X-Perts

In 1994, Nintendo released Donkey Kong Country on the SNES, a game that used sprites of pre-rendered 3D characters to make a game with next gen graphics, without hampering performance, gameplay quality or any real add-ons to speak of. This game was a SMASH HIT during the end of the 16-bit era and possibly was the push that the SNES needed to outsell the Genesis worldwide, which was devastating for SEGA as they had focused more on upgrades/add-ons to keep the genesis alive, which had mostly failed for them and caused them to loose footing as the "cutting-edge" and "mature" competitor to Nintendo so by the mid-late 90's with the failiure of the Saturn outside japan it seemed like a no brainer to do their own versions of the pre-rendered 16-bit game genre spurred mostly off by DKC.

So what the hell does this have to do with X-Perts? Well just look at the back of the box and how proud it is of the "X-Plosive 3-D Graphics", when i first heard of this game, i thought it sounded interesting. A bit like a more original take on a pre-rendered game, and something that fitted in with the perceived "maturity" of the Genesis over the SNES, instead of a loveable ape running around collecting bananas you were a 3 piece counter-terrorist team performing several tasks, taking down terrorists and saving the world! Really cool right? Well sadly the execution seems... really really underwhelming...

One thing that needs noting is that this is a spin-off of the Eternal Champions fighting game, which i haven't played but this takes place in an alternate universe, i wont spoil much but one of the 3 playable characters is Shadow from Eternal Champions, this isn't even the first Eternal Champions beat-em-up spinoff, Chicago Syndicate on Game Gear is one too!

But anyways i think the first issue that truly begins to show itself is the way information is shown to you, in the start screen theres basically an "on-line database" about the lore of this game, the characters, mission, etc, i actually don't mind this, i think it allows those to get every single detail down without having to read the manual and you also get briefed on your first mission and secondary mission, a voice in game will also tell you things like if theres a new mission, if an X-Pert is in combat, etc but i really feel like this game needed some kind of introductory level. Something that gives you an idea as to the basis of this game and a rough idea of each characters abilities and strengths (whilst still giving some a reason to read more on them if they'd want to), i dont think theres anything wrong with trying to make this game more about reading objectives than just f-ing around and finding out but in general i feel like when you're trying to mix Action-Packed fighting with Tactical/Minor Strategy elements you have to meet both audiences in the middle sometimes and it just feels like you might miss something if you didnt take the time to read the breif enough, which again for every mission you might wanna read it + look closely at the map.

So the game starts with us playing as Zachary who if i'm remembering correctly is supposed to be a Computer Whiz, but to me he just looks like a run-of-the-mill G.I.John or Guile's grey camo loving cousin, but our first mission is simple, we need to open the airlocks for the other 2 X-Perts, and that involves finding the right terminal and pressing Y (on 6 button pad) to hack it, which just makes you wait. I'm not against that as hacking minigames tend to be controversial but at some points it eventually can get really boring just waiting there while your character just types on a keyboard or panel or whatever, so after that we get access to the other 2 X-Perts, Shadow and Tashile and... whats with the outfits? I mean Zach looked goofy but still looked like a counter-terrorist or something but Shadow is literally wearing nothing but a shiny green dress, arm warmers, long stockings and a ninja eyemask, tashile also just has a really large skirt that kinda sticks out among the backgrounds, i'm not saying these characters can't look distinctive, i just think these outfits should only be in... AGAIN some kind of training mission with a more standardized uniform in the game itself, you can still add individual quirks and details to a uniform to make each character distinct and have their own personality. Clothing choices aside a little before you complete the mission you would have dealt with the combat system, which is REALLY STIFF and wonky, its like you hit someone, it knocks them back, you move closer, you hit them again, etc until they die, and you do have different punches and kicks (at least high and low ones) but it doesnt really feel satisfying or anything less than tedious, i dont think you can hit a combo or special moves but apparently according to sega retro and an archive of the old SEGA website on the game you can not only do special moves but also "torture moves" to interrogate enemies??? Maybe i never got far enough in the game to do this but i didnt notice this at all! AGAIN the first stage should've been a training stage so most people can understand what the hell they're doing... but that aside you'll do different tasks on different floors with different characters, but it feels really slow and i couldn't get myself to beat the first stage, you cant run or sneak only walk, and i really lost interest quickly.

Some defenders of this game (which maybe includes me) will argue that X-Perts is less of an action game and more of a Strategy game with Action elements, and i partially agree with that, but i feel like that shows the biggest problem with X-Perts. This game definitely had an original idea and could've been a must-own for genesis owners in the mid-late 1990's but X-Perts fails to bridge the gap between a Beat-Em-Up and a Strategic Tactics game, it tries more to seem like a colorful action title with the eccentric character outfits and presentation but doesnt hit that mark and at the same time takes a lot of presentation and needed effort to flesh out the Tactical parts of this game, i can't speak for developing a game for the Sega Genesis in 1996 but some ideas i think that would've helped this game would be stuff like:

1. A Training mission first, maybe you could skip this and gain more lore and tips from reading (and thus possibly be rewarded for doing so in game-play) but starting out in, lets say X-Perts HQ where you and the X-Perts are trained in game and learn the mechanics to play would make the story much more fleshed out for the average player and perhaps show off the individual X-Pert's skills and techniques which leads me to

2. Better and more engaging character quirks, i feel like the outfits again would be fine outside of the mission, like in the training level but i feel like for a counter-terrorist operation, a shiny sideboob dress isn't gonna be practical, instead what if Zach was more obviously an Engineer/Technician and thus could reprogram/hack devices faster than the others and possibly have the ability to do a special hacking move on the tiny little robotic laser tanks i forgot to mention in the review by instead of destroying it, he could near-KO the bot and then reprogram it to be an ally and to help in combat, what if shadow was the best at sneaking and could do take-downs instead of straight up 1v1 throwdowns or at least be the best character to do so, perhaps she could catch a terrorist off guard and instead of having to hack herself, she could get the terrorist to hack for her faster, and maybe tashile could be an all-rounder or perhaps the best fighter of the group, she could also be the best interrogator or perhaps all three could have completely different pros and cons! Just something that keeps the game interesting and makes the characters more engaging to switch between and to play as.

3. Combat and Tactics refinement, i've talked about how clunky i think the fighting is and in #2 i had elaborated on how it could be more varied with things like stealth but also maybe take more inspiration from other beat-em-ups, instead of a clunky 1v1 or rarely a 2v1, why not a more dynamic battle with multiple enemies and more moves in combat, and on the strategic elements i wish the environment better reflected the tasks you were given, sometimes without the map you just go up to everything on the wall and then tap Y to see if its your objective, why not make it a little more obvious so you aren't just switching back and fourth through the map, breifing and gameplay whiich by the way actually takes away control of all 3 characters from you as their ai attempts to do some of the tasks while you're in the map screen, which is okay by itself but is hampered by the fact that you're usually lost in what to do if you didnt pay full attention the first time, once you refine both you'd eventually be able to work on making them balance nicely together.