X-Men Legends

X-Men Legends is an action role-playing game. Players choose a team of up to four characters from a larger group of X-Men. As players proceed through the game, additional X-Men are unlocked. On the console versions, up to four players can play in the cooperative campaign, with the ability to add or remove players at any time.

Cooperative play features a refined combat system and the ability to interact with non-player characters. The game also features a skirmish mode, which allows players to fight against each other or against waves of computer-controlled enemies.

X-Men Legends is not set in any particular Marvel Comics universe. It is played from the perspective of a teenage girl named Alison Crestmere, a mutant with the ability to control volcanic activity. At the start of the game, Alison is abducted by the Genetic Research and Security Organization (GRSO). As GRSO soldiers take her away, Mystique arrives with Blob and takes Alison from the soldiers. She is in turn rescued from Mystique and Blob by the X-Men Wolverine and Cyclops, who take her to the Xavier Institute to explore her powers.

As Alison trains, the X-Men investigate an Alaskan research facility being attacked by the Brotherhood of Mutants, then rescue Gambit from the Morlocks.

X-Men Legends was announced in a press release by Activision on April 23, 2003. The game is Raven Software's first console title; after a number of successful titles for personal computers, it wanted to expand into the console market. The company developed the three console versions simultaneously, and used Vicarious Visions' Alchemy engine as a base for the game. After deciding to make an "X-Men RPG", staff began brainstorming story, gameplay and design ideas.

Raven wanted to feature a team-based dynamic, something it felt was absent in previous X-Men games. The original concept featured turned-based gameplay, similar to a Final Fantasy game. However, the team concluded that players would prefer more action that allowed control of the character's super powers. The genre switch proved problematic to maintaining the team aspect of gameplay.

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During the 8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated X-Men Legends for "Console Role-Playing Game of the Year". In 2011, GamePro retrospectively listed "the melee combat, ability to customize your stats, and multiplayer" among the strong points of X-Men Legends, adding that the game "was so successful that it created a well-received sequel and paved the way for the Marvel Ultimate Alliance series".