The TMNT games were kind of obnoxious to play. They had this meta playstyle where you absolutely had to spam this rolling A B attack from start to finish. The damage it dealt was essential to survive and it was exhausting. It carried over to the NES ports.
Kid me took a while to understand that X-Men's super moves drained your life.
I don't know if I have enough experience to judge which was better. That said, Ninja Turtles arcade got an NES release, and while somewhat toned down visually, and limited to 2-players (unless they had those 4-player upgrades by then), I'm pretty sure it kept up gameplay-wise.
Speaking of Ninja Turtles, I just saw the 1990 movie at the theater last night. Goddammit, how did I go this long without realizing that not only was Tatsu dubbed over, but by Michael McConnohie of all people?
X-Men was better because it supported six players, but I felt the enemies were more monotonous- all the different colored foot soldiers with different weapons in TMNT beat out the sentinels in X-Men. I loved the ability to attack grounded enemies in X-Men though.
All in all, I would say TMNT was a better game. It certainly had more legs, spawning similar sequels up to the present day Shredders Revenge.
For superhero specific beat em ups, I would take Captain America and the Avengers over X-Men as well. It's got a very strong comic book feel, and the announcer yelling "America still needs your help!" when you run out of lives is classic.
Konami really brought their A game to both of those games. Bon in terms of gameplay and sound design.
I would guess TMNT beats X-men very narrowly just in terms of ease of play, due to TMNT having more health pick ups to keep you alive. Whereas X-men had screen clearing attacks, but they were limited to the lives you had and the rare powerup picks ups.
But if you prefer X-men, it's not a bad choice either.
Space Invaders, Pong, Asteroids, Tempest, Q-Bert and Centipede.
Qix, Mario Bros., Kangaroo, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong
I grew up in an area with three malls with arcades and Major Majiks/Chuk-e-Cheese ... parents were on a bowling league so I spent many hours in arcades.
Not many of the old quarter-munchers I didn't play.
The XMen giant cab is cool. It's fun to have so many playing at once. The problem is when it's not at that level, the game isn't as fun.
Which TMNT? They're both good, have great animations, and some cool extras. It's the same engine as Simpsons so we might as well include those as well. More variety, and it doesn't need the multiplayer gimmick to be fun.
just in case my autistic ass made that confusing, i'd rather buy an empty cabinet shell (just the MDF) and put an old pc running mame in it with my own controls, etc.
The Simpsons
Underrated IMO. The only issue is that the controls don't feel as smooth as the others when I play it today. I didn't notice this at the time though.
X-Men if only for the 6 player cabinet.
X Men. More variety in the way the characters acted, locale and the enemies fought.
But you were more likely to actually find Ninja Turtles. It was several years older and sold better worldwide.
X-Men's biggest problem was it dropped the same year as Mortal Kombat.
And X-Men comics were selling like crazy then
But did you really go in wanting to play as Dazzler or did you just do it because she was the last spot left?
Turtles has better animation, more fluid movement, the throws were more fun, and the hitboxes were more forgiving.
XMEN had brighter sprites and generally better art, and had 6 player option.
A tie imo.
Can definitely see that
Gauntlet.
“Red Warrior is about to die!”
"Blue wizard shot the food!"
I never ran into a Gauntlet cabinet in the wild that wasn't cranked to truly unfair maximum difficulty.
Haven’t played that in years
It was the king of co-op multiplayer.
And, unlike most arcade kings, maintained most of its greatness when it came to home consoles and was still an absolute top tier game.
The TMNT games were kind of obnoxious to play. They had this meta playstyle where you absolutely had to spam this rolling A B attack from start to finish. The damage it dealt was essential to survive and it was exhausting. It carried over to the NES ports.
Golden Axe
Sunset Riders
I'm voting Ninja Turtles
I had so much fun playing that with random dudes at the arcade. We would put all our quarters in the middle and play til we were all out
Same.
