X-Men: Destiny (2011). Play online

Summary

When I first grabbed X-Men: Destiny for the Nintendo DS, the appeal was its action‑RPG twist on the familiar Marvel world. You step into the shoes of brand‑new mutants—like Sunfire’s daughter Aimi or the conflicted son of a Purifier leader—and can side with either the X‑Men or the Brotherhood. The game hinges on collecting X‑Genes, each unlocking three ability tracks (offense, defense, utility) that you can blend for a personalized combat style, giving the illusion of genuine choice.

Behind the scenes, development was rough. Silicon Knights got a slashed budget after Marvel’s Disney takeover, prompting the studio to plow about $2 million of its own cash into finishing the title—a gamble that shocked Activision. Legal battles with Epic over Unreal Engine code led to the game’s recall in 2014; unsold copies were destroyed, making it the last project Silicon Knights completed before filing for bankruptcy.

Retailers tried to boost interest with exclusive costumes—Emma Frost via Amazon, Juggernaut at Best Buy, Havok through GameStop—but critics weren’t kind. The DS version lingered around a 33/100 Metacritic score, citing button‑mashing combat and shallow consequence mechanics.

Storyline

In X-Men: Destiny, a war‑torn San Francisco is split into human and mutant zones. Players pick one of three new mutants—Aimi Yoshida, Adrian Luca or Grant Alexander—and attend a peace rally for Professor X that is violently ambushed by the anti‑mutant Purifiers, sparking the awakening of their powers.

The hero then meets members of the X‑Men and the Brotherhood, pursues Purifier leader Cameron Hodge, and watches Magneto drop the Golden Gate Bridge onto the battlefield. Nightcrawler rescues the player, who is sent to Chinatown to locate Gambit. After a raid on a Purifier warehouse, Gambit reveals a hidden lab where captured mutants like Quicksilver, Surge and Colossus are rescued, and the U‑Men are defeated.

With the lab’s intel, the player confronts a re‑armored Hodge, who falls to his death. Choosing between the X‑Men or the Brotherhood leads to a hunt for Pixie and Caliban, the revelation that Bastion is behind Hodge, and a helicopter crash that kills Pixie. Magneto blames Cyclops, sparking a final clash.

The climax pits the player against Reyes, now controlled by Bastion via a satellite‑linked armor. After shutting down the signal and destroying the Sentinels, Reyes surrenders. If the player sided with the X‑Men, Cyclops watches the ruined city and vows peace; with the Brotherhood, Magneto declares a mutant‑only nation.