X-Men (For Sega Genesis/MegaDrive) FAQ First Version: 07/17/03 Last Revised: 07/19/03 Authored by: J2DK If this document or any part of it is copied or used without my consent, I will feel free to sue you for plagiarism or copyright infringement. If you would like to use any part of my FAQ, E-mail me telling me what you want to do with it and what parts you would like to use, and I'll reply. Thank you for your consideration. *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Revision History III. Who Are the X-Men? IV. Individual Character Information A. Gambit B. Nightcrawler C. Wolverine D. Cyclops V. In-Game Character Strengths/Weaknesses and Mutant Power Uses A. Gambit B. Nightcrawler C. Wolverine D. Cyclops VI. Substituting/Assist Uses A Subsituting B. Rogue, Archangel, and Storm C. Iceman VII. Special Jump VIII. General Tips IX. The Gambit Glitch X. Level by Level Walkthrough A. Danger Room B. Savage Land C. Shi'Ar Empire D. Excalibur Lighthouse E. Ahab's World F. Mojo's Future Crunch G. Asteroid M XI. Final Comments XII. Special Thanks *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~* I. INTRODUCTION Hey! You might be wondering why I decided writing an FAQ for a game this old in 2003. Well, I forgot I even had this game. I was rummaging through my closet and found this cart. I dusted it off and played through the entire game (yes, I beat it) for the first time since...I was in second or third grade. I was curious to see if anyone had written any FAQs for this game and I decided to write one myself. For those that actually enjoyed this game, I hope this helps you complete it. If you don't like this game and...wait, why would you bother playing through this if you don't enjoy it? Whatever, hope this helps. ;] Oh yeah, most of this FAQ is based on stuff I figured out when I was 6 or 7 Lol. =D Sometimes I will refer to buttons as A, B, and C because I have never found a button configuration screen that let's you change the button setup. *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~* II. REVISION HISTORY *07/17/03-07/19/03* Version 1.0: First version, everything is new. *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~* III. WHO ARE THE X-MEN? Look, if you don't know who the X-Men are, why are you reading this FAQ, let alone playing this game? Besides that, if you haven't heard of the X-Men yet, well...I don't see how someone could have never heard of the X-Men. ::Shrug:: Well, the X-Men are a super team of mutants. Mutants are humans, but with mutations in the DNA. It's an exaggerated take on Darwinism. The "X" in "X- Men" could mean two things. 1) The X could represent the X-factor in the DNA/genome of all mutants that gives them their mutant powers or attributes. 2) Professor Xavier's last name starts with an X. I think that speaks for itself. The team itself has undergone many changes with many members coming, going, rejoining, and getting makeovers. I think that's all (and more than) you really need to know to play this game. *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~* IV. INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER INFORMATION A. Gambit Real Name: Remy Lebeau Mtuant Power: Can charge objects with so much kinetic energy that they explode on impact. Extra Information: Remy Lebeau originates from New Orleans, Louisiana. He used to be a thief, but was exiled from the Thief's Guild. During one of his heists, he save Storm from the Shadow King (A.K.A. the nightmare guy). He joins the X-Men and becomes a very valuable member because of his versatile mutant power and superb fighting ability (he carries an extendable/retractable staff). He's part of the Blue Team along with Cyclops, Beast, and I forgot who else. I think Sabretooth when he became a not-so-bad- guy. There's not much I can tell you about Gambit. Even though he's my favorite character, I don't know much about his history. He's the mysterious X-Man. He always has been. B. Nightcrawler Real Name: Kurt Wagner Mutant Power: Teleportation Extra Information: Kurt is now a member of Excalibur, a little known mutant team. He WAS part of the X-Men. Why did he join? Well, he was once hated by all the people in his birthplace. It's a heavily religious area and they all thought he was a demon (maybe the blue fur and pointed tail made them think that...). Well, the monks in the sanctuary took him in and taught him religion. He became a very spiritual person and used his powers to help the people that hated him. The people of his village blamed him for the child murders that plagued the town. Professor Xavier saved him and he joined the X-Men to help save the ORIGINAL X-Men team except Cyclops. He was the only one that escaped the island Krakatoa. Krakatoa looks like a island, but is actually a really big mutant. He captured the original X-Men team except Cyclops. Oh yeah, Mystique's his mom and Mystique adopted Rogue, so technically Nightcrawler and Rogue are siblings by law. C. Wolverine Real Name: Logan Mutant Powers: Enhanced senses and healing factor Extra Information: Yes, he has adamantium claws and an adamantium skeleton. His skeleton was laced with adamantium in Canada through the Weapon X project. He has almost no memory of his past before he broke out of the lab and is a very confused character in the comics for some time. Wolverine was once the leader of Alpha Flight (The Canadian superhero team now led by the Vindicator), but was growing bored working for the government. When Prof. X came around with his offer to join the new X-Men, Wolverine joined because he thought it sounded more exciting. When I say new X-Men, I mean the team that was led by Cyclops to rescue the rest of the original team from Krakatoa. He is portrayed as a very aggressive fighter with and without his claws. He does lose his adamantium, but somehow retains his claws in bone form. At one point in time, his claws are broken, but they grow back (healing factor?). Oh yeah, Wolverine started out as a bad guy in his first appearance. Wolverine's first appearance was in a Hulk comic book (I forgot which number) and he, of course, fought the Incredible Hulk. D. Cyclops Real Name: Scott Summers Mutant powers: Optic blast Extra Information: Scott is married to Jean Grey, is brother to Alex Summers A.K.A. Havoc, and raised Cable with his wife by transferring their spirits to the future. He was one of the first X-Men and has been in the X-Men longer than most other members. He's an original. He was an orphan and used to have the capacity to control his optic blasts without the use of eyewear. I think he damaged the part of his brain that controlled his mutant power in a fight or a fall when he was a kid. Mr. Sinister recruited him and tried to use Scott's powers for his own gain (evil gain that is). Professor X saved him and recruited him for the X-Men. *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~* V. IN-GAME CHARACTER STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES AND MUTANT POWER USES A. Gambit Attributes- Intelligence: Normal Strength: Athlete (way above normal) Speed: Athlete (way above normal) Stamina: Athlete (way above normal) Agility: Peak Human (peak of human potential) Strengths: He uses a staff, so his normal attack has the best range, PLUS when he flips, he can use the spinning staff attack. He has the second highest jump, but check the Special Jump section to see why that doesn't matter too much. Gambit has an enemy-seeking mutant power. If you don't believe me, stand under an enemy and fire. It should make contact. Weaknesses: His mutant power uses too much of the mutant power bar. You can only fire six in quick succession, but you won't need his mutant power much. You'll NEVER have to fire that many in succession, so his mutant power should regenerate by the next occasion you need it. Rely on his staff attacks for the most part. Another weakness is his crouching stance. He squats and all the others get down on a knee. This makes him taller than all the others while ducking. Doesn't sound like it's that bad, but on the Shi'ar level, he can be hit by the gunshots while crouching and all the others can't be hit while crouching. You can fix this problem by using his regular attack just as the shot is coming. He lowers his head during his crouching staff attack. How to use the Kinetic Card: Just hit the A button and fire. You can't aim it besides left and right and you don't have to because it's enemy-seeking. If you charge his cards more (hold A longer), then it should be even more efficient at seeking enemies, be more powerful, and take no extra mutant power. The downside is that it stays on screen for a shorter amount of time. You'll know when the card is charged more because the glowing animation will become bigger. B. Nightcrawler Attributes- Intelligence: Normal Strength: Normal Speed: Athlete (way above normal) Stamina: Athlete (way above normal) Agility: Peak Human (peak of human potential) Strengths: Unlike Gambit's incarnation, Nightcrawler's peak human agility actually shows, but not much. He has the most useful jumping attack. It's a diving kick. You can use it during most of those platform jumps and release the attack button as you are over the platform and Nightcrawler will drop onto the platform. He also has the best crouching attack due to range and speed. Use his crouching attack whenever on the ground. His mutant power lets him escape damage of EVERY kind. He can escape everything from a spear, to a punch, to a gunshot, to Juggernaut's running charge, and even Magento's blasts. Oh yeah, and the Bamf (onomatopoeia used in comics when Nightcrawler teleports) does as much damage as the Optic Blast or Kinetic Card, if close enough, that is. Nightcrawler can also take shortcuts through levels by teleporting through walls. Weaknesses: His standing attack stinks. Don't EVER use the standing attack. Night's mutant power takes some getting used to. The first time I played this game, I would often teleport by accident. Not many weaknesses for the game version of Nightcrawler. I guess the fact that his teleport depletes more mutant power than any other mutant power attack is a weakness. How to use the Teleport a.k.a. "Bamf": Abuse the Bamf, as you can use it without depleting the mutant power bar. Just tap the button when an attack comes or tap the button right next to an enemy for damage (don't push ANY directions when you release the mutant power button or else you'll deplete a lot of mutant power by teleporting) and you won't lose any mutant power. You can give his Bamf a little more range by pressing the direction the enemy is in. Just don't release the mutant power button while you are pressing a direction. If you release A while pointing Nightcrawler in a direction, he'll do a freak teleport and fly around the screen usually without hitting the other enemies on screen. It's a waste of mutant power. If someone is too far from Nightcrawler to use the Teleport attack, you can simply jump into the air, dive kick at your target, and tap the A button once you touch your target or are close enough. To take shortcuts and to do a CLEAN teleport where Nighty only goes in one direction, hold the direction you want to go, then quickly tap A. He'll go in that direction for about 3 character sprites worth of distance and stop. That's how you take shortcuts. There are other ways to get a clean Bamf, but this is the easiest way to explain. Mess around a little when you first start so you get the hang of the Bamf, then reset your game so you can get started with full mutant power. Nightcrawler can carry his partner in his Teleports. C. Wolverine Attributes- Intelligence: Above Normal Strength: Enhanced Human (above athlete, below peak human) Speed: Athlete (way above normal) Stamina: Metahuman (inhuman-like, above peak human) Agility: Enhanced Human (above athlete, below peak human) Strengths: Claws. Attacking with his claws unsheathed makes his attacks twice as strong as they would be normally, but it's not a good idea to walk around aimlessly with his claws unsheathed. Wolverine doesn't have a flip, but if you hit the jump button while his claws are out, he does a Claw Spin. It's very powerful, but depletes one-fourth of a full mutant power bar. Without his claws, his jumping attack is a punch, but with his claws unsheathed, he does a diving slash which can be used like Nightcrawlers jump attack. It's just not as useful because the dive stops. If you want to make a REALLY long dive, just keep hitting the attack button and hold the direction you want to go so that the next dive starts as soon as the first one ends. Oh yeah, Wolverine sort of has a healing power. It's not implicated very well in this game. The regen is slower than that of the mutant power bar and you have to stand