X-Men: Children of the Atom (Arcade)

X-Men: Children of the Atom is a fighting game starring everyone's favorite mutants and their enemies, plus a hidden, playable Ryu/Ken head swap master warrior that opened the floodgates for a crossover series.

Sub-Page#

Notes

Debug Menu#

A debug menu is accessible by setting FFEAEB to E5 and entering the test menu.

Unused Graphics#

To do: There's more.

Two unused frames for Anne-Marie Cortez, the female Acolyte that's seen only in the endings on the 1.00 version of the game. It seems like she would've leaned against Magneto after helping him get up.

Both the Hit Editor and Ending Object Test reveal the sprite of Colossus painting a picture (including an appropriate hat for this task) of the playable X-Men with Professor Xavier in place of Colossus (found in Gamemap Test). These may have been related to the scrapped multiple ending choices referenced by unused text.

Juggernaut and Magneto have unused alternate palettes for mirror matches, which can only be selected by choosing both the first and second players' characters as either Juggernaut or Magneto. The difference is quite mild, only in the brightness of the colors.

In Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection, Juggernaut's and Magneto's alternate palettes are taken from Marvel Super Heroes instead. This was presumably for clarity, since both characters can be selected through the Easy Select option.

There are some sprites for Forge looking towards Storm and his mouth opening and closing, but in Storm's ending he looks straight ahead, and his mouth never moves.

Two unused Mojo sprites. In the final game, Mojo appears In Spiral's ending, but does not move. The sprites above seem to suggest that Mojo was attacked and knocked down by someone, but there's nothing in the ending even hinting at this.

Unused Text#

To do: Does the Japanese version actually have references to Colossus joining Magneto? Proper pictures of the dialogues. There's an alternative versions of the ending such as Omega Red (Omega Red being beaten by Cyclops), etc.

These are all references to Colossus' stint as a member of Magneto's Acolytes in the comics' Fatal Attractions storyline (that one where Wolverine gets his adamantium ripped by Magneto), where the game is loosely based upon. An empty box also exists in the Japanese language, ending message ID 98, while Colossus' options to join or reject Magneto can be found in ID C.

Regional Differences#

The Japanese version adds a Capcom logo and a silhouette of Ryu in front of a purple globe between the Q-Sound logo and the attract mode sequence. This logo would later appear for all regions in the next Marvel/Capcom fighting games that ran on the CPS-2 board.

This logo also appears in Marvel vs. Capcom: Fighting Collection even if the game is set to the English version, replacing the Q-Sound screen in this version.

Revisional Differences#

To do: Versions 2.10/revisions 941219 and earlier has some other errors in sprites and powers such as in Juggernaut's pre-fight animation. Compare the differences between Final 3.00 version and its version used in Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection.

Japan-exclusive version 1.00 (revision 941208) has a variety of differences compared to more recent builds:

Attract Mode#

• The Capcom screen that appears exclusively on later Japanese versions before the intro sequence (seen above) is not present.
• The demos in the intro are different, featuring less-skilled gameplay that most of the time doesn't match with the headlines that appear on-screen.

• The X-Men logo with a yellow background that briefly appears near the end of the game's intro doesn't appear, though its graphics are in the ROM.

1.00	2.00 and later

• At the end of the intro, where the mutants face against each other, Storm, Cyclops, Wolverine, Magneto, and Silver Samurai are positioned differently. Also, the background is a simple purple color instead of the purple and pink-mixed background with an X-Men logo, the graphics for this background are present in 1.00's ROM though.

Gameplay#

• The procedure to play as Akuma differs between versions.
  • If the procedure for version 1.00 is followed in version 2.00 and later (no button presses required), the sound effect is played as expected but nothing else happens.

• It's not possible to speed up the "You Win/You Lose" sequence as it is in other Capcom fighting games and further versions of this one.
• It is possible to stun the opponent and gain super meter energy during the "beating the dead character" sequence (hit start when a round ends). This was fixed in later versions, but is still possible if the match is won by time over.
• Akuma does not appear as a CPU opponent even if the requirements are met.

Magneto#

1.00	2.00 and later

• When he walks forward and backward, his fists are always covered in animated blue energy. This detail was scrapped in subsequent revisions.
• He does not have his infamous AI difficulty yet. Noticeably, he spams his moves way less, and all of them (including the Magnetic Shockwave) don't do as much damage as in future revisions.
  • His EM Pulse only shoots one stream of energy as opposed to later revisions' three.
  • His AI doesn't use his flight yet, but if the player uses cheats to play as him and performs the move, it reveals that, unlike newer versions, flying is restricted to the ground-level part of the screen and the only way to fly higher than that is for the other player to perform a jump, but when that player approaches the ground, the flying Magneto player will be sucked into the bottom of the screen again, this was fixed in later releases.
• He doesn't do the second win pose that he has subsequent versions where it recycles his laughing taunt animation.

• In 1.00, track 1F0 is used when Magneto is defeated, which is a more laid-back grunt than the 1F1 one that is instead used in later versions.

