X-Men: Children of the Atom
by Kenichiro Tanaka (tanaka@maya.com) Since the same question questions seem to get asked over and over, and since no one else seemed to be working on one, I thought I'd write an X-Men FAQ, specific to the Saturn version. There is some info that's applicable to the arcade version as well, but the point of this document is to deal with the Saturn version. (And to be more precise, the Japanese Saturn version.) For more general info, check out the X-Men FAQ and the X-Men Combo FAQ at: ftp://brawl.mindlink.net You can also find the Gouki FAQ there, which will tell you the code to select him, as well as his moves. You can find _this_ FAQ at the following places: http://www.maya.com/Local/tanaka/Video/saturn_x-men.html http://www.cyberhighway.net/~khoipham/ss_xmen.htm Though I don't understand why you'd need this information if you're sitting there reading this. VERSION HISTORY (as if anyone cares): v1.0: Created. (duh) v1.1: Made corrections to Juggernaut stuff. CONTENTS I. GENERAL 1. Differences from arcade version 2. Options screen II. CODES, TRICKS & MISC 1. Gouki ("Easy Select") 2. Juggernaut 3. Magneto 4. Storm and Psylocke 5. Button Config IV. COMBOS 1. Creating a combo 2. Examples ========== I. GENERAL ========== Q1: What are the differences between the arcade version and Saturn version? A: There are very few differences--this is an _incredible_ port of a game that's probably very demanding on the hardware, considering the size and number of on-screen sprites, the smoothness of the animation, and the ridiculous size of the backgrounds. It's about as good of a translation you can hope for, and I haven't heard anyone complain about it yet. There are a few minor graphic differences. 1) The health and X- power bars are a little thicker on the Saturn version. 2) The characters are a little smaller on the Saturn version. (As an aside, I think this is because many arcade games, X-Men included, use some bizarre resolution, like 512x212. So, if you take the same bitmap and put it on a 640x480 screen (for instance), it'll look smaller even though it's using the same number of pixels. Of course, I don't know what resolution Saturn X-Men uses, so I'm talking out my butt. ^_^;) 3) Wolverine is missing a few frames in his standing animation. They're there during the character select, but gone during the actual game. 4) There's occasional slowdown when Sentinel is on the screen. There are, however, no gameplay changes, as far as I can tell. And if anyone else has noticed any differences, they haven't bothered to post about it. All the moves are intact, all the combos work, and the controls are very responsive. The Gouki code works, and the Saturn version has the added advantage of player selectable Juggernaut and (probably) Magneto. There are additional game modes, as well--your standard "Versus" mode for two players, a "Survival" mode where you see how many characters you can beat on one health bar, and a "Group Battle" mode where two players select a team of characters to fight against eachother. I've noticed two bugs, both related to superjumps. First, when you do a superjump, occasionally, you won't hear the "swoosh" sound or see the blue and white speedlines. Also, I've noticed that if you're playing Gouki and you enter the following command: O -O | \ | + punch O O Gouki will do a very high DP. I imagine it's a result of inputting a DP command and superjump command simultaneously. Q2: What are the settings on the Options screen? A: From top to bottom: Difficulty: 1 to 8 stars Time Limit: Yes / No Speed Select: Turbo 1-3, Free Select Key Config: Jab Strong Fierce Short Forward Roundhouse Sp. P (All punches) Sp. K (All kicks) Sound: Stereo / Mono Data Reset: No / Yes Sp. P and Sp. K allow you to assign "All Punch Buttons" or "All Kick Buttons" to the L and R buttons. This lets you do Hyper-Xs and X- Powers with one button press, but since the L and R normally act as the Start button, you'll lose Storm's second Hyper-X, as well as Psylocke's taunt. (See II. CODES, TRICKS & MISC Q4.) ======================== II. CODES, TRICKS & MISC ======================== Q1: How do I select Gouki/Akuma? A: The code's a little long to include here--check the Gouki FAQ at ftp://brawl.mindlink.net. The code is difficult, but it _does_ work. Just keep trying. There's also an "easy select" code in Versus mode. After a match, when you get to the stats screen, press L+R+Start. You'll get a list of the characters, and if you've already used the Gouki code (and backed up the data), Gouki will be on the list. Also, in Arcade mode, after you've lost, you can continue with the same character without going back to the character select screen by hitting L+R+Start at the continue screen. This works for all characters, including Gouki. I think you have to be holding L+R+Start when you leave the continue screen. Q2: What's the Juggernaut code? A: In Versus mode, enter the Gouki Code. After the match, go back to the character select screen and tap UP-LEFT on the joystick/pad twice. (Thanks to Teh Kao Yang (tehyang@crl.com) for posting this code.) The first tap will display Wolverine's face and the second tap will display Juggernaut. This works even if you use the easy select menu to choose Gouki. (See above.) Unfortunately, if you play Juggernaut vs Juggernaut, they're both the same color. Here are his moves: Earthquake Punch: Juggernaut sends a seismic wave across the ground. -O \ | + punch O O Double-fisted Punch: Juggernaut lunges forward with both fists. This is the same as his -O + fierce in MSH. | \ -O + punch O O Girder Bash: Juggernaut picks up a girder. When he has a girder, his punches become long range overhead attacks. (You can't block them low.) You must be behind one of the girders to perform this move. Juggernaut will lose the girder if he gets hit too many times. | | + punch O O Taunt: Juggernaut crosses his arms and gets a gleam in his eye. This has no attck regions, but it fills your X-Meter. O- | / + punch O O Body press: | + fierce (in the air) O Cittorak Powerup (X-Power): Juggernaut glows red. His damage is increased while he is glowing. Juggernaut doesn't gain any X-Energy while he is poweredup. | / O- + punch O O Juggernaut Headcrush (Hyper-X): Juggernaut rushes forward with a headbutt. HUGE damage. O- / | \ -O + 3 punches O O O Juggernaut's chains go from kick to punch, both on the ground and in the air, though I haven't found much that actually combos. His crouching fierce launches his opponent into the air, so this is possible: crouching fierce, superjump roundhouse, aerial fierce. His body press does huge dizzying damage, and just a simple crouching fierce, superjump body press (for example) will dizzy your opponent. Oh, his standing kicks are great for stepping on fallen opponents. ^_^ Q3: What's the Magneto code? A: Dunno. ^_^ Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Q4: How do I do Storm's Icestorm Hyper-X and Psylocke's taunt? A: Use the L or R button. This won't work if you're using them for Sp. P or Sp. K. (See I. GENERAL Q2.) Q5: Is there a way to change options in the middle of a game? A: Yes--pause the game by hitting Start, then hit A or C. You'll get an abbreviated version of the Options screen. You can set your button config and the sound mode. When you change the settings this way, they're _not_ saved to backup memory. =========== III. COMBOS =========== Q1: What are some good combos? A: Check out the Combo FAQ. I do have some stuff to add that's not included in the Combo FAQ, however. I imagine everyone knows this already, but here's some terminology: Jab = light punch Strong = medium punch Fierce = heavy punch Short = light kick Forward = medium kick Roundhouse = heavy kick X-Men has a goofy damage system where a combo's damage is less than the sum of its parts. I'm not sure if this is the same formula they used in X-Men, but SFA does this to calculate damage: DAMAGE = BASE DAMAGE - NUMBER OF HITS. So, if a fierce punch normally does 14 pixels of damage and it's the fifth hit in a combo, it'll do 14 - 5 = 9 pixels of damage. X-Men, I imagine, uses a similar system. Another strange thing is that the first hit in a combo acts as a limiter for the amount of damage done by successive hits. A roundhouse preceeded by a short will do considerably less damage than one preceeded by a fierce. Try this little experiment. Select Psylocke vs Psylocke and have Psylocke 1 hit Psylocke 2 with this combo: jab, short, strong, forward, fierce. Now, have Psylocke 2 hit Psylocke 1 with this combo: strong, forward, fierce. The second combo does about twice as much damage as the first, even though the second is a _subset_ of the first! So, when you perform a combo in X-Men, you often have to choose between a short combo that does a lot of damage, or a long multi- hitting combo that does little damage. If you're going for damage, make sure to start the combo with a medium or heavy hit and try to use as many heavy hits as possible. Here are some of my favorite combos, which aren't listed in the Combo FAQ: Wolverine: aerial roundhouse, crouch roundhouse, crouch fierce (2 hits), Hyper- X, fierce, fierce Tornado Claw [~20 hits] What's sick about this combo is that it's incredibly easy to do, and there's plenty of opportunity to use it. Does really nice damage, too. Against Sentinel, you can add an aerial fierce after the aerial roundhouse. Psylocke: crouch fierce, superjump forward, aerial fierce [3 hits] This is simple, but it looks really cool, and does a fair amount of damage. Hyper-X, short (x5), fierce, Psi-Blade Spin [15-20 hits] Do both parts of the Hyper-X horizontally, and start tapping the short button. You kind of have to eyeball this, but when it looks like your opponent is at the tip of Psylocke's foot, do the fierce. Remeber to hit a different kick button after the Psi-Blade hits 3 times. (And again after 6 hits.) Gouki: fierce, crouch roundhouse, fierce, DP [6 hits?] Pretty big damage, and easy to do. Cyclops: (in the corner), fierce throw, aerial fierce throw [2 hits] This is too cool--two throws in one combo. Jump up after your opponent immediately after the first throw.