still with your claws sheathed. Weaknesses: Well, Wolverine has a Berserker Rage and no, it's not useful. It's very damaging...to Wolverine. The Beserker Rage happens when Wolverine has no mutant power left. He goes berserker, like the name suggests, and he does random attacks for about 3-5 seconds. The BR hurts you a LOT and will probably make you take even more damage from surviving enemies. It also will most likely make you fall off of small platforms. Other than that he has no real weaknesses, but his mutant power isn't as useful as the others. How to use Wolverine's claws: Uh...press A once to make them extend, press A again to make them retract. To the Spinning Claw, press C (jump) twice as if you were going to flip or special jump. To stop Wolverine's diving claw attack, press A to retract his claws and he will start to drop, much like Nightcrawler's diving kick. D. Cyclops Attributes- Intelligence: Normal Strength: Athlete (way above normal) Speed: Athlete (way above normal) Stamina: Athlete (way above normal) Agility: Normal Strengths: He has the optic blast. It's the second most useful mutant power, really. He can rebound it (hold A longer to charge his power and it should rebound off of walls and ceilings) and he can aim it in 8 directions. The charged version takes no extra mutant power. He can take out at least 3 enemies with his flip-blast. Another strength is his jump. He has the highest jump in the game, though it's not really a big deal (see special jump section). Cyke's mutant power uses up the least of the mutant power bar (not counting wolverine having his claws unsheathed), so you can abuse his blasts a lot more than Gambit's cards. Actually, you SHOULD abuse his mutant power, but save some for that boss :P. Weaknesses: He can't fight. No matter WHAT you see in his fighting game appearances, he has poor hand-to-hand fighting skills. If you were wondering how he's able to fight as an X-Man, I have two words for you: "Optic blast!" Why can't he fight in this game? He can't fight in this game 'cause he can't fight in the comic books or the television show. He always, ALWAYS has to reach up to his visor or glasses to defeat someone. He's poor at fighting up close, but in this game, it's not that much of a big deal. How to use the Optic Blast: This one you have to aim. Point Cyclops' eye(?) toward whatever you want to hit and press A. Charge it to make it rebound. Rebound shots work for some angles where you can't aim directly at the enemy. You can bounce it off the ceiling or floor if you need to. It bounces off walls, too, but that's usually not too useful. You'll know the Optic Blast is charged when it looks like Cyclops' eyes' glow animation gets bigger. *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~* VI. SUBSTITUTING/ASSIST USES A. Substituting Substitutions are when you switch one X-Man for another. Each level limits your substitutions in different ways. Mojo's World only let's you substitute once while the Savage Land and Asteroid M let you sub 3 times. If your S-Man is dying and you can't find any health pickups, then you should sub. There is no reason you should let an X-Man die. If your X-Man dies, you have to do the whole level again. Any dead X-Man is revived after the Mojo World level. B. Rogue, Archangel, and Storm These three are useful for enemies you can't reach. Archangel makes three rounds, so he'll kill everything on screen. Rogue makes one attack on one enemy and Storm makes one really long attack and will kill anything that comes onto the screen during her attack. They are useful for bosses if you want to make things easier for yourself. Apocalypse and Magneto are immune to your assists, for the most part (it's just hard to time, I think, but I almost never use the assists). C. Iceman Iceman is useful for reaching hard-to-reach areas. In one level, you HAVE to use Iceman if you want to get across the very large hole...unless you're Nightcrawler or Wolverine. :P Iceman can be summoned at any time. You can stand, crouch, jump, or fall and Iceman will come. *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~* VII. SPECIAL JUMP You might be wondering what the special jump is. Sure, Gambit and Cyclops can flip to make them jump higher, but there's another way. Tap the jump button twice in quick succession to make ANY character jump almost as high as Cyclops can flip (Cyclops can jump higher than anyone else if you time his flip just right). Tap the jump button twice, In quick succession, but hold the button down on the second tap so that you reach the peak of the jump. If you were wondering how I found this, I have a question for you. Have you ever seen the Wolverine demo at the Sentinel level? He jumps into a little room he normally wouldn't be able to get out of. The demo shows Wolverine jump three times in attempt to get out, but then the third time he makes it out. I wondered how for a while until I accidentally did this. I experimented and discovered that all the characters can jump to almost same height as Cyclops' highest flip using the Special Jump. This is EXTREMELY useful. I've been using this since I was 6, it's very useful, trust me. *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~* VIII. GENERAL TIPS Rely on your regular attacks the most. Use jumping and crouching attacks whenever possible because they do more damage than standing attacks. When you're Wolverine, claws multiply his damage by two, making his jumping and crouching claw attacks much stronger than a regular standing attack! Crouching Attacks are stronger than standing attacks and jumping attacks are more powerful than crouching attacks. Use the mutant power with discretion. Cyclops should use it more than Gambit. Nightcrawler should use it a lot, at least just to avoid attacks and projectiles. Wolverine should only have his claws out when he's close to an enemy (except maybe boss fights). This way, he can keep his mutant power bar mostly full. When Wolverine's mutant power drops to about 1/5 of the bar, you should stop using the claws. It's too dangerous to risk a Berserker Rage. *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~* IX. THE GAMBIT GLITCH The Gambit glitch let's you skip stages through an odd glitch. What you do is jump into the green light that starts the next stage and hold A (mutant power button) once the screen starts to darken. When the screen fades back in, you'll see Gambit standing in the "charging card" stance, but his hand won't glow. Once you let go of the mutant power button, you return to the Danger Room. You may use this to skip through the first three stages. The first stage must be skipped twice (the stage and the boss area), the second stage is skipped all at once, and the third stage can only be skipped at the lighthouse (once you step through the door, hold down the A button). I did this by accident when I was 6 and thought it made beating the game a whole lot less time consuming, and it does. *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~* X. LEVEL BY LEVEL WALKTHROUGH (all walkthroughs are based on the Hero difficulty setting) If you're looking to actually BEAT this game, I recommend you don't play two players. Actually, I recommend you don't play two players on the last 3 stages. The first three stages of the game aren't as bad in two player mode since they're easier. A. Danger Room This isn't really a level. It's the only part of the X-Mansion you get to see, so this is technically your headquarters. You select your X-Man here and can replenish energy/mutant power by destroying floating orbs (after the first level). Oh yeah, not all levels are Danger Room simulations. B. Savage Land You can Gambit Glitch past this stage if you like. It's your choice. This level allows you to substitute your X-Man 4 times, which you probably won't need. Well, from the start, it's a good idea to drop to the ground and stay as low as possible because of the pterodactyls that appear higher in the trees. If you run into one, they do a lot more damage than the savage land warriors. If you do decide to stay up in the trees, you have to come down anyway because there's a lever you've got to hit. The pterodactyls should be killed with either a mutant power attack (two slashes with Wolverine) or with two jumping/crouching attacks (one with Wolvie's claws). I will walk through this level as safely as possible, avoiding most obstacles. From your starting point, move to the right a couple of steps and then drop down to the ground (crouch and hit the jump button). There will be an unarmed savage warrior on your left. He'll jump at you. Either meet him in the air with a jumping attack or blast him with a mutant power. Walk to the right and jump onto the first stone platform. There's a spear guy on the stone platform above you. There's another spear guy on a branch to the left. Take him out with a special jump from the branch below him, but you can just as easily dodge his spear if you want. Get back on the lowest ground level and take out the two savage warriors here (one has spears). Go into the cave and kill the savage warrior here. Smack the lever (lowers a very tall stone wall so you can finish the level) with a regular attack and keep going to the right. Exit the cave and another savage warrior awaits. The next cave is a dead end, but there's an extra archangel pickup here. It doesn't give you TWO archangel uses, so if you haven't used him yet, don't bother entering the cave. Jump onto the platform the savage warrior attacked from and then special jump STRAIGHT UP and attack 'cause a pterodactyl will fly diagonally at you. Once you hit him, he flies straight, so you don't have to kill him. Jump up the platforms, but look out for the spear guy on a branch. In fact, watch out for the spear guy on a branch right after that one, too. Stay on the grass because a couple of pterodactyls will attack you. They completely miss if you just walk to the right on the grass. Drop down to the right and a savage warrior will attack you. There is a health pickup in this area. Jump straight up the tree starting from the savage warrior's branch. When you see the bee hive, you should special jump straight up to kill the annoying spear guy above you. Hit the hive and collect the health that falls out of it. Walk to the right a step or two or just until you see the spear guy. Just stand there, he'll throw his spears diagonally down because your branch is lower than him. Time your jump and kill him (just jump after the first spear). Take to the trees again. Jump on the first branch you see. Duck. Kill the spear guy in front of you and continue to the right via branches. Get rid of the savage warrior and make your way to the waterfall (hear it?). Just keep walking and the spear guy should miss. Kill him and go into the cave. (You could drop down to get the health pickup guarded by a spear guy and savage warrior, but you really shouldn't NEED any health pickups.) In the cave is a mutant power pickup. In the middle of the waterfall, crouch and press jump. Walk as far right as you can and you should get it (you can't see in the waterfall). Then jump back up and continue on your way. Walk to the right, but watch it 'cause there's a spear guy hiding in the foliage. There's a savage warrior behind him. Kill them separately, or wait for the savage warrior to jump into the foliage and kill them both in one jump attack. Drop down and kill the two spear guys. Go to the right, avoid the spikes, and then jump up into the tree structures. Kill the spear guy. Make your way to the right (carefully because there are two spear guys, one savage warrior, and one pterodactyl). Don't fall off the moving platforms because you are jumping around above spikes. Keep going on to the right and hit the lever here. This makes most of the spikes lower, but the big ones stay up and will damage you. To insure you don't get hurt when you drop down, walk to the right of the lever until you drop. Once you are off, DON'T TOUCH THE D-PAD! You'll land right next to some spikes. Make your way to the right while jumping over the spikes and then jump to the top of the platforms. Kill the savage warrior and stay at the top. You should see a hive. You either hit it now and either get the health or save it for after you fight Juggernaut. If you don't hit it, the flies might disturb your battle with Juggernaut. BOSS Juggernaut: Juggernaut's weak point is his head only when he's standing still. While he's running the only things that will hurt him are your assits. Mutant powers work here. Not. If you hit with Kinetic Card, Optic Blast, or Bamf, Juggernaut will do his stun animation, but his life meter won't go down. To tell the truth, those three powers do HALF a bar's worth of damage to Juggernaut. With