Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).
The developer Akira Nishitani says he took the job after finishing Street Fighter II, when he was asked to make Street Fighter III, and that because he was trying "vector theory", by which combining moves and actions produces a variety of tactics — something hard to express in the Street Fighter series — in his own mind he developed X-MEN as Street Fighter III.
Capcom said that this was left in by mistake, hence why the ability to play as Juggernaut was not included in the North American or European releases, or in the later PlayStation version.
Scary Larry of GamePro said the game was "converted perfectly" to the Saturn and applauded the accessible controls, fast gameplay, colorful graphics, and lack of slowdown.
Sega Saturn Magazine declared the Saturn version "arcade perfect" aside from a few barely noticeable missing animation frames, and called the game itself "the first time comic book superheroes have been successfully translated to game format.
They also praised the home-only features, especially the survival mode, and gave it their "Maximum Game of the Month" award.
GameSpot's review of the PC version opened by calling it "an admirable and near-exact conversion of Capcom's 1995 arcade hit" which "proves that the PC is indeed a viable platform for fighting games", but went on to criticize that it does not run as fast or at as high a resolution as the arcade version, and lacks the ability to chain combos.
Next Generation stated that "Overall, if you crave 2D fighting fare, you can do worse than this game, but you can also do much better.
In 2013, Nerdist included it on its list of the "Top Ten Most Iconic Marvel Video Games", calling it "a strike of gold, given how it's paved the way for the fighting games following it.
In 2013, Geek Magazine ranked Children of the Atom 17th on its list of "Marvel Comics' 25 Best Video Games".
In 1996, GamesMaster ranked the Saturn version third on its list of "The GamesMaster Saturn Top 10."
Based on the X-Men comic book, it is the first fighting game produced by Capcom using characters under license from Marvel Comics.
The Saturn version premiered at Capcom's August 1995 Summer Festival; this was a 50% complete version with only Cyclops, Wolverine, Psylocke, and Iceman playable.
Probe also found converting the game to PlayStation to be a challenge, and the release date was pushed back all the way to the first quarter of 1998.
In June 2024, Capcom announced that Children of the Atom would be among the games included in the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics compilation (which was released in September of that year), marking the game's first home release since 1997.
Sega Saturn Magazine declared the Saturn version "arcade perfect" aside from a few barely noticeable missing animation frames, and called the game itself "the first time comic book superheroes have been successfully translated to game format.
They also praised the home-only features, especially the survival mode, and gave it their "Maximum Game of the Month" award.
Released on 1994-12-16 as an arcade game (on the CP System II board) in Japan, America, Europe and elsewhere, it was a bigger hit in America than in Japan.
Covering the arcade version, a reviewer for Next Generation highly praised the selection of characters, the interface, the new special move mechanics, the animations, and the voice overs.
They especially praised the well-balanced and distinctive characters and the combo system.
They also praised the home-only features, especially the survival mode, and gave it their "Maximum Game of the Month" award.
GameSpot's review of the PC version opened by calling it "an admirable and near-exact conversion of Capcom's 1995 arcade hit" which "proves that the PC is indeed a viable platform for fighting games", but went on to criticize that it does not run as fast or at as high a resolution as the arcade version, and lacks the ability to chain combos.
It took 8th place for the Grand Prix in the 9th Gamest Grand Prix (1995) run in the magazine Gamest (Shinseisha), as well as 8th for Best Fighting Game, 10th for Best Presentation, 9th for player popularity, 7th for Best Income and 8th among the year's hit games.
Akuma was made in secret by 1 programmer late in development, on the instruction of lead planner Nishitani, but because it was not shared within the team it was not checked enough and bugs appeared.
The Saturn version premiered at Capcom's August 1995 Summer Festival; this was a 50% complete version with only Cyclops, Wolverine, Psylocke, and Iceman playable.
The character cannot be used in the arcade version, but can be used in versus mode only (on a condition) in the Sega Saturn version and in the PC and PlayStation versions never released in Japan, and in any mode in Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.
The character cannot be played in either the arcade or the Sega Saturn version, but can be used in versus mode only (on a condition) in the PC and PlayStation versions never released in Japan, and, like Juggernaut, in any mode in Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.
The home version of the game was originally a Sega Saturn exclusive.
The home version of the game was originally a Saturn exclusive until Acclaim released versions for MS-DOS in June 1997 and the PlayStation on March 3, 1998; unlike the Saturn version, the MS-DOS and PlayStation versions were not released in Japan.
According to Tatsuya Minami, Capcom's senior manager of the Product Planning and Design Section, the biggest difficulty with converting the game to the Saturn was the memory restrictions.
A PlayStation version was announced for a November 1996 release, but Capcom had difficulty with the conversion and contracted the project out to Probe Entertainment, who also handled the PC version.
Akuma was made in secret by 1 programmer late in development, on the instruction of lead planner Nishitani, but because it was not shared within the team it was not checked enough and bugs appeared.
Capcom said that this was left in by mistake, hence why the ability to play as Juggernaut was not included in the North American or European releases, or in the later PlayStation version.
The sentences quoted on this page were taken from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles exactly as they stand. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) — usable under those terms. They are the work of the people who wrote them.