X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse is a cooperative action RPG building on the Raven Software series, in which the player assembles a four-member team of mutants — Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Storm, and others — and works through, in real time, a story that unites the X-Men with Magneto against a shared threat named Apocalypse. At its core is a hack-and-slash combat system supplemented by RPG character development, switching between team members, and combining their abilities into joint attacks. The console versions also offer a Danger Room training mode and unlockable comic-book costumes for each hero, features that carried over into the portable version as well.

The portable PSP version wasn't made by Raven Software but by Vicarious Visions, which released it the same year as the console and PC editions, yet it was a significantly reworked title. It brought four exclusive playable characters, nine new comic-book missions on top of what the console versions had, and wireless multiplayer over both ad hoc and infrastructure Wi-Fi. The graphics engine was adapted to the PSP's power so that, despite the display's lower resolution, it kept a visual level close to the console versions, and the pre-rendered cutscenes were newly adjusted to a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio.

The result was a release that, paradoxically, offered more content than the game it was based on compared to the PS2, GameCube, and Xbox versions, something reviews at the time praised as an unusually generous approach to handheld porting. The controls were naturally adapted to the PSP's single analog stick instead of the two found on console gamepads, which required a slightly different button layout for some combined attacks, without this taking anything away from the clarity of the combat.

The PSP version remained the only portable adaptation of this particular game — Vicarious Visions never ported the series' later sequel, 2006's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, to handhelds, nor did any other studio, so this title kept a unique standing among pocket consoles long after its release.

Why play: As the only portable version of this game, with no later port of its successor Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, the title has held a unique position among handhelds to this day.