Cyclops, Gambit, and Wolverine (no claws) walk up to Juggy while he's standing still and jump up TOWARD him, hit him in the head on the way up, and go over him with the rest of your jump. Wolvie's claws DO work, but due to the dive effect, it's a bit dangerous. The only way you can use the dive claw is to RETRACT his claws the INSTANT you make contact and walk away from Juggy, then jump over him. It's more dangerous than just not using his claws. Nightcrawler is easy. Dive kick into Juggernaut and once you hit him, Bamf so Juggernaut goes through you. Don't bother going into the branches. Juggernaut will stomp you down from the trees. There's a savage warrior that jumps in from the right of the screen. If you kill him, don't bother trying to hit Juggernaut until after he charges again. You won't have time. Just dodge him. To easily kill him before he jumps in, the first time you jump and hit Juggernaut, on the way down fire a Kinetic Card or Optic Blast. Your assists will knock Juggernaut out of his charge for a sec, but he'll continue after he takes damage. Here's a fun tip: dodge Juggernaut's charge about 20 times or maybe a little more with or without hurting him and he'll charge so hard that he'll charge right off the platform. You win. Once you get rid of him, go to the right. Watch out for the spear guy. Jump all the way to the top and go to the right. Kill the savage warrior. The reason you're at the top is because if you're at the top, Sauron will give you a lift :). You'll hear a sound like a pterodactyl, but you'll see a green one instead. That's Sauron! Jump on his back (special jump if you need to) and ignore the Rogue pickup. Duck while you're riding Sauron because a spear guy will attack you. He normally throws his spear straight even if you crouch. I recommend riding Sauron because it's a whole lot quicker than jumping across those moving platforms. From the branch that the spear guy was one, drop straight down off the right of the branch to ensure you don't land on the spikes. Past the spikes is a gated entrance. Hit the thing 5 or 6 times with your regular attack and it will...explode. Why? I don't know, but you can go in now. You can Gambit Glitch here, too. Once inside, hide behind the pillar and jump straight up. A health pickup are hidden here. Now for the disappearing platforms: jump to the first, then the second, but wait on the second. When the third comes back, jump to that then continue. BOSS Zaldane: Eh, she's invulnerable when she's charging a shot. To dodge the first shot, walk near her then jump straight up. USUALLY she shoots it diagonally and you'll jump over it (or you can Bamf through it). Hit her with anything: mutant power or normal attack of any kind. When she jumps, FOLLOW HER. If you follow her well enough, she won't stop to charge a shot, but you can hit her and she won't attack. :P From here if she charges another shot, try to dodge it. If she doesn't, oh well. She's not very powerful and if she hits you, she'll probably charge another shot. If you get hit, walk up to her while you're blinking (invincible) and hit her after her shot. You can use your assists on her if you like. They hit her even when she's invulnerable to your attacks. After the Savage Land level there will be orbs floating in the Danger Room. Hit them to replenish some health and mutant power of the character you're using. C. Shi'ar Empire You can skip this entire level in one Gambit Glitch if you like. This level allows three substitutions. Make your way to the right. Kill the white troopers on your way there. These guys have no melee attacks, so if you crouch right next to them, they can't hurt you. You can simply duck under the shot, walk a couple steps, and anticipate the next shot, duck, repeat until you are close enough to attack. Note: Gambit *CANNOT* duck under the trooper blasts; he can avoid them though by crouching and performing his crouching attack as the blast nears him. Gambit ducks his head in his crouching attack animation. Likewise, Wolverine should not do his crouching SLASH while a blast is coming toward him. Wolverine raises his head in his crouching slash animation. If there's a trooper firing at you from a distance while you are attacking another, don't use Wolverine's claws. Remember: white troopers have no melee attack, but brown and silver troopers do. Nightcrawler can Bamf through the shots, of course. Gambit and Cyke can kill them in one shot, but be conservative with the mutant power. Collect the key by the third white trooper and go back to the first gated door you saw. It will now open for you. Jump to enter it. Some rising platforms should take you up to the next floor, but you could special jump up there if you're impatient. Exit the doors by crouching and pressing jump. If you go to the left, you'll see a single sliding door. Any single sliding door will produce enemies (usually no more than 3.) If you enter this one and walk to the right, you will activate rising platforms in the middle of the room. (There are lots of opportunities like this.) Of course, you could always just jump your way up...but I digress. Kill the two troopers here (when you walk through this hall, Gambit's jacket does a weird color-changing thing :P). Drop down and kill the troopers on the middle level. Drop down again and stand by the single sliding door. Just keep hitting the attack button until troopers stop coming out of it. If you want some health, go to the left and hit the switch on the wall (blue light, two horizontal stripes). This door drops two enemies, one at a time of course. After you dispose of them, hit the switch and jump in. Go to the left and collect the health. Then exit and go to the right. You'll see another kind of sliding door. Going to the right, you'll come across another enemy-dropping single sliding door. If you go all the way to the right on the lowest level, you'll run into two of those right next to each other. On the middle level, there are switches that turn the rising platforms on. There are three troopers on the middle level. On the highest level, there is another Key sphere you have to get to continue. There are four troopers on this level. Drop back down to the lowest level and the double sliding doors will now open for you. Jump into the door on the most right. Kill the trooper. If you jump into the first gated door, you can go up to the next level. If you jump into the second one, you can activate the rising platforms in the middle. I recommend going into the second one. Kill the troopers in your way. They are brownish-green now. They shoot stronger blasts and have a melee attack. Gambit and Cyclops can still kill them in one shot and so can Nightcrawler's Bamf. Jump into the second gated door and attack at the same time. This way you can avoid damage from the trooper waiting here. Walk all the way to the right until you hear a sound. The rising platforms are on. You can jump out of the "window" if you like. Oh yeah, Nightcrawler's Bamf will make you exit the back areas, so try not to use it when you're back there. Stand on the rising platform and IGNORE the troopers that come out. Jump up into the small room and take the pickups if you need them. Go to the right again. Time your jump out so that you don't get shot. Kill the three troopers here. If you're Cyclops or Gambit you can blast the first guy shooting at you from behind the wall before you jump out. Drop down and kill any troopers near you and continue to the right. There's a flying trooper on the other side of the door. If you're NC, then you can just Bamf through his shots. If you're any other character, you have to time your entrance correctly. Once the door opens, jump and you should dodge any shots. (Extra Cyclops technique: Stand in the middle and make sure neither door is open. Charge a rebounding optic blast and fire it to the right because if you fire it to the left, it will go through the wall. If you fire it to the right, it will keep bouncing left and right in the small room. Once you fire it, walk to the right and jump when the door opens. Your rebounding blast should hit the flying trooper.) If you continue to the right on the lower level, you will encounter 3 more flying troopers and 3 brown troopers. Destroy them or else they'll hurt you (duh). You'll come to three panels on the wall that you can hit with your regular attack. To get an extra health pickup, punch the left one, the right one, then the middle one. You don't need to do anything here. If you jump to the middle level and walk as far right as possible, you reach the exit into the next area, but if you need mutant power or more health, then jump into one of those big open doors on the middle level (preferably the second or third from the right because the very last one on the right is a dead-end), crouch and press the jump button. Go to the left if you jump in the second from the right and to the right if you jumped down the third from the right. If you hit a wall, jump up. If you used Storm and want another one, then go as far left as possible on the top level. There are many enemies up there, so I suggest going left THEN jumping up there. Well, anyway, when you decide to enter the next area, there will be a parked space ship that will open its doors and spit silver troopers at you. These guys are of course the strongest troopers. If you don't want to kill them, you don't have to. Just be careful when you jump near them. Note: When you "kill" flying troopers here, you only destroy the vehicle. Silver troopers drop down from them and you have to kill them then. Before you can get to the next area, you have to find a key. It comes out of one of the doors, and there are lots of doors. The doors all spit out powerful silver troopers, so you'll want to find the key quickly, hehe. I'll tell you exactly where it is. Go ALL THE WAY to the right on the floor you started on. Drop down one floor and you'll see more of those panels you punched earlier one floor below you. Leave them for now. Go to the left and you'll see a switch (the blue-light kind of switch). Hit it with a regular attack. The doors beneath you should open and reveal the key. Drop down and grab the key. You may now proceed to the next area, but what about the panels? It all depends on what you need. Whatever panel you hit third delegates the power-up you get. If you punch the first or third panel third, you get a health pickup. If you punch any of the other three third, you get mutant power. I recommend you grab the mutant power if you're low on both mutant power AND health. Soon, there are two health pickups that should replenish your lifebar completely if you collect both. Once you're done with the panels, continue on to the next area. QUICKLY get as far up to the front of the ship as possible. Jump onto the tail, then jump onto the ship, but do NOT jump any more than that until the ship starts moving. Jumping slows you down in this game. Walk all the way to the front or as far up you can get and once the ship begins to move: jump, jump, jump, jump, and jump! Like I said, jumping slows you down. If you keep jumping toward the right, then you won't fall off the ship. If you try WALKING to the right, you're falling off. If you're Nightcrawler, just Bamf for a couple seconds and you won't fall off. Flying rocks (I think those are supposed to be little asteroids, but they look a bit like flying turds...) will start appearing and will hurt you if they make contact. The first one appears on the lower level of the ship, the second on the higher, the third on the lower, and so on. Nightcrawler doesn't have to worry about these because he may just Bamf through them. Otherwise, make sure you keep track of where the last one was and where the next one's going to be. Nine troopers will jump out of the spaceship. You know how to deal with them by now, but try to drop right in front of the door so that you can kill them without using Gambit or Cyclops' mutant power. You will have to kill three of every kind of trooper: three white, then three brown, and then three silver troopers. It should take no more than three solid crouching attacks to kill each one (two at max with claws out). The ship will slow down and a bridge will come out. Jump onto the bridge carefully (once, I don't know how, but once I missed the bridge and died because I was low on health.). Continue to the right and drop down the shaft. It's safe on this floor. On the floor below you, though are two silver troopers. Drop down and kick their butts. Above you'll see a couple of sliding doors. If you get too close, they will open and drop off a silver trooper, but only two or three at the most (one at a time, of course) like all other sliding doors. If you need health, then stay on this floor