New Version of X-Men on Saturn Adds Playable Storm, Three-Player Co-op

Homebrewer hotrodx released an update to their Sega Saturn recreation of 1992 Konami arcade beat-em-up X-Men last week.

Hotrodx distributed version 0.2 via a Mega.nz link in a YouTube video uploaded March 20 showing off what’s new. Added features include:

• New selectable character, Storm
• Three-player co-op, join any time
• Second stage, the Sentinel Factory
• Additional enemy types
• On-screen “mayhem” including “lots of sprites and explosions”
• A not-quite Easter Egg celebrating the release of Disney+ animated series “X-Men 97”

The download is a ZIP file containing a BIN file, an ISO file and eight WAV tracks, making it easy to drag and drop onto an SD card to play on real hardware via optical drive emulator, or to burn to a disc for those using a PseudoSaturn Kai cartridge.

For those using emulators, hotrodx recommended RetroArch’s Beetle Saturn core or standalone Mednafen.

The new three-player co-op feature requires the Saturn’s 6-Player Adaptor, aka multitap, of course. Hotrodx said they didn’t test it with real hardware because don’t own a multitap — they relied on emulators to get it working — but it should work in principle. Leave us a comment down below if you try out three-player X-Men on a real Saturn!

Hotrodx uploaded their first iteration of X-Men in January when it consisted of just one level and two playable characters, Cyclops and Wolverine.

At the time, they said this isn’t a port but rather an attempt to recreate Konami’s hit arcade game. “No source code from the original game was involved, so a lot of guesswork and approximations were implemented,” hotrodx said. “It’s also very buggy.” They’re making the game with the Sega Graphics Library.