Ex-Mutants for Genesis

Image: MobyGames

Ex-Mutants

I Am Legend meets Bucky O'Hare

Genre: action - hack n slash

Publisher: Sega

Year: 1992

System: Genesis

Gameplay Score: 3

Gameplay Notes:

Decent movement. although it's on the slow side and you have a short jump. Combat is ok. You've got a melee weapon and can collect a secondary and tertiary weapon from the many crates scattered around each level. You can only hold one of each and they have limited ammo. The secondary weapon is a projectile which fires each time you swing your melee attack while the tertiary weapon is generally a projectile and is used via pressing C. It's entirely redundant so I almost never used it. Since your melee isn't super useful most of the combat involves staying outside attack range of an enemy and pelting them with projectiles until they die. They take more hits that I think they should. It's all very passable yet uninteresting.

Level Design Score: 1

Level Design Notes:

This is where the game falls apart. Each "level" is a labyrinth with boxes littered all over the place. Enemies and environmental hazards are everywhere, but the true challenge in completing each level is to find the one box which holds a power cell that your guy in the chair needs to stay alice. He's a cyborg and for some reason you opening a box miles away from him keeps him alive. Yeah. In other words, this uses the tired old "you must collect X" before moving to the next screen. Western devs love this crap. Also, every stage has short ceilings which restricts the already borderline movement.

Theme Score: 2

Theme Notes:

At face value you'd think this was the most blatant X-Men rip-off ever. However, the story is almost a mashup of I Am Legend, Spaceballs, and Bucky O'Hare. Weird, I know. Basically the story is that the world has ended, Omega Man style, and a cyborg has cured a handful of mutants to restore their humanity. The evil mutant dictato, Sluggo, has kidnapped all but two of these Ex-Mutants so you pick one to go rescue the rest of them. It's a weird theme, since it's both apocalyptic and goofy.

Art Style Score: 3

Art Style Notes:

Not too shabby. The backgrounds and platforms remind me of The Lost Vikings. Sprites are small but look alright. No special effects or anything, but it's not too shabby.

Audio Score: 2

Audio Notes:

The music would fit better in Krusty's Fun House. It's happy and bouncy while you hack away with you battle axe on a humanoid beaver. Something is not right here.

Overall Score: 47

Review ID: 902