and continue all the way to the right. You'll see another set of sliding doors and yes, they drop silver troopers (three). On the right side of the sliding doors is a health pickup that restores 50% of the life bar. Don't bother trying to punch the switch below you, that door won't open yet. Go to the left once more. If you STILL need health, then jump in the big open door and drop down. Go to the right until you get the health pickup. If you don't get it and you're at a dead-end, jump. You're character might be too short. After that, go to the left and get on the rising platform to fight the final boss of this stage. BOSS Deathbird: Deathbird can only be harmed by Optic Blasts and Kinetic Cards after firing her beam. Sounds a bit like the first level's last boss, eh? Well, this is different because Dithbird moves more quickly than Zandane and because physical strikes will hurt Deathbird as long as she isn't in the air. You can dodge the shot by jumping, Bamf-ing, or just plain ducking if you're right in front of Deathbird's fist. Use your mutant power if you can. If you stand too close to Deathbird, she'll punch you and you'll lose your chance to hit her. If you beat her to the punch, you'll hurt her. You can let off a quick Optic Blast, a quick Kinetic Card or quick anything else from right next to her. She's vulnerable when before she punches and during the punch. Every time you hit her, a flying trooper comes along to help her out. Don't worry, these are normal flying troopers and not silver flying troopers, except now they shoot red like DB instead of yellow. Kill it when one appears. Avoid using your regular attacks (Wolverine with claws doesn't count as regular) on Deathbird because they will do little damage and you'll have to deal with more troopers. If you decide to hit Deathbird three times without dealing with these guys, you'll have three of them shooting at you. Not very easy to dodge that, mind you. With Gambit, try to stand on the middle level. Don't move much unless you're dodging shots or trying to kill a flying trooper. When Deathbird is on the same level as you and is about to shoot you, drop to the level below you and fire a Kinetic Card. Make sure you face her when you fire or else the enemy-seeking card will probably be too slow. If you're close to her, don't fire too quickly or else you might hit her before she becomes vulnerable. Kill the trooper. Return to the middle level and repeat a few times. Cyclops can do the same thing as Gambit. Make sure Cyclops hits the ground and is standing before you fire. Cyclops can also jump towards Deathbird to dodge the shot and shoot down or diagonally down to hit DB. Sometimes the higher floor gets in your way, though. Of course, kill the trooper when he comes. Nightcrawler doesn't have to move to dodge Deathbird's shots, thanks to the teleport. Instead of standing on the middle level like Cyke and Gambit do, Nightcrawler can easily defeat Deathbird by standing on the level right above the one you start one (the highest one). Just wait for Deathbird to land near you, walk over to her, and then Bamf her away. The Bamf acts like a physical strike, so you don't have to wait for her to fire. Kill the troopers when they come just to make things easier. Cyclops, Gambit, and Nightcrawler can kill Deathbird in three hits from mutant power. With wolverine, pull out the claws and just hunt deathbird. Hit her once with whatever slash you feel like using, kill the trooper, repeat. It will take a maximum of 4 slashes, 3 if they're all jumping claw dives. Actually, every character can use Nightcrawler's technique, but it's not a very good idea for Cyclops or Gambit unless you want to use your regular attack (it's more of a guarantee that you'll beat DB's punch than the mutant powers) and blast a lot of troopers. Wait! The level isn't over! Remember the switch you couldn't hit and the door you couldn't open? Go back there. Go down, get out of the big open door, and walk to the right. Drop to the lower floor and hit the switch. You're done! After the Shi'Ar Empire level, there are more replenishing orbs in the Danger Room, except now they bob up and down a lot more. D. Excalibur Lighthouse Wouldn't Nightcrawler be at home here since he's now officially part of the Excalibur team? ::Shrug:: Oh well. You can't Gambit Glitch here, yet. For some reason, I always thought this stage's theme was kind of catchy. You can substitute two times on this level. Watch out for crumbling platforms. The corners of some platforms will crumble when you step on them causing you to fall and lose somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of your life (it varies). That is, only if you're not fast enough. You can see the corners that will crumble if you press start. In the character screen, the corners are shown as to what they look like after they crumble. Just jump quickly when you see it starting to fall apart. Try to special jump or flip (Cyclops and Gambit) or dive (Nightcrawler and clawed Wolverine) to the next platform over the gap. All the other crumbling corners you can simply walk past. If you want to be safe, just jump. BOSS Sabretooth: Sabretooth is only vulnerable when he's crouching and about to dive. This is the easiest boss fight in the game because Sabretooth is an idiot. Don't believe me? Well, when you first see him, he'll dive down, right? Special Jump/flip over him and land on the platform he just dove from. Altenately, run across away from him and jump onto the platform on the left. Also, you could run to the left platform, jump on it, then hop off and go back to the right. Either platform works fine. Run into the corner. He'll stand there about a character sprite and a half away on the level below you. He'll stand there and not move until you do. You're completely safe. Seriously, if you have to use the rest room or need something to eat, you don't even need to pause here. Leave the room, come back, and he'll just...stand there. Well, how do you beat him if you need to hit him right before he dives? Jump straight up into the air. See what happens? I told you he was an idiot. He was designed to chase you when you jumped off the platform, but you're not jumping _off_. ;] Jump up into the air. Sabretooth will jump onto your platform and when he crouches, hit him with whatever you feel like hitting him with. I usually don't waste mutant power on him. After you hit him, he falls back to the platform below you. He'll stand there again until you jump again. See how easy that is? Jump, Sabretooth crouches, you hit him, he falls, you jump again... Simple. Just don't stand too close to him or he'll punch you. Told ya this was the easiest boss battle in the game. :P After you've defeated the oh-so-difficult Sabretooth, there are more crumbling platforms. There's crumbling platform from which you have to jump onto ANOTHER crumbling platform. Nightcrawler and Wolverine can easily dive past the second crumbling corner. Be careful when using Cyclops or Gambit. As soon as you land, jump. You'll come to a strange pole. This is actually a lock mechanism for the lighthouse. If you don't hit this, you can't go in the lighthouse. I don't see why you wouldn't hit it anyway since it has those weird light balls that damage you. As one gets just far enough for you to squeeze between the ball and the poll, another one is formed and goes on the circular path. Quickly hit it (if you're Cyclops and Gambit, hit it from afar for ease) and then move away so you can dodge the final light ball. If you're Nightcrawler, you can just Bamf through it. Go to the right and enter the lighthouse. No more crumbling platforms past the pole. You can Gambit Glitch here. It's a pretty confusing area, but Nightcrawler can teleport through a certain wall and save you some time. In fact, he let's you skip the rematch with Juggernaut! :P At first, there are no enemies in the lighthouse...just mirages. The mirage floats toward you, then materializes as a playable X-Man, tries to hit you, then floats away. The Mirage attacks are as follows: mirage Wolverine will do a standing punch, mirage Gambit will do a standing staff swing, mirage Nightcrawler will do a crouching kick, and mirage Cyclops will do a crouching Optic Blast. These are their only attacks as Gambit and Wolverine can't do the second hit of their standing "combo." You can't kill them, yet. You can just jump toward it (and hopefully over it) or Bamf through the attack. Either one works fine. Nightcrawler obviously is the best choice for this level. If you jump over the mirage, but stop moving, the mirage could attack the other way and catch you on the way down. If the mirage comes from the right jump to the right, OVER the mirage, and keep the jump directed to the right. If the mirage comes from the left, jump to the left, OVER the mirage, and keep the jump directed to the left. I can't give you tips on where enemies will appear because mirages appear for the most part randomly. Anyway, once you enter the lighthouse, you'll see a brown, rectangular platform. Jump on it and jump up to the next floor. Walk to the right and you should see a small panel on the wall near the wood and stone structure blocking your path. Jump and break it. Yes the mutant powers break it, but why waste your power on an inanimate object that can't harm you? Go back to where you started and then go to the right again, but this time on the lower floor. Ignore the door because it's blocked off right now and drop down through the hole. Okay, if you're using Nightcrawler and you want to get to the boss quickly, walk all the way to the right. (If you want to get through the whole level without taking shortcuts, skip to the next line break.) See the wood and stone structure? Walk into it so that Nightcrawler's body pushes into the wall and tap A. Viola! You are on the other side going up the final elevator to fight the stage's boss. Don't forget to jump off to the left once the elevator reaches the top. If you chose to do this, skip to the Apocalypse boss fight. If you didn't choose to do the Nightcrawler shortcut, here's the rest of the level. Go to the left and jump into the door. Just like in the Shi'Ar Empire, if you Bamf from back here, you end up exiting the door. Don't Bamf when you're back there. There's a mutant power pickup back here: walk to about the middle between the two doors and jump. Go down the elevator or just drop down the whole yourself. Don't jump into the door yet! Go past the door and drop down. Drop below this platform and go to the left. You'll see another panel and a weird glasses storage container. Break the panel and grab a pair of glasses (touch the container). Remember those mirages you had to dodge? Now you can kill them! Those jerks... Three regular hits should kill them. Use mutant powers with discretion. Be careful, if you get hit too much, you'll lose the glasses and you'll have to dodge the floating mirages again. There's another mutant power pickup, so if you want to waste a little power now, it's all right. Each panel unlocks one thing. This panel unlocked something you already passed. You have to go back now. Go back up the elevator. Hop in the door again, pass the stone structure, and hop down out of the door. Kill anything that gets in your way because if you don't, they'll just follow you. I've had up to three follow me before I killed them. If you want that mutant power pickup, go all the way to the right where Nightcrawler's ideal shortcut is. Now that you have those glasses on, pickups that were once invisible and not available appear. Go back to the brown rectangular platform and jump up to the next floor. Remember the door that was once blocked and I told you to ignore? It's not blocked anymore thanks to the second panel you broke. As you can tell, Nightcrawler can shortcut a lot of places in this lighthouse, but the one I pointed out makes it so you only have to teleport once. Well, jump into the door and walk to the right. Hop out. Jump up a couple floors and you should be in a room with metal floors and walls. Walk all the way to the left (chances are at least one mirage will attack you here) and you'll see another panel to break and, oh yeah, Juggernaut's back! BOSS Juggernaut: Yeah, he's back, but he's a little smarter this time around. He charges faster and stands still for a shorter amount of time. He also punches now. Do your best to not get hit because if he hits you, you lose the glasses. You can get another pair, but on the way down you'll have to dodge mirages again. Against Juggy with Nightcrawler, simply jump toward Juggernaut from a reasonable distance, dive kick, and then Bamf to avoid damage. Then you should walk in the direction Juggy charged and once he stops, jump, dive kick, and