RETRO REBOOT | Ex-Mutants (Sega Genesis)

The first thing that crossed my mind when I saw this game was, “Alright, I immediately have to Google Ex-Mutants and read about who got sued attempting to make a parody X-Men video game”, only to later find out that it was indeed a comic book series. I never heard about it prior to finding this game and I only found scant information on the series, other than it endured severe financial turmoil.

Ex-Mutants was created by David Lawrence in 1986, with the art handled by Ron Lim, whose work can be seen in the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog series. He’s also done Infinity War, Avengers Next and the Fantastic Five. I tried to dig up as much information as I could to try and get the know the series a little bit before I played the video game, but the only thing I found was an interview with Lawrence discussing the turmoil behind the publication of Ex-Mutants, leading the series to bounce around from two publishers and groups of editors working under the same umbrella (Eternity Comics, Amazing Comics), but a failure to work under his own circumstances, answering to two different groups of editors seemed to doom the comic form flourishing.

Malibu comics acquired Ex-Mutants and the series was revamped in a style more suitable for the 90’s, but it never really caught on.

Malibu comics was purchased by Marvel in 1997 following declining sales, so these characters are owned by Marvel, though it may not be likely that after 18 years, anything significant could be done with them. This game that exists is based off the Malibu Comics version of the series. And frankly, researching the story of the graphic novel was far more interesting than actually playing this slogfest.

As Sega Genesis platformers go, Ex-Mutants looks pleasant and offers a decent (but muddy) pallet of colors from stage to stage, but I kind of get the vibe that I’ve done all of this before. The setting is a post-apocalyptic wasteland, yet you kind of traverse through a lot of archetypical gaming scenarios you’ve seen in many other titles before and after this. Sewers, laboratories, forests, you name it, this game does it.

The sprites are…well…pretty average, to say the least. Ackroyd and Shannon, the two characters to choose from, look oddly cropped and really stand out, due to the heavy outlining around them. They’re both very boring to look at and make me want to fall asleep! Ackroyd is a muscled man in a tan trench coat with a tiny head and Shannon looks like she has the build of a 14 year old malnourished gymnast. I don’t want to sound too demanding, but for goodness sake. Enemies barely have any frames of animation, so it feels like you’re hitting action figures that no-sell your damage until they fall over. Other than the monsters legit looking like hideous freaks (they ARE mutants), the visuals are serviceable, but nothing seems particularly striking or interesting.

Oh boy, the audio. I’m not going to mince words. This is the worst-sounding Sega Genesis game I have ever played. Sound quality may overall be better on the Super Nintendo, but you could always rely on the Megadrive to produce those gritty metal sound effects that give some games a real edge to them. Unfortunately, Ex-Mutants’s soundtrack is mostly composed of fart noises and a 1983 Casio synthesizer that had it’s larynx sliced with a rusty pocket knife.

I can barely understand the witty remarks they utter (both Ackroyd and Shannon, at least based on this game, are unlikeable jackasses), and all of the enemies, whether you’re hitting a turret, a lion head, a pulsating wall blob, emit the same “Uergh!!” and “Uagh!!”. This makes Captain America & The Avengers on SNES sound like Super Metroid by comparison.

So where Ex-Mutants may not hold up well in the audio and graphics department, the gameplay is actually pretty decent. You jump, attack, and can use an alternate weapon to nail bad guys out of reach from your melee attack. The weapons don’t range in usefulness like Castlevania or Mega Man, in fact, why on earth are there so many bombs and proximity mines in this game?With your standard melee attack, there's a plethora of subweapons that feel like they fell out of other Sega action platform games like Shinobi and Ghouls 'N Ghosts.

You have to search the level thoroughly for battery charges or else Kildare, the Ex-Mutants’ mentor/leader will send you back to look for it. this adds some exploration element to an otherwise inane hack’n’slasher. Each stage has several sections to navigate through, including a mine cart ride that features the strangest physics I’ve ever encountered, and a water raft ordeal. Afterwards, you encounter mini-bosses and stage bosses, which I find amusing. I’m certain the mid-stage boss battles are twice as hard as the actual bosses. Another frustrating aspect is Ex-Mutants lacks temporary invulnerability when you get hit. That’s kind of essential to getting your bacon out of the fire, instead a group of enemies can kill you quickly with a cheap combo and you have little chance of saving yourself, or you die from a fast combo.

This game can be challenging, but almost in that Kid Chameleon way, where it’s slightly poor design and not really legit difficulty. Sometimes the game forces you to take a hit before you can figure out what it is you need to avoid, and you can’t afford to do that in between stretches of no health items.

Ex-Mutants is certainly lacking a degree of polish and flair that makes these styles of games memorable, and it’s far from horrible. It’s pretty average. Not a single thing sticks out about it that rings impressive (other than an enemy named “Beefcake”), but it does enough that makes it a serviceable playthrough. And hey, if you happened to be a fan of the comic, then that’s a bonus to take home.

On a console that has exclusives like Vector Man, Comix Zone, Castlevania Bloodlines, and Adventures of Batman & Robin, Ex-Mutants can be passed up, unless you want to pad your Genesis collection.