There’s another popular phrase, though, one that didn’t start with gaming but that Activision definitely believed with X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse. "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it." X-Men Legends 2 features a new cast of playable characters and online cooperative play, but other than that, it’s basically the same game you played last year. Is that enough to warrant the purchase? That depends on how much you liked the first game. But fans of the X-Men will call it as much of no-brainer as Activision’s decision to green-light the sequel.

As an action RPG, X-Men Legends 2 gives gamers full control over the characters’ leveling-up upgrades, assigning points as they see fit, but it also will choose upgrades for the more-casual gamers if they’d rather make with the killing than make with the upgrading. It also gives players full control (or none) over their teammates’ aggression/defense/healing tendencies, and it lets them equip various armor and attack modifiers on any character they wish. In these aspects, X-Men Legends 2 is just like its predecessor, not to mention most other action RPGs on the market.

Where it’s different is in its story, cast of characters and cooperative play. The story, completely original and developed with Marvel, unites the X-Men and the Brotherhood for the first time in the X-Men franchise. The reason? Apocalypse, the world’s most powerful mutant, has kidnapped other mutants and plans to extract their powers to make himself even more powerful than he already is. This is a bad thing, so the X-Men were bound to get involved. But when the son of Magneto is among the kidnapped, you just knew the Brotherhood was going to get involved. And since Apocalypse is such an X-Men badass, the Brotherhood and X-Men team up. Voila! There’s your team, there’s your story, and there’s your cast of 16 playable characters.

With 16 playable characters at your disposal, four of whom can be on the screen at once, the pre-mission briefings are as much about learning the story as they are choosing which characters you want to use during the mission. That’s because, much like the X-Men, the Brotherhood characters all have their own unique abilities, which gives them unique gameplay styles and possibilities. If one of the heroes dies mid-mission, you have the option of using a Blink portal to go back to Professor X and swap-in a new character, or you can use credits to revive the fallen hero and head back to the action. You’ve got to use the portal strategically, though, because you can only use it every five minutes.

Aside from the increased mix-and-match possibilities, the biggest change in X-Men Legends 2 is the inclusion of online cooperative play. This sequel, like its predecessor, has split-screen co-op for same-couch Gauntlet-lovin’ gamers, but it also extends that same-couch feeling to Internet gamers (Xbox, PS2 and PC). Like Full Spectrum Warrior (review), X-Men Legends 2 lets online gamers work through the entire single-player game at the same time, provided they have the same system settings (screen resolution, widescreen or 4:3 aspect ratio, etc.). Why the game requires the uniformity is beyond me, but if four gamers with like-equipped systems can gather ‘round the online fire, they can make with the Four Horsemen- and Apocalypse-killing side by side. Considering Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows hasn’t yet released, this online cooperative "dungeon crawling" is most welcome.

What’s most definitely not welcome is the number of load times, both online and offline. Whether it be a cutscene hiding a load time or an actual loading screen, the action is interrupted far too often in X-Men Legends 2. Seriously, for a game that’s called an "action RPG," the "action" comes only in fits and spurts. Considering the game uses the same graphics engine as the previous game, it’s not like there are extra textures to load, and although there are more environmental objects to destroy or pick up, there aren’t so many that it would account for the incessant loading screens. Online it only gets worse, especially when a player pauses the game or goes into one of the options menus.

But at least X-Men Legends 2 has online co-op, and for that, gamers have to be appreciative. Likewise, Activision has released a suitable sequel to X-Men Legends, one with a few gameplay tweaks and an original story, and for that, fans of the X-Men franchise have to be appreciative. Hardcore action-RPG fans, meanwhile, have surely played games that are just as good if not better in the gameplay category, but this new action-RPG option is something they can be appreciative of, even if it’s not the penultimate game in the genre.