Bamf. You get the picture, right? For all the other characters, I walk all the way to the right. When Juggy charges, I usually jump over him and land on the lowest platform. Then I hit him with a regular attack (standing or crouching) then immediately jump out of his way. If you miss with the attack, Juggernaut will try to stomp you off of the platform. Jump and hit him between stomps. Whenever you hit him, he charges once he's out of his stun animation. After I dodge that charge, I stay on the left side of the screen. Besides Nightcrawler, none of the characters can SAFELY attempt another attack. I usually wait for him to charge to the left again and get back on the platform and repeat. If you want to use an assist here, be my guest. I would suggest using Archangel while Juggernaut is on the right side of the screen. If you time it right, Archangel will hit him all three times and you'll have to hit him just once more to take him out. Once Juggernaut is dead (again), make sure you break the panel. There is an Archangel pickup and a health pickup in this room. Above the platform I suggested you use in the fight against Juggernaut is another one that is slightly lower than the others. Jump onto it and jump straight up. You'll get Archangel. If you need the health, either jump the platforms all the way to the right, or walk on the floor all the way to the right and special jump up. The health will be in plain view. Well, now that Juggernaut is down for the count, go all the way back to the elevator. Walk to the right, but don't drop down this time. Hop into the door and walk all the way to the right (sorry, no hidden pickup here) and hop out of the door. Drop down and walk left. The door you see is once again blocked, so you need to break another panel. Go left and you'll drop down again. Walk to the right and break the panel. Walk to the left and jump back up. Walk to the right and enter the door that was once blocked. Walk to the right more, and then hop down. Walk to the right and drop again. Get on the elevator and wait. :P There's a health pickup here, but it's a bit difficult to get. It's easiest with Cyclops because he naturally has a high jump. You have to special jump or use Cyclops' flip jump to get it. Jump at the VERY PEAK of the elevator's course and jump to the left. If you miss it and you REALLY need health, then just drop down onto the elevator and wait for it to go back up. If you're Nightcrawler and you're lazy, you can just jump and teleport up there. Once you go back down to the level below the health and walk a little to the left, your funny-looking glasses will disappear and you'll fight... BOSS Apocalypse: That's right, you fight Apocalypse: the immortal non-mutant who is beyond all beings on earth in terms of power. Why the hell is he so easy, then? Okay, he's not THAT easy, but that's only because he can deplete your entire life bar in 4 hits. When you first see him, he's absorbing energy. You can't hurt him in this state. If he's big, you can't hurt him. Makes sense, right? Well, he has three attacks: absorbing energy (the energy can hurt you), a big, weird-looking punch (he shrinks after this and becomes vulnerable), and releasing energy (another energy column plus he shrinks and becomes vulnerable after this). What you have to do to beat him: trigger his release energy attack. Trigger it, but don't get hit. Jump towards him, but aim your X-man away from him once you're above about his shoulder. If this is done correctly, he'll release the energy and your X-Man will jump away unscathed. Once you land from your jump, hit him with something, preferably a mutant power or claws. They do more damage so you can lower the risk of losing 1/4 your life bar. Once you hit him either walk away or walk through him (don't jump through him 'cause the column of energy from absorbing energy comes from the top of the screen and will hit you). Note: If you're Nightcrawler, let Apocalypse try to punch you. Bamf out of the way then Bamf again or just sit there to hurt him. Then you should move or you can be lazy and just sit there in one spot wasting your mutant power while being completely safe. It's your choice. :P After the Excalibur Lighthouse level, all the orbs are back, but they move in an orbit around the spot you first found them after the Savage Land level. E. Ahab's World Guess what!? No more Gambit Glitching! This is the first level you have to actually COMPLETELY play through, unless you're playing on an emulator. :P Many people I know only play through this level with Nightcrawler. I ask why and they say 'cause he makes it easier. That's true, but this level isn't that hard to begin with. Don't ever go onto the roof except for the end of the level. These portals will open up and release these annoying plane-type things. Nightcrawler can kill them all by Bamfing in front of the portal and sitting there for a few seconds, but the rest have trouble. Stay off the roof until the end of the level. It's just safer. I'll tell you why this level is so easy. Shi'Ar and the Excalibur Lighthouse had you going back and forth a lot. This level is pretty much "go to the right until you get to the end." Two substitutions are allowed. You start by some turret guns. You can take them out with one hit from anything. Start by taking out the near by guns (remember that if you're Nightcrawler, you can Bamf through anything). If you see a sentinel, you can kill it in 3 regular hits. Drop down and drop into the small hole. There are two BIG holes and one about the size of your character's sprite. Drop into this whole (there's a gun by it and you might want to break it) and break the panel here. To get out, you'll have to flip jump (Cyclops only) or Special Jump. See all those energy gates on the right? The one behind a turret gun on the second level (the level above the holes) will now open if you broke the panel. If you need health already, drop down the hole in the floor you see here and make sure you direct your character to the right. If you don't, ignore the hole, destroy the gun on the other side with a projectile if you are Cyclops or Gambit, and then jump over the green puddle. Green puddles are toxic because they're green and in video games, toxic waste hurts you instead of terribly poisoning you or mutating you. O____o To get over these puddles best, either dive claw/kick, or get as close as you can without getting hurt and then flip/special jump over it. If you didn't kill the gun with a projectile, wait for it to get to shoot on its way to the top. Once it finishes its shot at the top or near the top, jump. Break it once you land. Go to the right. Jump over the hole (land on the first platform, but don't get on the roof; drop down back onto the ground). Next, continue to the right and you'll see another hole. Jump up the platforms and (don't go to the roof) drop down to the right (direct your character to the right to insure he does not fall). If you are Nightcrawler or Wolverine, you can wait for the gun to be at the bottom of his pole, then dive off the platform (drop, then attack just as you hit jump to lower yourself) and your attack should hit the gun. Naturally, if you didn't do that, break the gun. Now jump over the next green puddle. Don't worry; jump from pretty close to it and you'll land on the platform next to it. Drop off the platform to the right. Stop. See the hole on your left? Drop onto the little platform that's on the hole's right wall. There's a gun on the far right of this little room and panel right under you that you need to destroy. The two persons that can't kill it safely would be Wolverine and Gambit. Gambit's card doesn't well here because the room is so small. Wolverine can't cause he's not a distance fighter; then again neither is Nightcrawler, but he can Bamf through it. Cyclops can Optic Blast it. Of course, you always have the option of destroying the panel and jumping right back up without even trying to hit the gun. It's the safest option you have, really. Once the panel's broken, jump back up and continue to the right. There's a hole here. You can clear it in several ways: first you could just drop off the level onto the lower level right next to the hole and easily jump it from there; second you could jump up to the platforms leading to the roof, then drop down to the right. The other ways are just variations with the dive claw/kick. If you used Iceman earlier in the level, get on the roof. There's an Iceman pickup and another panel to bust past the hole, but don't bust it. It makes the next part harder. Go back where you came from (to the left, over the hole, down the platforms to the right) and walk to the right. The path splits to a high road and a low road. Take the low road. If you take the high road, you'll have to drop down within 20 steps, anyway, because of an energy gate. Don't teleport through the energy gate, it's a complete waste of mutant power. Anyway, take the lower path. Jump the hole, it's an easy jump. Jump the green puddle; it's another easy one (you have vertical space on this one). Jump the next hole. It's pretty big so if you're Wolvie or Nightcrawler, dive over it. If you're Gambit or Cyclops: good luck. When you jump it as either one of them, you have to practically be falling of the ledge when you hit the jump button. Gambit's flip helps him a little. It makes him fall slower than Cyclops. Now jump up the platforms (sorry if you fell) and dispose of the gun on your left. Jump to the right and the energy gate should rise. The energy gate rises when your character touches the ground, so don't be hasty and dive right into it. It does a nice amount of damage. See the red lights on the ground? They create an energy between them that can sometimes knock your character into the big hole plus the damage they do on their own. That's not good. So only stand between them when the energy is gone (that only lasts a couple of seconds) then jump into the middle of the hole. You'll land on a moving platform. Be very careful. Don't mess around whenever you're on one of these because you can "jump" down through it (crouch and press jump). That is bad, too. When the platform goes up, jump to the right (take the higher path, it's safer). Break the gun whenever you feel like it and move on to the next moving platform. Take the higher path again (to avoid another hole jump), kill the gun, move on to the right, fall down the hole, land on the lower path, and time a good jump onto the next moving platform. If you're low on health, take the lower path. Warning: If you're low on health and go for this pickup, you may die. There are three "windows." The middle one breaks by itself and a monster comes out. Learn the timing of these windows so that you can kill the monsters before they hit the ground. Nightcrawler can cheat at this. Bamf in front of or near a window and stay Bamfed till you kill all the monsters on screen. :P I won't repeat this again fro Nightcrawler, but I will give tips for all the other players. The first window breaks if you hit it. There's another purple monster in it. There's a gun to the right of this room and the third window has a health pickup. Grab it quickly as it disappears quickly. Alternately, you can drop into the lower area through a hole in the top area. It drops you next to the gun. Get back onto the moving platform and take the high road. Watch out for the red lights on the floor. The red lights on either side of the door don't do anything. If you need some mutant power, drop down the big hole in the floor and you'll see another room like the one you found the panel and the gun (pretty small room). The middle window breaks on its own. Walk past it and turn around to hit the monster. Break the first one from a safe distance (using a regular attack or Bamf) and kill that monster (this one is green). The third window has a mutant power pickup. Jump back up one floor (the floor below the red-lighted door) and walk to the right. When the windows break, walk to the left and kill them from a good distance. Watch the red lights on the ground here. If you STILL need mutant power, then drop down the hole in front of you and direct yourself to the left. DON'T PICK UP THE ICE MAN. Without exiting the hole, jump and activate Iceman. Grab the Iceman pickup and get out of there. Of course, you only have to reserve an Iceman if you aren't Nightcrawler or Wolverine. Go to the right. Jump on the platform and go to the roof. That's right, I said to get on the roof. For once, it's safer up there. No glass-breaking monsters, but just some red lights. The lower path has glass-breaking monsters and red lights. The roof's red lights are easier to dodge. Once you're on the roof, walk to the right. Avoid the first set of red lights