X-Men: Mutant Academy 1/2/Next Dimension

Professor X’s gifted youngsters have been in several fighting games over the years. X-Men: Mutant Academy and its sequels weren’t the first time a developer put two mutants on opposing sides of a screen, but it is, perhaps, the best one in which the X-Men weren’t sharing the spotlight with someone else.

The first Mutant Academy was mostly a tie-in for the 2000 X-Men movie, but the sequel doubled the roster and included some wild picks, like the wheelchair-using Professor X in one of his rare playable appearances. 2002’s Next Dimension was quite a step forward with more characters (though Professor X did not return, unfortunately), interactable 3D maps, and a story mode to make it a more robust, feature-complete fighting game. The X-Men have shown up in other fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom (though Infinite notably didn’t include them, or any other Marvel superheroes that were part of rights disputes at the time), but the Mutant Academy games are a reminder that they don’t have to be in a crossover with anyone else. These characters make up a stunning fighting roster all by themselves.