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Hm. Well, it probably is the first (I could have sworn the single player game was just you against the same number of terribleness) -- though I could cite other NES titles like Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigekidayo Zenin Shugo... or (speaking of Technos) what about sports games that could be played Co-Op multi-player like Super Dodgeball or Nintendo World Cup?

pakopako wrote:Hm. Well, it probably is the first (I could have sworn the single player game was just you against the same number of terribleness) -- though I could cite other NES titles like Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigekidayo Zenin Shugo...

That one came out two years later than X-Men.

or (speaking of Technos) what about sports games that could be played Co-Op multi-player like Super Dodgeball or Nintendo World Cup?

That's different. I haven't played every sports game ever, but usually it's some combination of you telling computer players what to do or always controlling the player near the ball, etc. NBA Jam could probably fit the description, though.

Limewater wrote:

pakopako wrote:...or (speaking of Technos) what about sports games that could be played Co-Op multi-player like Super Dodgeball or Nintendo World Cup?

That's different. I haven't played every sports game ever, but usually it's some combination of you telling computer players what to do or always controlling the player near the ball, etc. NBA Jam could probably fit the description, though.

Which description would NBA Jam fit, the AI player or the auto-switch player? (I played one iteration of the series a long while back. I remember the switching was manual.)

For what its worth, I believe Nintendo World Cup -- a soccer game from Technos that came out just six months after X-Men -- had you control a forward/striker. If you could switch players, you had to do it manually.

Doing some digging, Top Players Tennis for the NES was released around the time of Uncanny X-men with automatic AI control if you decided to play doubles matches.