I actually currently own a 4-player X-Men arcade cabinet. I kind of wish I had a Turtles cabinet instead.
Cool!!
Arcade is X-Men.
Turtles in time is a much better experience on the snes even though it's limited to 2 players
WELCOME...TO....DIE!!
I'm not in a position to call this since I played Ninja Turtles way more just do to liking the IP more as a kid.
Both. Lesser chance of smelling the other guy's BO with X-Men tho cuz you were spread out more lol
Kid me took a while to understand that X-Men's super moves drained your life.
I don't know if I have enough experience to judge which was better. That said, Ninja Turtles arcade got an NES release, and while somewhat toned down visually, and limited to 2-players (unless they had those 4-player upgrades by then), I'm pretty sure it kept up gameplay-wise.
Speaking of Ninja Turtles, I just saw the 1990 movie at the theater last night. Goddammit, how did I go this long without realizing that not only was Tatsu dubbed over, but by Michael McConnohie of all people?
I went to see Ninja Turtles when it came out with my best friend. Great childhood memory
Metal Slug.
Forgot about that one
X-Men was better because it supported six players, but I felt the enemies were more monotonous- all the different colored foot soldiers with different weapons in TMNT beat out the sentinels in X-Men. I loved the ability to attack grounded enemies in X-Men though.
All in all, I would say TMNT was a better game. It certainly had more legs, spawning similar sequels up to the present day Shredders Revenge.
For superhero specific beat em ups, I would take Captain America and the Avengers over X-Men as well. It's got a very strong comic book feel, and the announcer yelling "America still needs your help!" when you run out of lives is classic.
AVP
Honestly, I like them both but I felt X-Men just cheated more towards the end.
So true
Between those two? It's a tough call.
Konami really brought their A game to both of those games. Bon in terms of gameplay and sound design.
I would guess TMNT beats X-men very narrowly just in terms of ease of play, due to TMNT having more health pick ups to keep you alive. Whereas X-men had screen clearing attacks, but they were limited to the lives you had and the rare powerup picks ups.
But if you prefer X-men, it's not a bad choice either.
X-men, no question
Space Invaders, Pong, Asteroids, Tempest, Q-Bert and Centipede.
Qix, Mario Bros., Kangaroo, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong
I grew up in an area with three malls with arcades and Major Majiks/Chuk-e-Cheese ... parents were on a bowling league so I spent many hours in arcades.
Not many of the old quarter-munchers I didn't play.
Cool, I loved Space Invaders
Tough one for me but I’d have to go with X-Men
Night Slashers
As a side note, I miss Capcom Bowling.
The town bar & pizzeria had a capcom bowling cabinet for forever.
Nice! There is an arcade near me that caters to people who grew up in the 80s/90s. Has a full arcade and a bar/restaurant
Aliens vs Predator.
The XMen giant cab is cool. It's fun to have so many playing at once. The problem is when it's not at that level, the game isn't as fun.
Which TMNT? They're both good, have great animations, and some cool extras. It's the same engine as Simpsons so we might as well include those as well. More variety, and it doesn't need the multiplayer gimmick to be fun.
Between the two Xmen though the console versions of TMNT were actually better than the arcades in most respects (especially the genesis one).
While you didn't ask, I would recommend Alien vs predator and D&D as good beat em up games as they actually include combo moves for each character.
I forgot about D&D game
There were two, but I only played the first in the arcade at the time. The later beat em ups like D&D really perfected the genre.
Are you considering buying an arcade machine? Don’t buy an arcade machine.
not op,, but personally, i'd rather buy the cabinet itself and rig a mame cabinet...
Yes. Why choose when you can M.A.M.E..
indeed.
just in case my autistic ass made that confusing, i'd rather buy an empty cabinet shell (just the MDF) and put an old pc running mame in it with my own controls, etc.
No. I’m sure I could download both games on my pc. If I had a lot of space I would for sure