you see (not counting the ones on your left). You should Special Jump over the big hole. Jump over the smaller hole, but try to land on the edge or just time it so you land when the lights are "off." Okay, the roof ends here. This is the REALLY BIG hole. How to cross the really big hole: With Nightcrawler, just jump to the right and at the peak of your jump, press the attack button and hold it down. You'll make it all the way across easily. If you're Logan, then Special Jump to the right and at the peak of your jump, press A and start tapping the attack button quickly (and keep directing him to the right). If done correctly, then Wolverine will make it, but not with as much clearance as Nightcrawler. If you're Cyclops, Gambit, or just don't want to dive, then call Iceman and walk to the right. Kill the Sentinels if you want to. You have about seven seconds. For good measure, jump to the right when you reach the end of the Icebridge. Here is a large room with moving platforms (they are in the holes) and many levels. There are lots of windows. You need to find a key. One of those key spheres (haha, sounds like FFX). It's in a window...somewhere. I can't tell you where. Be smart when you hit the windows, if you hear one crack on its own, don't open another one. The key goes to a "random" place. It frequents about 5 locations, but I can't tell you where. The lower levels have one pickup. At the first moving platform, the room on the left has mutant power. It's the second to last "window." There's no pickup in the lower room to the right. There is a health pickup past the energy gate (the one you need the key for). The first window is a purple monster and the second window is a health pickup. The monster won't break out by itself. There's an electric current blocking your way and a disappearing platform for you to stand on. There are two panels on the ceiling. Special jump or use Cyclops' flips to hit them. The farther one takes out the electric current and the closer one takes out the platform. There's a well-hidden health pickup in the left wall of the hole where the electricity used to be. Only two people can get it and come back without falling into the hole. The health is all the way on the left (jump). Cyclops can do his highest reaching flip to the right to get back on the higher level. Nightcrawler can teleport wherever you want to make him teleport. The other two would need Iceman, even with the Special Jump. Go to the right and you'll be confronted by Ahab. BOSS Ahab: This is a bit annoying. Ahab appears, throws a spear, then disappears. He takes about 1.5 seconds to appear and throw the spear and he takes about another .5 seconds to disappear. You have 2 seconds to hit him. His spear throwing is better than the savage spear warriors. He can throw it upwards. With any character, jump to the longest platform. It's in the middle of the room, it's high up, and it has two broken "windows" on it. Here, just wait for Ahab to show up near you, use a mutant power (you need to be quick) or regular attack if it's fast for you, preferably a power because if you use regular attacks, you'll give Ahab enough time to create one of you "airplane portals." If he makes one of those, it becomes harder to hit him. Once you hit him, he'll use another, more powerful attack. To avoid it, after he disappears, just keep jumping straight up (full height jumps, no flips or Special Jumps). You'll avoid his attack 99% of the time that way. Nightcrawler can just Bamf through all of Ahabs spears and shots, so he has an advantage over the others. Mutant powers will defeat Ahab in 4 hits (or 4 slashes :P). If you need health, jump to the rightmost platform (the highest one), and then jump. There's a health pickup hidden in the ceiling. Once you defeat Ahab, you'll return to the Danger Room. In the Danger Room, there are more replenishing orbs, but they come rather...oddly. The orbs fly around the room and you'll have to chase them or search for them. Here's a tip: you know that panel you hit to return your X- Man and choose another one? Move to either the left or right side, then hit the panel to return your X-Man. The orbs will stop moving and if you're lucky, some will stop on the screen where you can hit them easily. Don't forget that you can Special Jump or Cyke flip to the ledge above you. This helps getting orbs. They will usually stop at the edges of the screen. F. Mojo's Future Crunch This level has a time limit. If Mojo's face and jaw come together on that weird looking meter on the left side of the screen, you die. (It doesn't count if the game is paused on the character screen.) Don't worry; you can try again if that happens. You can only substitute on this level ONE time. DO NOT FALL IN THIS LEVEL. If you fall in this level, you will lose HALF of your life bar. If you fall twice, you guessed it, you're dead. This level was purposely designed with a shortcut for Nightcrawler (I'm not sure about the Lighthouse level). Actually, it's not much of a shortcut. It's really not worth it. All right, doing a walkthrough for this level is going to be a little tricky, but bear with me. First, in the very beginning of the level, you have two choices: walk the path you see, or fall down the right side of the hole. Don't take the lower path because the triple fire column jump is harder if you start from the bottom. Jump onto the fading platform and jump to the right. There is a sentry gun here that crawls like Mojo. He can fire mid- blasts and low-blasts. The low blasts hit you if you're crouching. Gambit can be hit with both if he is crouching unless you do his crouching attack as the blast is about to hit him; remember that Gambit ducks his head during his crouching attack. Also remember that Wolverine raises his head during his crouching slash attack. Take this guy out with a mutant power or just jump/duck your way close to him. It takes 3 regular hits or two slashes. One mutant power attack takes him out. Continue to the right and jump to the next ledge. There are two dog-like enemies here. Three regular hits should take them out. Use mutant power at your discretion. Now is the triple fire column jump. Here is the fire column pattern: the first one flames, the second one flames, the first again, the third flames, the second again, and then finally the third one flames for the second time, and then the pattern repeats itself. I can't tell you exactly how to get across because the pattern continues while you're not on screen. I can't tell you exactly where the pattern will start, my apologies. There is a health pickup on the lower ledge of the middle flame column's area. It's not worth the risk. If you're Nightcrawler, you can just Bamf through the columns if you timed a bad jump. Once on the fourth ledge across, you're safe. Jump onto the ledge and DUCK. On a screen above you appears Mojo's face (the top half), and then it explodes. If you try to walk past it, you'll get hit. You can either duck or Bamf to avoid this one. Watch out for these throughout the level. Walk to the right and fall off the ledge quickly. There's another screen on your right, but this one is lower. Wolverine and Cyclops can duck under it, Nightcrawler can Bamf to avoid it, and Gambit has to walk to the left once it's activated to avoid it. You could jump, but there are higher screens to the sides of this one and if you jump, they are guaranteed to hit unless you Bamf. Walk to the right, jump up the ledge, and jump across the hole using the platform. You can kill the flying guy with one mutant power attack, but otherwise just leave him alone. It's tricky to kill him here because of the fading platform. If you hit him with a physical attack (even a slash) he will punch in retaliation and will probably hit you on your way off the fading platform. Just jump past him to be safe (land on the fading platform then quickly jump to the right). If you fall down this hole and you're not Nighty, jump into the wall on the left. There's a hidden path back the end of the fire column jump. If you're Nightcrawler and you fell down this hole, you can take the not-so-short shortcut. It's on the right of the hole. There's a Storm pickup here. It's not worth It's not worth the mutant power to take this shortcut. It saves you maybe a minute. Okay, once you pass the flying guy with or without killing him (three regular hits to kill, two slashes, and one mutant power), you come to a row of screen and a fire-shooting floor. More fun with fire! :P Well, watch the screens. The screens that show Mojo are the safe areas. Stand under Mojo to escape the fire. The fires shoot every 2-3 seconds, so be quick. You should Special Jump or Cyclops flip if you hear the fire and you're not under Mojo yet. You can jump over a couple of the flames with a Special Jump or Cyke flip. If you're Nightcrawler, you can just walk across and Bamf when you hear the fire (there's a sound, then the fire shoots up). Jump up the ledges (don't take the lower path) and continue to the right. Short circuit the walking gun here. You'll see spikes when you continue more to the right. Jump onto the higher ledges. There are more flying, fire-shooting, punching guys here. Kill them if you like because their fire can slow you down. Keep jumping across the ledges because of the spikes. Don't fall down the hole in the middle of the spikes. Jump off of the last ledge onto the solid ground on your right. Drop off. This area is covered with exploding Mojo screens, not to mention a walking gun. You'll probably notice how the higher screen explodes when you drop off of the ledge. The screens don't all explode, only half of them do. Starting with the first one the pattern of explosions will be high, low, high, low, high. To avoid the high ones, just don't jump. To avoid the low ones you can Bamf (Nightcrawler) or walk to the left (everyone else) or try Special Jumping over it (not recommended because you'll barely clear it). You may want to eliminate the walking gun here as soon as you can; it's annoying and pretty damaging. Continue to the right and do not drop down to the lower level. This is where the lower path forces players to get on the higher path. Continue to the right and you'll run into another flying guy. Do as you wish. You'll see another path composed of platforms. This leads to another flying guy and a health pickup. If you don't need health, just continue to the right. If you do need health, jump across the platforms either avoiding or killing the flying guy and then jump into the wall on the right. The health pickup is hidden in a small room in the wall. Drop down once you're done. Continue to the right. Welcome to Mojo's lair. BOSS Mojo: This is one annoying mother...He laughs if you hit him in the stomach. He's not very difficult though. Don't use the platforms above you unless Mojo is right under one because he makes the screens up there fire energy balls. Remember, in Mojoworld, Mojo rules television. He has five attacks: the energy ball from the screens (he points at the screen), the energy ball from under his stomach (he folds his hands on his stomach then fires), the stab from the back of his hair (whenever you are behind him he will do this), the crunch (if you stand really close to him, he'll pick you up and take a bite), and his laugh (hit him in the front, though it's not really an attack :P). With any character but Gambit (see Gambit strategy below), Special Jump/Cyclops flip over Mojo, DUCK as soon as you land, and hit him with a mutant power or claw slash or just a regular attack (only does one bar of damage to Mojo's lifebar). With Wolverine or Nightcrawler, you can Special Jump then dive past him. This is more effective with Nightcrawler as with Wolverine, you have to Special Jump, extend claws, dive, duck, slash, retract claws, and special jump again, plus sometimes Nightcrawler's dive hits Mojo in the head which makes him laugh canceling his stab attack. Then you can just Bamf and stay there until he stops laughing and he will take damage. Whenever you hit Mojo, he turns to face you. If you just keep going over him then ducking as you hit the ground (or Bamf-ing before you even hit the ground :P), he'llbe down in no time as long as you use your mutant power attack (everyone but Gambit). Only jump onto the platforms if Mojo is right under one. Jump on the platform then immediately jump off and land behind Mojo. Six Mutant power attacks will kill Mojo and seven slashes will kill Mojo. It takes sixteen regular attacks to kill Mojo. BOSS Mojo (Gambit strategy): If you get behind Mojo with Gambit, his cards will miss 9/10 times, so what to do if regular attacks only do one bar of damage? This is funny to watch, hehe. Walk up to Mojo. Hit him in the stomach and make him laugh. Time