X-Men: Destiny



X-Men: Destiny (2011) is an X-Men video game developed by Silicon Knights and published by Activision.

After a series of natural disasters, plagues and economic downturns, mutant-human tensions are at an all time high, with a mutant-hating organization called the Purifiers springing up all over the world. Professor X is killed by the mutant-killing machine Bastion, and the X-Men splinter apart after the mansion comes under attack. San Francisco has begun segregating humans and mutants into separate areas of the city. At a human-mutant peace rally, hell breaks loose when Magneto (allegedly) launches a terrorist attack, bringing the world to the brink of war.

The player takes control of one of three characters created for the game, whose mutant powers manifest for the first time at the peace rally: Aimi Yoshida, a Japanese girl who was smuggled to America by her mutant parents to protect her from harm; Adrian Luca, a Purifier soldier-in-training coming to terms with the realization that he is one of the mutants he so hates; or Grant Alexander, a small town boy from Georgia with dreams of being a college football player. The player can choose from one of three powersets (density control, energy manipulation and shadow matter) and use "X-genes" to gain the powers of various characters from the franchise.

With these newfound powers, the new mutant must survive in the devastated San Francisco, unravel the conspiracy bringing humans and mutants to war, and choose their destiny by joining either the X-Men or the Brotherhood.

""once and for all, shut the hell up dad!""
 * Actor Allusion: Sumalee Montano voices Mystqiue. This isn't the first time she's voiced a blue female badass capable of changing forms.
 * Adults Are Useless: Somewhat averted. While a lot gets dumped on your teenage shoulders, the members of the X-Men and Brotherhood will sometimes join you in battle and offer helpful advice.
 * Alliance Meter: Between the X-Men and the Brotherhood...though technically speaking, they're on the same side.
 * Ascended Meme: One achievement/trophy for killing a specified amount of a certain enemy is "U Mad, Bro?"
 * The Atoner: Adrian, if the player takes him along the X-Men route.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy:
 * Calling the Old Man Out: Adrian  culminating in:


