Brian Wilkinson
Jul 22, 2002, 01:02 am
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/temp/Xassault/XassaultAstralPlaneOnslaught.jpg " target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/temp/Xassault/XassaultAstralPlaneOnslaught.jpg " align=left alt="X-Assault v0.95 Logo"></a>It began about a year ago… a talented group of flash designers sat down and attempted to make the ultimate X-Men game. The game you’ve never played on Nintendo, Playstation 2 or X-Box. It was instead an X-Men game called X-Assault… made by the fans for the fans, and the reaction has been overwhelming. At one point, interest was so high that lead designer Nixon (a.k.a. X-Fan reviewer extraordinaire Jim Lemoine!) was forced to remove the game from his Web site as the hosting costs were far too high for him to afford it. Since then, the game has been made available for download in a small, zipped, format of about 9 megs on the X-Assault Web site (http://www.issue9mm.org/xassault.html)
For those of you who don’t know how X-Assault works, I’ll ask Nixon himself to give a brief explanation:
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/temp/Xassault/XXCerebro.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/temp/Xassault/XXCerebro.jpg" align=right alt="X-Assault v0.95 Screenshot: Cerebro Selection"></a>NIXON: OK, picture this: You get to build a team of 5 X-Men, choosing from over 50 playable characters within the game (but some are hidden). You recruit them through Cerebro (which, for some reason, slightly resembles the old Press Your Luck "No Whammies" board) and build a squad strategically, hopefully planning your team based on statistics, leadership, team formation, and special powers. Once you've got your squad, you send them out to beat up the bad guys with a stat-based combat system that's surprisingly deep. Along the way, odd things may happen... for instance, put Professor X against Magneto for a mindwipe or, get Professor X killed by Legion to head to the ‘Age of Apocalypse’. It's almost 40 years of X-history crammed into one free game.
Most of the work is done by the same core team... myself (Nixon) on design and programming, Script Dubious as master programmer, and Daytripper with cruel ideas on how to make players play again and again and again. Blackflak joined us around .93, I think, and he's come up with some of the game's best features, like the idea for the plot and a few bonus characters.
The top priority has been this: we wanted to produce the very best thing we could. When the first version came out last November 6, there were a lot of things on the list that we couldn't add because we either didn't have time or didn't know how. With version 0.95, we've finally implemented everything we originally envisioned for X-Assault, so that's our huge goal accomplished right there.
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93havokscr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93havokscrt.jpg" align=right alt="X-Assault v0.95 screenshot: Havok recruited"></a>X-FAN: Since the game is now entering version .95 (I believe it started with version .90) how has the game changed?
NIXON: It did start with .9... we've had several 'interim' versions along the way too. It's basically morphed into a completely different experience over the last eight months. Since our launch we've added hundreds of special events, eleven hidden characters, almost 20 regular characters, eight new villains, a mini-game, the manifestation of the Phoenix, Onslaught, over 100 new trivia questions, team events, virtual trading cards, auto-recruit features, exclusive art, a surreal bulletin board, stat-choice attacks, villain A.I., and a sweet new opening movie.
Is that enough?
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93selscr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93selscrt.jpg" align=right alt="X-Assault v0.95 screenshot: Team selection"></a>X-FAN: Ummm… wow. More than enough, I’d say.
What are you most proud of in this game?
NIXON: I'm really proud of the hundreds of special events... especially the ones written by our professional comics guest-writers: Douglass Barre, Danny Donovan (X-Men Unlimited), and Gail Simone (Deadpool, Agent X! Or maybe the truly awesome art by Bamfette and Truelove! No, wait... it's the brilliant, surprisingly simple yet amazingly deep combat design by the team at NixonVision!
X-FAN: How many characters are there to choose from? How do you decide who gets picked and who doesn’t?
NIXON: (Y'know, I think this may honestly be what I'm most proud of) While most X-Men games out there can only boast 5 - 15 playable characters, X-Assault is proud to have, at last count, no less than fifty-seven (57) playable characters. From X-Men past and present to members of the fringe teams, from pals like Spider-Man and Captain America to Lil' Wolvie from ‘Bullpen Bits’, we've got something for everyone.
We originally picked the first 20 X-characters that popped to mind, and since them we've really been depending a lot on player requests. Mutants like Jubilee, Pete Wisdom, Northstar, and Dazzler were only added because we got a lot of people asking for them. We also lean towards our favorites, of course... that's why Captain America was our first hidden character, and why Deadpool made it into the latest version.