the next attack so that the second hit of your combo hits after he laughs. If you don't hit his vulnerable spot and he laughs, move in a little closer and try again. Gambit's foot should be just a little bit past Mojo's front-most "leg." Keep timing Gambit's attack so that the first hit doesn't register and the second hit goes past Mojo to his vulnerable spot. Once you get used to it, it's really easy. You only have to do it 16 times. :P Even so, it's easier than trying to jump over his large self. Once Mojo is dead, it's not over. Continue to the right. After this level, all the X-Men are replenish and/or revived. Continue to the right from Mojo's lair and kill the walking gun you encounter. Farther to the right are more Mojo screens. This time, it's low, high, low, high. If you need either a mutant power or health pickup and you have plenty of time, go up the platforms between the screens. Go to the left for a mutant power pickup and go to the right for a health pickup. To the left there's walking gun and the mutant power pickup is in the wall. If you go to the right, a couple of walls will drop to lock you in. Don't worry, this is easy to escape. Once you hear the walls drop (when you get close to the health pickup), you'll notice the red switches behind you. Punch the switch ALL THE WAY on the left and then punch the switch second from the left. You should be home free. Go back down the platforms and continue to the right (don't forget to dodge the screens). Destroy the walking gun here (another one) and jump carefully over the fire pits (there are only two and there's a safe platform between them). Once you land to the right after jumping the second fire pit, another blue dog will attack you. Go up the platforms to complete the level, but if you STILL need mutant power, go to the right and past the screens (low, high). Another blue dog will attack you. Once you get close to the mutant power pickup, another wall will drop. Punch the third switch from the left. Get out. Kill the blue dog that should attack you and dodge the screens again. Go up the platforms, continue to the right, and destroy the gun. Next is the hardest obstacle course on the level. There will be those exploding Mojo screens and the safe- screens for the fire that's shooting out of the ground. I will tell you where all the exploding screens are. In the first column of screens, the second highest screen will blow. In the second column, both the second highest and second lowest will explode. In the third column, the second highest will explode. In the fifth, seventh, and eighth columns, the second highest will explode. In the ninth column, the second highest and second lowest will explode. When you get to the end of the level, the screen will lock. Jump and hit the danger room screen (it's the big computer monitor-looking object). It will explode and disappear. Wait for a few seconds and...RESET YOU SYSTEM! Make sure it's a soft reset (just tap your reset button) because if you hold your reset button down, you really will reset. Just a quick tap (soft reset) and your screen will go black and then fill with binary code (1's and 0's) and then you'll get a "VIRUS PROGRAM SUSPENDED" screen. This is supposed to happen. After that you'll get to see a comic-like "cut scene" where Psylocke, Morph (?), and Beast make an appearance. Go figure. Back in the Danger Room there are NO ORBS! That is because all four characters are back to full strength. When you've chosen your character (I will do a normal walkthrough with notes where Nightcrawler can shortcut) jump into the green light. Whoa! You can go past the green light and now there's a hallway? Why is the Blackbird docked into the Danger Room? Oh well. Now it's time to fly all the way to Asteroid M to kick some magnetic butt. G. Asteroid M You can substitute three times on this level. If you want to take a shortcut, only use one shortcut. I'll write this walkthrough using numbers. If you plan on using Cyclops, save at least half your mutant power bar for the end of the level (right before the boss fight). If you need go further into the walkthrough, I will tell you in parenthesis. (See 1) 1. Gambit, Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler You should start off standing above two pickups that are blocked off with an energy field. If you want to take Nightcrawler shortcut #1, then you should teleport through the wall on your right (see 2). Here's something different: jump to the LEFT. xD stay off of the lowest floor level until the soldier is in striking distance. Let me warn you about these guys. All the soldiers on this level actually know how to crouch. They might crouch and jump to avoid an Optic Blast or jump to avoid a Kinetic Card or they might even crouch to shoot you. If they shoot you, they surround you with an energy field. If you press ANY button while you're in the energy field, you lose a lot of life. The first time I got here when I was younger, I died fighting the first soldier because I kept hitting the directional pad. If you do get hit with their shots, don't press any buttons. The energy field should wear off after 3-5 seconds. You can't use the "crouch under their shots to get close to them" strategy. It takes 6 standing attacks to kill these guys (4 crouching). A very small amount of them have normal guns and not the trap guns. All characters but Gambit can duck under their melee attack. This is why you should always try to be as close as possible to them. Well, take this first guy out, or just jump past him (travel by way of the higher ledges). You have to Special Jump or Cyclops flip over the very tall platform to the left. Continue to the left and you'll come across a timed jump. You can dive or jump past when all the magnetic beams are down. If you time it correctly, you will get across without being harmed. You see the soldier? Walk under him and punch the red light. This opens an entrance in the floor and takes away the magnetic current that was guarding the health and mutant power pickups. If you want to kill the soldier, Special Jump up so that if he fires, you go right over it. The switch you hit opens the base and stops the magnetic currents. Walk to the right and the ground should open. Drop down to the RIGHT. Since it's a long fall, you will land in a crouch and won't be able to move for a second. I say fall to the right because a soldier with the trap gun patrols on the right. If he hits you with the trap, don't move. Kill him and go to the left. This guy has a normal gun. Kill him and jump straight up where he was standing and then jump to the right. You'll get a health pickup so if you got hit, you don't have to worry about running low on life. Go to the left and drop yourself down (crouch and jump). Go back where you came from to the right. You'll come to a large hole. If you are a diving character, once the moving platform materializes, dive to it and duck. If you aren't a diving character, once you see the magnetic current, wait for a short time (less than 1 second) and then do a little hop right off the edge of the floor and crouch when you land. If done correctly, you'll land just as the moving platform materializes and you'll duck under the magnetic current. Once the magnetic current is gone, walk to the end of the platform quickly, and duck again. Once your character is clear of the magnetism, quickly jump to the right and take out the trap soldier. You have to do the entire moving platform thing again. Same exact procedures will work and watch out for the trap soldier. If you want to take Nightcrawler shortcut #2, you then have to teleport through the magnetic gate to the right (see 5). If not, hit the switch (make sure that you wait and watch a moving platform disappear, THEN hit this switch) and walk to the left quickly. This switch makes the moving platform that is coming bounce to the left. You can jump on it as it is going to the right still and it will bounce off the wall (in a sense) without completely dematerializing (you won't fall off). There's a new elevator platform. Time a good jump and get on it. Once on the elevator, jump up when you get to the top. From this platform, Special Jump to the right and attack the trap soldier before you hit the ground. Finish him off and head to the left for another magnetically-timed jump (jump onto the higher platform so the trap soldier can't shoot you or hit him with a projectile). Jump when all the magnetic currents are off. Hit the soldier before you hit the ground if he's still alive. (See 3.) 2. After taking Nightcrawler shortcut #1 Drop off the ledge and carefully dive kick at the trap soldier here and then Bamf him to death just to be safe. Hit the red switch to your left. The magnetic currents will stop now. As you make your way to the right, jump and dive kick into the trap soldier here. If you need health ALREADY, stand in the corner to the right and Special Jump straight up. Warning: Because you took a shortcut, a certain platform has not been activated. Drop down the shaft, but Bamf once you've cleared the ceiling. Wait for the moving platform to show up from the left and un-Bamf. You shut off the magnetic current on the right side by hitting the switch earlier, so you can stand up. Jump off to the right and- (See 4.) 3. Gambit, Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler (no shortcuts) Hit the red switch. If you need health here, stand in the corner all the way on the right and Special Jump straight up. Drop back down onto the elevator platform. Time a good jump to the lower moving platform (you can drop through the elevator platform if you like) while it's moving to the right. The magnetic current to the right is now completely off, so you don't have to worry about getting knocked off the platform. Jump to the right and- (See 4.) 4. Gambit, Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler (no shortcut and shortcut #1) -kill the soldier. Move to the right. Special Jump up to the platform (to avoid trap shots) and attack the soldier before you land. (See 5.) 5. Everyone Make your way to the right (take the higher path) and kill all the soldiers in your way. There will be another soldier to kill once you reach the higher ledge on the right. The platform ends. If you are Nightcrawler or Wolverine (with spare mutant power), then see 6. If you are Gambit, Cyclops, or don't feel like using Wolverine's claws, see 7. 6. Nightcrawler and Wolverine (claws) Jump off the right end of the platform and dive kick/claw. Once you hit the switch let go of the attack button or retract your claws (you'll land on a moving platform). (See 8.) 7. Gambit, Wolverine (no claws), Cyclops See the blue formation over your head? Walk to the right of it (you should be near the edge now) and Special Jump straight up. Walk to the right on this walkway until you see another blue wall under you. Stop at the edge of the blue wall and drop down. HIT THE SWITCH ON YOUR WAY DOWN and the platform will appear and catch you. If you miss, you'll lose half of your life. To see what it looks like, go to this URL: http://www.angelfire.com/electronic2/j2dk/xmen.html. The first two screens are to illustrate your position in the level. The last four screens illustrate how to hit the switch and land on the platform. If you want to be safe, stand at the edge of the blue wall, summon Storm, then go back to the left, drop down onto the first ledge and work your way down to the lower path where the platform materializes. (See 8.) 