X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse - Development and Marketing

Development and Marketing

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse was announced on October 21, 2004, exactly one month after the release of X-Men Legends. It was shown at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and San Diego Comic-Con in 2005. It was first released in North America on September 20, 2005 for the Gamecube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows platforms. The PlayStation Portable version was released approximately one month later on October 19, 2005. It was released on the first-generation N-Gage handheld platform on October 31, 2005. A mobile phone version was launched on December 19, 2005. A playable demo was released for the Windows version of the game on November 3, 2005.

Apocalypse lying in wait while the events of X-Men Legends unfolded. Now he's unleashed devastating attacks on both the X-Men and the Brotherhood, and they have no choice but to unite against Apocalypse.

Developer Raven Software sought to expand on the preceding game's scale. As such, characters were given additional powers to choose from. Locations were also made more diverse. "With the environments we tried to create more exotic and organic" stated Dan Vondrak, Project Lead on X-Men Legends II. Locations span from the fictional mutant haven of Genosha, to the Marvel Comics jungle known as the Savage Land, to ancient temples in Egypt. Raven Software collaborated directly with Marvel to write the game's story. Man of Action, a group of former Marvel writers who were responsible for the previous game's story, were not involved. The music was composed by Gregor Narholz. Gameplay and story aspects were adjusted to ensure that four players can play continuously, whereas in the previous game certain missions were limited to one player. The CGI cinematics were created by Blur Studio, who would go on to create cinematics for games such as Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II.

Vicarious Visions's engine powers Rise of Apocalypse and its predecessor. They also were responsible for the PlayStation Portable version of the game. Karthik Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions felt strongly that the PSP version should have the same gameplay as the consoles. "One of our main goals was to really bring the depth and detail of the console game over to portable form on the PSP." Four new exclusive characters were added to the PSP version along with nine new side missions. The control system had to be modified to accommodate the PSP's fewer buttons. Online play is available on the PSP, both in ad-hoc and infrastructure modes. Bala stated that it was a priority for his team. SuperVillain Studios was brought on to the project to focus on the online component of the game. Beenox ported X-Men Legends II to Microsoft Windows.