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93xtxmscr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93xtxmscrt.jpg" align=right alt="X-Assault v0.95 screenshot: X-Treme X-Men team"></a>X-FAN:What about hidden characters? How many are there at this point, who are they, and how do you decide to include them?
NIXON: The latest version has eleven hidden characters... sixteen if you count the five that you automatically find if you head to the Age of Apocalypse. Who are they? I can't reveal all of them, but I can tell you that Captain America, Lil' Wolvie, Franklin Richards, Pete Wisdom, Bamf, Bloodstorm, Spider-Man, and Deadpool are all hiding in there somewhere. And if you get to the Age of Apocalypse, you'll get to play as Magneto, Sabretooth, and three other characters.
X-FAN: How were you able to get someone like Gail Simone (Agent X) to contribute to the game?
NIXON: Gail's a wonderful gal, and lots of fun to work with. I had a previous relationship with her thanks to my work at X-Fan, so I asked her if she'd be interested. To our delight, she agreed, and gave us some of the funniest stuff of her career. And yes, Simone fans, you can ONLY find this stuff in X-Assault!!!
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93arcjugscr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93arcjugscrt.jpg" align=right alt="X-Assault v0.95 screenshot: Archangel vs Juggernaut"></a>X-FAN:What future plans do you have for X-Assault?
NIXON: 0.95B is next up for us. Not a full upgrade, but lots of neat new features... a couple of new playable characters, a new villain or two, new special events, more story development and an Exiles mini-game.
X-FAN: Seeing as how you’re the regular reviewer for that title right here at X-Fan, I was wondering when you were going to get around to including that team! I can’t wait to play it! Any other Assault type games on the horizon?
NIXON: As any real X-Assault fan knows, Blackflak is spearheading a Justice League Assault project that we've been working on for a long, long time. That's the only spin-off we're currently planning.
X-FAN: With an unlimited budget and resources, what would your ideal final version of the game look like?
NIXON: Tough one. Well... our original plans were for full music, speech, and SFX throughout, so we'd put it on CD and include full sound enhancements. We'd have many more playable characters and even more special events, and the whole game would get a big face-lift. It'd probably be a lot more like the notes for something called X-Assault II that I've got laying around on my desk. Longer mission-based play, team swap-outs throughout the adventure, character development RPG-style... hey, we've got some pretty cool ideas!
X-FAN: Seeing as how you DON’T have an unlimited budget and costs to maintain the site as well as finding the time to produce the game have all gone up, what can the average fan do to help support NixonVision?
NIXON: Donate to the site, buy a T-shirt, tell your comic shop, tell your friends, or tell your favorite publisher. At the very least, send us an e-mail offering moral support. We like mail.
Fan support is important because we'd stop making new versions and adding cool stuff if fans stopped playing. And of course, it's the donations that REALLY motivate us to keep paying the hosting fees and devoting so much of our time to it.
X-FAN: (The same can be said for X-Fan, itself!) What has the fan reaction been like?
NIXON: Phenomenal. We originally uploaded the game just to let a few of our friends play... and now we've got thousands of X-Assaultoids from all over the planet! Our e-mail box stays pretty much clogged, there are several fan sites up, and the message boards stay extremely busy (just go check the Rec Room (http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=42) here at X-Fan!). We've also gotten lots of players involved in actually creating the game, and they've been a big help. We make sure to recognize their support in the game credits... it's very cool to have something like this that so many X-fans around the world have contributed to.
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/temp/Xassault/XXPhoenix.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/temp/Xassault/XXPhoenix.jpg" align=right alt="X-Assault v0.95 Screenshot: Phoenix Rising"></a>X-FAN: Feel like revealing any of the secrets hidden within the game for some of the die-hard fans that need to know absolutely everything about the game (such as myself)?
NIXON: Let's see... five spoilers: several of the villains know the answer to the X-Assault mystery (see the intro movie for more details). Clicking on the Question Mark in the War Room gives you bonus points. If you see a message pop up in Cerebro saying that a certain character is requesting addition to your team, recruit them for even more bonus points! Onslaught messes up your leaders in the War Room really bad (some people think it's a bug, but it's not; it's Onslaught's sabotage!). And Dark Phoenix can be changed back to plain old Jean Grey through several special events that weaken her resolve (this also gives you a lot of bonus points).
