Ex-Mutants Review

Comic books have been around for years. Video games based on comic books or the concept of comic books are likewise nothing new. Indeed, even some modern games like the Viewtiful Joe series incorporate comic book elements. However, many years before the first game in that series was released, there was Ex-Mutants on the Genesis. I do not know comic books well enough to know if this game was based on an established comic of the time, but the game was released by a comic book company and is presented in a comic book style. But is it a good game? Read on to find out.

Graphically, for 1992 this game is pretty much average. The graphics are decent, but compared to some games out at the time, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, this game is a bit lacking. Still, the environments look like they should and the enemy designs are reasonably creative and well designed. The cutscenes also present themselves fairly well in somewhat of a comic style. Overall, these graphics are not great, but they do what they need to in order to convey what they need to convey.

On the sound front, everything is pretty much average as well. The sound effects are okay. They do what they need to, and they all sound reasonably accurate for what they are intended to represent, but they hardly push the Genesis to the limit. The music likewise is passable but not overly addictive. What this game presents is sound is that is not awe-inspiring, but is not going to drive you to turning on a CD either.

The story to Ex-Mutants is fairly involved for an action platformer. The game takes place on Earth in the year 2055 after World War III brought the world into a position where all of the human inhabitants were turned into mutants controlled by an evil emperor named Sluggo. A cybernetic doctor has managed to turn six people back to their human forms, but Sluggo captured four of them intending to use them as bait to catch the other two as well because humans are a threat to him. Despite that, the two remaining ones are determined to rescue their comrades and take the fight to Sluggo. For such a generic plot, however, it is presented well through the use of between-level cutscenes, and there is even a cutscene if you lose and decide not to continue in which Sluggo will gloat.

In terms of gameplay, as I said in the last paragraph, Ex-Mutants is an action platformer. The controls are fairly simple. With the control pad you can move your character around, duck, and climb or descend ladders. One of the other buttons uses your default weapon as well as whatever special weapon you have attached to it at the time, and the third button uses a different special weapon. There is a display at the bottom of the screen that tells you how many of each of the two different special weapons you have left as well as showing icons for which ones you currently are using.

The levels cover a variety of environments, all of which are appropriate given the plot of a time after a nuclear war. They are laid out well, and often pose situations which are quite challenging to figure out how to get through unscathed. As you progress in the game and save your companions, the amount of different people you can pick will increase, and each of them has different attributes which will have some impact on strategy as you progress through the levels.

Ex-Mutants probably is not a game that you are going to be inclined to play through too many times in rapid succession. You should not go out of your way to find this game, but if you happen across it and find it cheap, it may be worth buying to play through once or twice. Sure, there are better action platformers out there, but there are far worse ones as well. It may be a generic game augmented by a well-presented story, but it is reasonably good nonetheless.