table. Magneto, on the other hand, is the only enjoyable character. Using the stylus, you can levitate and throw objects within the environment. Bombs can be thrown at enemies and giant doors can be moved simply by dragging them across the screen.

All of the face buttons (as well as the d-pad) control movement, and all attacks are performed with the stylus. This makes for a really awkward "target and attack" system. It's most awkward with Wolverine and Nightcrawler considering that they don't have any long-range attacks. Let's say you're Wolverine and you see an enemy across the screen. You tap him to lock on, and Wolverine starts randomly swinging his claws in the air, even if you're nowhere near him. As long as you're targeting something, he swipes at the air like there's a bee flying in his face. After targeting, it's just a matter of walking towards the foe until he's in range, and then he dies after one or two hits. It's not quite as bad with Iceman thanks to his projectiles, but moving with the d-pad and tapping enemies gets old rather quickly.

Stages are ridiculously short in general, and you can blow through some in less than a minute. Most have entirely generic and uninspired objectives such as "disable four bombs" or "disable the five nuclear cores." Boss fights are laughably easy most of the time. It takes about 5 seconds to learn their attack patterns, and it's entirely possible to beat many of them without sustaining any damage. Despite the ease of boss fights, some of the stages are conducive to cheap deaths. Many explosives are one-hit kills, and some areas feature a bevy of varying enemies that require you to constantly switch characters. It's easy to die when you're forced to cycle through the playable characters every two seconds so you can find the right one. Not helping the matter is the fact that there's really no system in place for blocking or evading.

While the DS isn't known for overwhelming graphical prowess, it has proved that it can certainly present a visually-interesting title. Castlevania, Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart and many other titles look fantastic without boasting a huge amount of polygons or textures. X:Men on the other hand looks downright muddy. Everything is pixellated and in one particular instance I couldn't even tell if I was looking at Wolverine or Lady Deathstrike. Sound effects are bland and generic, and voice acting is nonexistent. The only semi-redeeming technical aspect is the music. It's nothing especially excellent, but it did remind me of the days of classic SNES/Genesis beat-em-ups.

The game is very short, and can be beaten in one sitting if you have the patience to deal with it. I appreciate when developers attempt to find new ways to utilize the DS hardware, but this is not the way to do it. I'd much rather attack enemies in the traditional way than simply tap them with a stylus every two seconds. Games like New Super Mario Bros have proven that you don't have to utilize constant touchscreen interaction to make a good DS game. I wish someone would have told this to the people at Amaze Entertainment.

Graphics: D-

Sound: D+

First Play: D

Replay Value: D-

Gameplay: D

Overall: 60% D-