X-FAN: Can’t ask for anything more than that! Of course, I may know a few other secrets hidden in the game, but I’m sworn to secrecy! (But I am open to bribery). Thanks for taking to talk to us, Nixon, and for those of you reading this, head over to the X-Assault Web site (http://www.issue9mm.org/xassault.html) now and start playing!
For those of you who don’t know how X-Assault works, I’ll ask Nixon himself to give a brief explanation:
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/temp/Xassault/XXCerebro.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/temp/Xassault/XXCerebro.jpg" align=right alt="X-Assault v0.95 Screenshot: Cerebro Selection"></a>NIXON: OK, picture this: You get to build a team of 5 X-Men, choosing from over 50 playable characters within the game (but some are hidden). You recruit them through Cerebro (which, for some reason, slightly resembles the old Press Your Luck "No Whammies" board) and build a squad strategically, hopefully planning your team based on statistics, leadership, team formation, and special powers. Once you've got your squad, you send them out to beat up the bad guys with a stat-based combat system that's surprisingly deep. Along the way, odd things may happen... for instance, put Professor X against Magneto for a mindwipe or, get Professor X killed by Legion to head to the ‘Age of Apocalypse’. It's almost 40 years of X-history crammed into one free game.
Most of the work is done by the same core team... myself (Nixon) on design and programming, Script Dubious as master programmer, and Daytripper with cruel ideas on how to make players play again and again and again. Blackflak joined us around .93, I think, and he's come up with some of the game's best features, like the idea for the plot and a few bonus characters.
The top priority has been this: we wanted to produce the very best thing we could. When the first version came out last November 6, there were a lot of things on the list that we couldn't add because we either didn't have time or didn't know how. With version 0.95, we've finally implemented everything we originally envisioned for X-Assault, so that's our huge goal accomplished right there.
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93havokscr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93havokscrt.jpg" align=right alt="X-Assault v0.95 screenshot: Havok recruited"></a>X-FAN: Since the game is now entering version .95 (I believe it started with version .90) how has the game changed?
NIXON: It did start with .9... we've had several 'interim' versions along the way too. It's basically morphed into a completely different experience over the last eight months. Since our launch we've added hundreds of special events, eleven hidden characters, almost 20 regular characters, eight new villains, a mini-game, the manifestation of the Phoenix, Onslaught, over 100 new trivia questions, team events, virtual trading cards, auto-recruit features, exclusive art, a surreal bulletin board, stat-choice attacks, villain A.I., and a sweet new opening movie.
Is that enough?
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93selscr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93selscrt.jpg" align=right alt="X-Assault v0.95 screenshot: Team selection"></a>X-FAN: Ummm… wow. More than enough, I’d say.
What are you most proud of in this game?
NIXON: I'm really proud of the hundreds of special events... especially the ones written by our professional comics guest-writers: Douglass Barre, Danny Donovan (X-Men Unlimited), and Gail Simone (Deadpool, Agent X! Or maybe the truly awesome art by Bamfette and Truelove! No, wait... it's the brilliant, surprisingly simple yet amazingly deep combat design by the team at NixonVision!
X-FAN: How many characters are there to choose from? How do you decide who gets picked and who doesn’t?
NIXON: (Y'know, I think this may honestly be what I'm most proud of) While most X-Men games out there can only boast 5 - 15 playable characters, X-Assault is proud to have, at last count, no less than fifty-seven (57) playable characters. From X-Men past and present to members of the fringe teams, from pals like Spider-Man and Captain America to Lil' Wolvie from ‘Bullpen Bits’, we've got something for everyone.
We originally picked the first 20 X-characters that popped to mind, and since them we've really been depending a lot on player requests. Mutants like Jubilee, Pete Wisdom, Northstar, and Dazzler were only added because we got a lot of people asking for them. We also lean towards our favorites, of course... that's why Captain America was our first hidden character, and why Deadpool made it into the latest version.
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93xtxmscr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93xtxmscrt.jpg" align=right alt="X-Assault v0.95 screenshot: X-Treme X-Men team"></a>X-FAN:What about hidden characters? How many are there at this point, who are they, and how do you decide to include them?