• Magneto has two win quotes, 1FA ("You are beaten.") and 1FB ("Magneto is supreme."), both can be heard in 1.00 but the latter one goes unused in later versions, although it plays in full in the later versions when you play as him. It's presumed it was done because the "supreme" sounds like "scream".

Stages#

Savage Land#

1.00	2.00 and later

• There are fewer running dinosaurs in the background of Wolverine's stage: In 1.00 there are 5 dinosaurs that go across the screen one at a time, in newer versions, there's a herd of 12 dinosaurs running at the same time that's followed by another herd of 4.

Avalon#

• Whenever Magneto uses his Stage Shift move, Avalon's background moves anti-clockwise, this is also the case in 2.00, in other versions, it moves clockwise.

Victory Screen#

1.00	2.00 and later

• In the victory screens, both hero and villain variants, the fonts below the winning characters have different palettes.

Text#

1.00	2.00 and later

• All instances where hyphens and em dashes are used with the Japanese font, they're positioned slightly lower than it is starting in version 2.00.

Continue Screen#

• The following characters don't make any sound when choosing to continue: Cyclops, Wolverine, Sentinel, Colossus, Psylocke, Silver Samurai, Spiral, and Akuma.
  • Storm doesn't do her throwing grunt but her lightning's sound effect is heard instead.

1.00	2.00 and later

• For Player 1, Akuma doesn't have his all-black silhouette effect. He also has text boxes with gameplay tips (for Sentinel), something that was removed in later versions. Strangely enough, he doesn't have silhouette effect in Marvel vs. Capcom: Fighting Collection release (based on 3.00), except he has Silver Samurai's grunt when you continue the game instead of Wolverine's grunt.

Test Menu#

• The bookkeeping feature (Game Data in test menu) does not work properly—the coin, service credit, and free play counters all report 967295 and the average operating time is always one second. This also happens in version 2.00.

Endings#

• The sequence where Avalon starts exploding after defeating Magneto is way shorter in 1.00
• Many of the dialogue boxes have different timing, resulting in them staying either seconds longer or less than they do in 2.00 and later.

1.00	2.00 and later

• A fifth, female Acolyte, Anne-Marie Cortez, appears in everyone's endings; she restrains Magneto by grabbing his crotch. For whatever reason, her sprites were left unused in newer versions.
• The music during the Avalon scenes is different: when the Acolytes fall down, it plays track 17, followed by track 18 when the character leaves Magneto. All other versions use the more appropriate track 02 during both Avalon scenes, and when Avalon explodes, it goes silent. Track 02 can't be heard anywhere in 1.00, not even in the sound test, as its slot is empty.

1.00	2.00 and later

• Just after Avalon explodes and the characters are returning to Earth, the text boxes for this scene are placed at the top of the screen. In all other versions, they're placed at the bottom instead.
• At the end of all the endings, 1.00 lacks the later-added fadeout effect, as a result, the endings finish more abruptly.
• The special ending that shows if the player completes the game without using any continues isn't shown in this build, but the song that plays in it (track 19) is present in the sound test.

Cyclops#

• After Cyclops met Jean Grey, Professor X warns the X-Men that Omega Red is attacking the city. In later revisions, this similar dialogue was given to Colossus instead. In other hand, Colossus' hand does not overlap Jean Grey's hair, but in later revision, his fist overlaps her hair.

1.00	2.00 and later

Storm#

• The Sentinel that approaches Storm doesn't say its "Destroy!" quote before it appears on-screen, and when it gets destroyed by Storm, a different sound effect plays.

1.00	2.00 and later

• Forge positions himself besides Storm slightly higher than he does in other versions, causing his head to get completely covered when the text boxes appear.

Wolverine#

• Starting from the scene where Cyclops and Wolverine arrive at the Danger Room, there's no music for the remainder of the ending.

1.00	2.00 and later

• The effects that appear when the screen goes black and Wolverine attacks Silver Samurai are yellow instead of light green.

Sentinel#

• This specific quote from Sentinel, which is the last piece of text on the "Avalon escape" part, is not present in 1.00...
• ...on the other hand, present only in 1.00 is this message from Sentinel identifying Storm while approaching her. Despite this quote being removed from future Japanese versions, it was localized and is used in the international versions of the game.

Psylocke#

• Like in Wolverine's ending, the hit effects that appear during the black screen of Psylocke hitting Cyclops are yellow instead of light green.

Silver Samurai#

• Again, just like in Wolverine's and Psylocke's endings, the effects on the black background during Silver Samurai's attacks on Wolverine are yellow.

Spiral#

• Track 1D, which plays in subsequent builds during the first part of the conversation between Mojo and Spiral is unused in this build, although it can be heard in the sound test. Here the whole Mojo World sequence plays track 15, which plays in other builds during the middle of the scene.

1.00	2.00 and later

• Spiral's very last text box is messed up, being empty and half of it going off-screen upward.

Akuma#

• This single text box that comes from Akuma in versions 2.00 and beyond doesn't appear, instead, the characters stare at each other before the screen goes white.
• When the Game Over screen appears, the letters spelling it are missing. Seeing as this is not the case in versions starting 2.00, it was probably unintended.

References#