Review #461: X-Men - Mutant Academy 2

 A good game, but a poor sequel.

I guess calling it Mutant Academy 1.5 wasn't as attractive as having a big, shiny '2'.

 Mutant Academy 2 is... well, it's Mutant Academy 1 plus a few new extras. Don't get me wrong, the developers clearly did their homework with the first game, but it also seems like they grew content with it, which is why this game reuses the ENTIRE previous game and only adds on top of it.

 The game features the exact same modes from the previous game: Arcade, VS Player, Survival and Academy(A tutorial on each character). There're eight new characters: Rogue, who can steal a specific move from the opponent and is pretty fun to use, Juggernaut, who is a giant ball o' muscle and is more fun to beat on than to use, Forge, a lackluster Mystique wannabe, Nightcrawler, another rushdown character that can use teleports to play mindgames with the opponent, Havok, Cyclops brother who plays a little bit like him but with more emphasis on melee, Psylocke, probably the character with the most combo potential, Spider-man, who I think is almost broken due to how good he is and finally... Professor X, a probably 'offensive' character since he fights on a wheelchair, can't jump and attacks doing wheelies(Seriously) alongside mental projectiles. It's a good amount of characters, bringing the grand total to 18. New characters have 3 costumes, except Psylocke who gets 4 and Spider-man and Professor X who only get 2, while returning characters get a new costume, for a total of 4. There's also a secret 'Pool Party' stage that has every character wearing an exclusive bathing suit costume, which is a pretty neat extra.

Spider-man joins the fight, because why not?

 The game plays exactly like the first one did: Three counters per round and three-tiers of Super Moves(and you can move energy around all three tiers), thankfully they got rid of the silly 'mash X to form the X' in order to use level 3 Super moves. There're two new additions that make the combat flow even better than before: Launchers and air combos. All characters now have at least one move that launches the enemy into the air, and tapping up allows you to follow them up into the air and continue your combo. They are small additions, but they make for a much more versatile game. To complement the new additions, new characters feature at least a single aerial special move, some even having aerial super moves, while every single returning character had at least a new aerial attack added, be it a super or a special. On the flip side, the controls are still a bit unresponsive when performing super moves, which is a bit of a downer since everything else plays so well and is very well thought-out.

 It's not the best sequel ever made, since it feels more like an expansion pack than anything, but it still makes for a fantastic game. Most of the new characters are a blast to play as and the addition of an improved aerial game makes the game more versatile and fun, heck, even the new endings are better(even if they are still really short).... in other words, Mutant Academy 2 makes Mutant Academy 1 entirely obsolete. There's absolutely no reason you'd want to play the first game over this one. Regardless, it's a fun fighting game, probably not one that can be played at a competitive level, but one that's pretty fun at a casual one.
 7.5 out of 10