Despite essentially being a trapped in the holodeck story, there was a lot to like about 1993s X-Men game. Released for the Sega Megadive, a console that was no stranger to scrolling beatemups, the game was well-received thanks to its platforming elements, chunky characters and contemporary soundtrack. It was also notoriously difficult, requiring lots of trial and error to make any progress, but it was when players finally beat down the fifth boss that things got really unfair. With a self-destruct countdown ticking mercilessly away, players were informed that they needed to reset the computer before time ran out. The trick, deranged as it was, was to realise that the Megadrives reset button was actually just another software input rather than a physical switch pressed quickly enough, players could abort the countdown and continue the game. Unfortunately, Sega didnt or couldnt disable the consoles low-level reset function. While a quick tap of the button would save the X-Men, holding it down for too long would trigger an actual reset, wiping out all of your progress - and more than likely throwing you off the scent, assuming the Megadrive wasnt sailing out of the window by that point. It was a trick that felt mean rather than clever and to add insult to injury, later hardware revisions removed the reset button entirely, making X-Men impossible to beat without cheats.
