X-Men: Children of the Atom was the first installment in Capcom’s imaginative Marvel series. Every aspect of the game is absolutely beautiful. Each character has an unbelievable number of unique animation frames that were gradually lost over the years as rosters grew bigger.
COTA Cyclops fires a barrage of s.HP and c.HP optic bullets at Sentinel’s s.MP missles, while Sentinel starts up his s.HP laser beam. Both characters are suki-canceling after every eligible attack to cut down recovery times. (The entire sequence containing this still can be found in our Super Fireball Battle special premiered at Evo2k10.)
COTA Wolverine’s Berserker Barrage has enough startup invincibility to beat CPU Juggernaut’s Juggernaut Headcrush cleanly, but it must be initiated slightly later than shown here.
COTA Colossus knocks Sentinel down using c.HK as Sentinel summons HK Sentinel Force, then picks him up off the ground with HP Lift Up while Sentinel mashes to escape.
COTA Wolverine activates Berserker Charge as Silver Samurai initiates Bunsin and Touki (Fire). Wolverine wall jumps and whiffs j.HP, then trades s.HP with Silver Samurai’s s.HP -> HP chain. Silver Samurai’s elemental fire damage takes effect one frame before Wolverine enters hit stun animation, covering his shadows as well as his portrait.
COTA Akuma’s invincible Gou Shoryu Reppa passes through CPU Magneto’s Hyper Gravitation while he remains untouchable within his Magnetic Bubble. We have the ultra-oldschool secret character facing off against the CPU-controlled final boss! COTA Akuma is based on his SSF2T appearance, which marks the only instance of an SF2 series sprite in the Marvel series.
This game still brings back memories. I remember seeing the very first preview shots in GameFan magazine way back in the day and couldn’t believe my eyes. Colossus looked like he was cut right out of a comic book.
And Sentinel! You could take all the COTA Sentinel sprites they discarded for MvC2 and build a fully functional Sentinel-2.
Then you’ve got Juggernaut picking up pre-existing background objects, Magneto directly controlling his stage elevator platform, and Iceman leaving frozen footprint trails whenever he walks. It’s crazy how much effort went into the aesthetics of this game – labor of love through and through.
COTA, MSH, and SFA1 were the games i played every afternoon on the way back from high school; in the corner of a convenience store because there were no real arcades in the neighborhood.
I must have killed Magneto, Thanos, Bison, and Akuma a hundred times each. But i guess they kept all my quarters so it’s hard to say who really won those battles.