8. Everyone Once on the moving platform, there are obstacles in your way. Quickly jump over the wall that is in your way, drop off the right side landing on the moving platform and duck to avoid the magnetism (you'll need to jump over the next wall in the same fashion). Once you pass the second jolt of magnetism, jump to the stationary platforms above you. Stand on the edge of the higher one and you'll see a soldier. You can either Special Jump (better chances of not getting hit) and attack the trap soldier on the way down and kill him/knock him off the small wall you landed on (all characters but Nightcrawler and clawed Wolverine), kill him with a charged Kinetic Card then jump (he'll dodge it the first time, but it will circle back and hit him; an uncharged Kinetic Card will completely miss), hit him with an Optic Blast (aim down to the left), or you can dive at him then finish him off (Nightcrawler and clawed Wolverine). Now wait for the moving platform to come back and continue to the right. Now jump up the platforms. When jumping to the third platform, don't do a full-height jump, just do a little hop (or you'll get trapped). When you land on the third platform up, you should crouch because if you stand, the trap soldier on your left will shoot you (he'll hit you with a crouching shot). Take him out with either a quick crouching Kinetic Card (quick, don't charge it or you'll get shot), an Optic Blast, or dive at him. Sometimes you can jump your way to him without getting shot, but that's not very safe. You'll see a health pickup here. If you need it, take a leap of faith from the very edge. Just jump to it and once you touch it, fall straight down (it is right above the wall you killed the trap soldier earlier) and wait for the moving platform again. Go back up the two platforms on the right and continue to the right. Drop down to the right until you see soldiers. The room's platform placements are as follows: | ___________ |__ ____ | | | | | | | __________________ | ____ ___+____ | | Key | | | | | Wall | |__ __-_ | |___ Platform/floor | | ____| | + Trap Soldier | | | | - Normal Soldier | | _____+_________ ___+____ | ------------------- | | | ____ | |___-___ ____| I know, it is a bit crude, but it's better than trying to explain it to you with words. Make your way to the upper right corner and continue right. Then drop down again and kill the trap soldier that you will encounter here. Walk to the right and jump up only the FIRST ledge. Kill the soldier you see quickly, and drop down again. There are these flying spike contraptions here plus most of the platforms fall when you stand on them. The easiest way to pass them is to use NC or Wolvie and dive your way across (but read further before doing this). Anyone can make it across if you know what platforms to stand on. Well...I'll make another bad illustration of it. |__*__| | | Start here _8_ *____| __________________ | _3_ _6_ | | Key | v _5_ | | | Wall | ___ _1_ _4_ _7_ _9_ *_10_| |____ Platform | | | | * Platform does| | *_2_ *_11_| | not fall | | | ------------------ | | | | Okay, here we go. From where you start, jump onto the platform 1 and quickly drop down to platform 2 (crouch and press C). On platform 2, wait for the spikes to pass. Just as they pass over your head jump off the right edge of platform 2 (literally the far edge) onto platform 4. Try to avoid stepping on platform 3 as it slows you down a little and you may miss the platform and fall. From platform 4, jump to 5, and then jump to 7 OR 6 (aim for 7, but if you hit 6, that's okay; just drop down to 7 quickly and continue). Now jump up to platform 8 and drop down to platform 9. If you land on 9 without hitting 8, that's all right, too, hehe. Jump to platform 10 and even though this one doesn't fall, it's still in the spike contraptions' range. Drop down to platform 11 (crouch and press C) and wait for the spike contraptions to pass. Now jump up the platforms (platform 10 and the two I left unmarked), but hit the trap soldier as quickly as possible to avoid any damage. Walk to the right and kill the trap soldier here, too. Walk to the right a little more and the path splits. There is a high path, a mid path (the one you drop to if you walk off the ledge), and a low path (drop through the platform to find a third path). If you do not have full health up to this point, you may die here (and you're so close to Magneto!). After you get through this (it's quite short) there are two pickups guarded by a single trap soldier. You might think that the two pickups aren't enough after all this level put you through (falling off the level makes you lose half your life!), but they are each full-restores. One full health pickup and one full mutant power pickup. Just don't die here. ;] Hopefully you'll make it to Magneto without having to substitute yet. 9. Wolverine Wolverine is the only character that should take the highest path. There are flying machines that bounce around and fire bursts of two shots. Every other character would take so much damage that he would die within two hits. Wolverine for some reason is not very vulnerable to these contraptions. In fact, sometimes he takes no damage at all. Take the high path and continue to the right. Unsheathe your claws and destroy the contraptions in the first room. There are three of them and Wolverine can kill them in one claw slash. Most times you'll be able to kill all three in one diving claw attack. :P Continue to the right and you should encounter a normal soldier. Sometimes he doesn't appear. Farther to the right is another room with 3 contraptions. Destroy them and move on. You'll come to the end of this path. Dive claw off the edge to the right and claw spin before you land on the ledge the soldier is on. If you time it correctly, you'll kill the soldier, and collect the health and mutant power pickups AFTER you use the claw spin. You should have replenished both of your bars completely. Now drop down and walk to the right. Get ready to fight- (See 13.) 10. Cyclops I hope you have enough mutant power for 9 optic blasts left. Take the lowest path (drop down two platforms). Walk to the right and a gun should start firing. Don't walk into its fire because it will drain half your life with one shot. Wait for about 5 seconds because a normal soldier will walk into the screen. Kill him with an Optic Blast so he doesn't disrupt you. Now stand under the gun and aim straight up. Fire 8 Optic Blasts (yes, 8) at the gun and it will, uh...explode. You can now safely proceed to the right. Jump up the wall and drop down on the trap soldier. Proceed to the right and ignore the ledge above you. Jump up the two steps on the right, but stop there. At the left edge of the platform you're standing on, either jump up to take out the trap soldier and grab the full-restore pickups, or jump straight up, aim another Optic Blast straight up (it will go through the ceiling/floor and kill the soldier), and then jump up to get the full restore pickups. Drop down and continue to the right to fight- (See 13.) 11. Nightcrawler Take the low path with Nightcrawler. Only Cyclops can destroy the gun, but Nightcrawler can always teleport through it. :) Once the gun starts shooting, just walk toward the line of fire and teleport through it. If you're lucky, you'll hit the normal soldier with your teleport, but if not, kill him. =D Proceed to the right. Jump up the wall and drop down on the trap soldier. Proceed to the right and ignore the ledge above you. Jump up the two steps on the right, but stop there. At the left edge of the platform you're standing on, jump and teleport up (you'll kill the trap soldier with your teleport). The full-restore pickups are on this ledge. Drop down and walk to the right to fight- (See 13.) 12. Gambit Gambit is an unfortunate fellow. His only option is to walk right through the obstacles, so I hope you have a lot of health. The best path for Gambit to take is the middle path. Have him walk to the right and don't stop until you pass those "drippers." You'll lose just a little more than half of your life bar. Proceed to the right with caution and as you see the barrel of the trap soldier's gun, fire a Kinetic Card. He can't dodge anything here. Jump across to the ledge and grab the full-restore pickups. Drop down and walk to the right to fight- (See 13.) 13. Everyone BOSS Magneto: The big man himself. He's not really a super villain, just a misunderstood superhero. He even gets his own theme song in this game. xD Okay, he can kill you in any 4 or 5 attacks. Mags is invincible while he is surrounded by a blue magnetic field. This fight will take a while because you don't get many chances to hit him. Magneto has the following attacks: magnetic orb (X-Men 2: Clone Wars, anyone?), two-handed beam (with force field), stalk-your-character-around-the-screen (his force field will hurt you if he touches you), a punch (eh), and a one handed beam (he stops on a platform, takes his force field down, and fires). During Magneto's one-handed beam, he leaves himself vulnerable for about 3-5 seconds. General tips about Mags: -Magneto opens the battle by throwing 5 magnetic orbs your way. The formation of the orb can hurt you (not the shrapnel, but if the orb forms on you). The magnetic orb will float in place for about 4 seconds then home in on your position. The orb travels straight so get as far away from it as possible and jump around and drop off platforms. Just try to move as much as possible. This isn't a sure fire way of avoiding the orb. The only sure fire way to avoid the orb is to Bamf. -Never hit Mags while his force shield is up because it will make him land on the nearest platform (or the floow) and wait. If you go near him, he'll punch you. If you use a mutant power on him, he'll put his shield up. The only time he's vulnerable is when he stops to do the one-handed beam. -Don't even bother using your assists. -If you want to dodge him easily while he is following you, walk to the corners of the room using the higher platforms. Jump up to make Magneto go higher into the air, drop down the platform, and then walk under him quickly. You can try to dive over him, but you run a higher risk of hurting yourself. -Gambit should only use his Kinetic Card (you don't have to aim because Mags doesn't dodge, but if you're too slow, your card will hit his shield), Cyclops should only use his Optic Blast, Nightcrawler should only Bamf (feel free to use a moving teleport as long as you do it right and don't deplete half your mutant power bar in one teleport), and Wolverine should only attack with his claws. Don't bother conserving mutant power here. If you need to Bamf Magneto and you don't have time to walk up to him, teleport through him. If you're at a bad claw dive angle, don't hesitate to use the claw spin. If you don't have time to get a good angle with Cyclops, use a spinning flip- blast (though I don't see why you can't get a good angle in the time it takes you to do the spinning flip-blast). If you feel like being fancy, go for it. -If you are walking away from Mags and he drops his shield, TURN AROUND and blast him! (Alternately) TURN AROUND and rip him to shreds! - During the 5th orb attack, Magneto will start moving toward you making it a little harder to dodge the last orb attack. -Mags never does the same beam twice. If his first attack after the orbs is a one-handed beam (vulnerable) then his next attack is guaranteed to be a two- handed beam. The same is true vice versa. -If you are Nightcrawler or Wolverine, you have more options to avoid Magneto. It is possible to Special Jump + dive over Magneto. -Cyclops can flip right over Magneto's head if timed correctly. You have to get the maximum height of his flip possible to clear Magneto's shield. -Keep Magneto in sight once he stops throwing magnetic orbs at you. If Magneto isn't on the screen, you won't know when he's attacking. -If Magneto makes a quick, sudden move, then he is about to attack. If his head is down and his shield is still up, he well attack with the two-handed beam. If he stops on a platform with both hands at his side and his shield is down, he will attack with the one-handed beam. -To avoid the two-handed beam best, use the platforms, especially the ones farthest to the left or right. Jump onto the platform then jump/Special Jump/flip off of the edge into the wall. If timed right, his blast will miss. Sometimes this blast sprays, but only in two different directions making it only a little harder to dodge. -It takes 5 hits from mutant power/claw attacks. It would take 15 or 16 regular hits to take him down. -Don't bother trying to avoid the one-handed beam because you should be blasting/slashing the crap out of Mags before he even thinks about shooting his beam, plus you can't dodge it anyway because this blast sprays. -If Magneto hits you 3 times, substitute immediately. Don't risk dying. It's very possible to complete this entire level and defeat Magneto without ever substituting. Yes, any character can do this. Nightcrawler just has a better chance since he doesn't even have to try to dodge as he is able to Bamf through everything. Once Magneto is done, you will see the ending. *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~* XI. FINAL COMMENTS I think it's odd that Psylocke and Beast are in the last picture of the ending before the credits while Nightcrawler, Storm, Archangel, and Iceman aren't. It's also odd that all the assist characters appear to be slightly taller and larger than all the playable characters, even though they should all be shorter than Gambit and Cyclops. Is it just me, or does Nightcrawler's icon picture (next to the life/mutant power meters) look kind of like Micheal Jackson in the "Thriller" video? Hehe. :P Well, I hope this walkthrough helped you out, gamer. See ya 'round! *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~* XII. SPECIAL THANKS Thanks to GameFAQS.com for posting my FAQ Thank you for reading this. :) J2DK 2003 *~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*