NIXON: The latest version has eleven hidden characters... sixteen if you count the five that you automatically find if you head to the Age of Apocalypse. Who are they? I can't reveal all of them, but I can tell you that Captain America, Lil' Wolvie, Franklin Richards, Pete Wisdom, Bamf, Bloodstorm, Spider-Man, and Deadpool are all hiding in there somewhere. And if you get to the Age of Apocalypse, you'll get to play as Magneto, Sabretooth, and three other characters.
X-FAN: How were you able to get someone like Gail Simone (Agent X) to contribute to the game?
NIXON: Gail's a wonderful gal, and lots of fun to work with. I had a previous relationship with her thanks to my work at X-Fan, so I asked her if she'd be interested. To our delight, she agreed, and gave us some of the funniest stuff of her career. And yes, Simone fans, you can ONLY find this stuff in X-Assault!!!
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93arcjugscr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/X93arcjugscrt.jpg" align=right alt="X-Assault v0.95 screenshot: Archangel vs Juggernaut"></a>X-FAN:What future plans do you have for X-Assault?
NIXON: 0.95B is next up for us. Not a full upgrade, but lots of neat new features... a couple of new playable characters, a new villain or two, new special events, more story development and an Exiles mini-game.
X-FAN: Seeing as how you’re the regular reviewer for that title right here at X-Fan, I was wondering when you were going to get around to including that team! I can’t wait to play it! Any other Assault type games on the horizon?
NIXON: As any real X-Assault fan knows, Blackflak is spearheading a Justice League Assault project that we've been working on for a long, long time. That's the only spin-off we're currently planning.
X-FAN: With an unlimited budget and resources, what would your ideal final version of the game look like?
NIXON: Tough one. Well... our original plans were for full music, speech, and SFX throughout, so we'd put it on CD and include full sound enhancements. We'd have many more playable characters and even more special events, and the whole game would get a big face-lift. It'd probably be a lot more like the notes for something called X-Assault II that I've got laying around on my desk. Longer mission-based play, team swap-outs throughout the adventure, character development RPG-style... hey, we've got some pretty cool ideas!
X-FAN: Seeing as how you DON’T have an unlimited budget and costs to maintain the site as well as finding the time to produce the game have all gone up, what can the average fan do to help support NixonVision?
NIXON: Donate to the site, buy a T-shirt, tell your comic shop, tell your friends, or tell your favorite publisher. At the very least, send us an e-mail offering moral support. We like mail.
Fan support is important because we'd stop making new versions and adding cool stuff if fans stopped playing. And of course, it's the donations that REALLY motivate us to keep paying the hosting fees and devoting so much of our time to it.
X-FAN: (The same can be said for X-Fan, itself!) What has the fan reaction been like?
NIXON: Phenomenal. We originally uploaded the game just to let a few of our friends play... and now we've got thousands of X-Assaultoids from all over the planet! Our e-mail box stays pretty much clogged, there are several fan sites up, and the message boards stay extremely busy (just go check the Rec Room (http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=42) here at X-Fan!). We've also gotten lots of players involved in actually creating the game, and they've been a big help. We make sure to recognize their support in the game credits... it's very cool to have something like this that so many X-fans around the world have contributed to.
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/temp/Xassault/XXPhoenix.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/temp/Xassault/XXPhoenix.jpg" align=right alt="X-Assault v0.95 Screenshot: Phoenix Rising"></a>X-FAN: Feel like revealing any of the secrets hidden within the game for some of the die-hard fans that need to know absolutely everything about the game (such as myself)?
NIXON: Let's see... five spoilers: several of the villains know the answer to the X-Assault mystery (see the intro movie for more details). Clicking on the Question Mark in the War Room gives you bonus points. If you see a message pop up in Cerebro saying that a certain character is requesting addition to your team, recruit them for even more bonus points! Onslaught messes up your leaders in the War Room really bad (some people think it's a bug, but it's not; it's Onslaught's sabotage!). And Dark Phoenix can be changed back to plain old Jean Grey through several special events that weaken her resolve (this also gives you a lot of bonus points).
X-FAN: Can’t ask for anything more than that! Of course, I may know a few other secrets hidden in the game, but I’m sworn to secrecy! (But I am open to bribery). Thanks for taking to talk to us, Nixon, and for those of you reading this, head over to the X-Assault Web site (http://www.issue9mm.org/xassault.html) now and start playing!