Mmm, yes. Licensed games. One of the true go-to places for trashy goodness, especially during the halcyon days of 8 and 16-bit. You never had to look farther than whatever movie was coming out to get an idea of just how many shitty platformers would be released in any given month. I’m not even talking big name action stuff. I’m talking about Home Improvement. Cool World. Bebe’s Kids. Comic book games, however, have always been more of a tributary of the licensed-game shitriver as opposed to part of its central flow; the overwhelming majority of them are terrible but there are many that are perfectly playable, fun games. One of the Genesis’ most visually stunning games was 1993’s X-Men, a prime example of a license put to good use.
1992’s Ex-Mutants, today’s dollop of joy here on Up All Night, is the exact opposite. It’s an awful license – if you too were fooled by the clever name, Ex-Mutants was a mid-‘80s rip off of the X-Men – used to make a bad platforming action game.
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