 * The Cameo: Sunfire, in Aimi's prologue.
 * Casting a Shadow: The Shadow Matter powerset.
 * Canon Foreigner: Aimi, Adrian, and Grant. On the NPC side of things, the head of the MRD, Commander Reyes.
 * Interesting, in the comics the head of O*N*E, a mutant controll division created by the US Government after M-Day, was a Commander Reyes, the elder brother of Cecilia Reyes.
 * Cape Busters: The Purifiers, of the Knight Templar variety.
 * Clothes Make the Superman: You gain different abilities and bonuses based on who you model your X-Men/Brotherhood uniform on.
 * Death by Adaptation: Professor X's death is a key part of the game's backstory.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: The Shadow Matter powerset
 * Die or Fly: The Player Character discovers their powers while defending themselves from the chaos of the rally attack.
 * Digitized Hacker:
 * Dropped a Bridge on Him: Magneto uses his magnetic powers to do this literally to several Purifier mooks (and the player's character, though he/she survives thanks to Nightcrawler's intervention) early in the game.
 * Enemy Mine: Due to the threat of the Purifiers, the X-Men and Brotherhood spend most of the game in an uneasy alliance.
 * Fantastic Racism: A given in any X-Men game.
 * Bonus points for Adrian, if you ally him with the Brotherhood - He goes from thinking mutants should be exterminated, to a believer of mutant supremacy.
 * Fighter, Mage, Thief: The three powersets (density control, energy manipulation and shadow matter, respectively) are essentially this.
 * Good Colors, Evil Colors: The Purifiers use a lot of red and white, reflecting bloodlust and zealotry.
 * Gratuitous Japanese: Aimi throws in the occasional "arigato" and "konnichiwa" in her dialogue to remind the player she's Japanese. Strangely, she does not do this when she meets Surge, who is also a mutant from Japan.
 * Hearing Voices: Adrian is taunted by the voice of his dead father throughout most of the game.
 * Instant Armor: The Density Control powerset.
 * Instant Expert: You kicking ass within *seconds* of discovering your powers.
 * Possibly justified by the fact that Emma Frost is in telepathic communication with the player character immediately before their first fight, so she could easily be guiding them along.
 * Lego Genetics: You can swap X-genes in and out freely.
 * Like A Daughter To Me: Cyclops says this of Pixie,.
 * The Man Behind the Man:
 * Mega Manning: By collecting X-genes, the player can use the powers of various other mutants and add them to their arsenal.
 * Mike Carey: A veteran X-Men writer and writer of the game.
 * Moses in the Bulrushes: Aimi's mutant parents smuggled her out of Japan in order to protect her from the Purifiers. Aimi's actually angry about this, seeing the whole thing as selfish Parental Abandonment.
 * Not to forget that mutant hatred and killing are worse in the USA than anywhere else in the world. It's like sending a black guy to a KKK meeting.
 * Aimi pops up in San Francisco at a "let's all be friends" mutant rally, and says early on that she got shipped out so she wouldn't wind up in a prison camp. There are worse plans than going to Cyclops's backyard and hoping he's paying attention.
 * Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Aimi hasn't a hint of an accent, despite apparently coming from Japan.
 * Not Helping Your Case: Despite evidence to the contrary, Magneto and the Brotherhood were not responsible for the terrorist attack on the peace rally. However, they don't really do anything to challenge these accusations. Also, early in the game, Magneto lifts part of a suspension bridge and drops it on San Francisco in order to kill an army of Purifiers, causing massive collateral damage.
 * Not Screened for Critics
 * Pragmatic Adaptation: Events before the game are somewhat paraphrased for the sake of not bogging the player down with hours of explanation. For instance while the game takes place in San Fransisco (like the comic) the Marvel Civil War story arc leading to it was conveniently left out.
 * Pure Energy: The Energy Manipulation powerset.
 * Regenerating Shields Static Health: Enemy bosses The enemy bosses Cameron Hodge and.
 * San Francisco: The game's setting.
 * Scarf of Asskicking: Aimi's covers up her lower face, and she never takes it off, even when the player changes costumes.
 * Shout-Out: The achievement for completing the final fight that Northstar is in on the X-Men-aligned path is called "Fist of the..."
 * When you complete your first Insane Combo, you receive a trophy/achievement called This can't be happening!
 * Finding the U-Men base gets you the It's a Secret to Everybody achievement.
 * I've Got the Power! achievement.
 * Turning Wolverine back to normal gets you the Logan's Run achievement.
 * Shown Their Work: Even with certain issues the game has many subtle story elements were present for the fans to Squee over, such as Pixie actually chanting the spell that lets her teleport, most costumes are in keeping with the what the character is wearing currently in the comic.
 * Though the Pixie bit creates a case of Fridge Logic. They clearly show it to be a magic spell, but we are later informed she can't teleport when near a device to surpress her mutant powers. Later in the story, a key plot development hinges on characters somehow genetically copying her mystical teleportation ability, rather than the mutant teleportation abilities of, say, Nightcrawler.
 * Spin Offspring: While never made explicit, it's heavily implied that Aimi's father is the X-Man Sunfire.
 * Implied, hell. They have the same last name & the credits list the character as Sunfire.
 * Which only makes her backstory confusing; if her father was Sunfire then getting her to a safe place would be simplicity itself.
 * Waif Fu: Aimi's fighting style. Give her Density Control and the right X-Genes, and she becomes a Glacier Waif.
 * Wolverine Claws: With Wolverine in the game it's obvious, but also doubles as Spikes of Villainy for Aimi in her Brotherhood Suit, which has all of her fingers and thumbs covered in a curved claw, as well as a large spike on each foot.
 * You Are What You Hate: Adrian is a Purifier-in-training and despises mutants. Turns out he is one, though he had no way of knowing until the events of the game.