Click here to see the legend page if you aren't sure about what the commands mean.

How the X Power Gauge works

Level 1 is what the gauge starts off at. The gauge is located under your character's life bar.

By attacking your opponent, the X power gauge will fill up. Once it fills up to half way, you can do X Ability moves. See the individual character pages to see who can do what. X ability moves will decrease the X power gauge when performed.

When the gauge is full, it reaches the maximum level and as well as being able to do X ability moves, you can also do Hyper X moves. Hyper X moves are powerful attacks that deplete most of the X power gauge when performed. See the individual character pages to see how to do hyper X moves.

Blocking

To block, hold back on the joystick. To block low attacks, hold down back on the joystick. You can block just about anything apart from throws and command throws. You will not take any damage whilst blocking standard punches or kicks, but you will take a very small amount of damage when blocking special moves and hyper x moves. You can also block whilst jumping.

Jumps

Holding up on the joystick will have you character jump straight up, holding up forward has them jump toward the opponent and holding up backward has them jump away from the opponent.

Super Jumps

These let you jump much higher into the air than usual and are great for avoiding attacks, or getting from one side of the screen to the other quickly. If you want to jump straight upwards, push down and then up quickly. To leap forwards, hold down back then press up forwards. To jump back, hold down forwards and press up back. Super jumps can also be done by pressing all three kick buttons together.

Throws

Throws are done by moving up to the opponent and holding forward or back before pressing either the strong punch, fierce punch, forward kick or roundhouse kick buttons. The buttons won't work for every character (for example, some characters don't have throws activated by the kick buttons).

Tech hits

When you are about to be thrown, you need to input as if you were going to throw the opponent, and you need to do it quickly. EG hold left or right and then press the relevant punch or kick button depending on which character you're using. When you tech hit a throw, your character will take half as much damage than usual and will recover in the air, landing on their feet. However, tech hits will drain the X power gauge when used -if you don't have enough power, you cannot tech hit throws.

Dashing

Double tap forward to make your character dash forward with a brief sprint. Double tap backwards and your character will dash/roll back which is useful for avoiding attacks. Dashing can also be done by pressing all three punch buttons together.

Stuns

By successfully hitting the opponent with heavy attacks every few seconds, they will eventually be stunned. When a character is stunned, they cannot move for a short period of time meaning their opponent will have an opportunity to further beat them up. To recover from being stunned, keep pressing forward and backward repeatedly. You can tell how close your character is to being stunned by looking at their portrait, next to their life bar. Blue is normal, yellow is close to being stunned and red means stunned.

Hitting floored opponents

If you knock an opponent down, you can usually hit them again by getting close, holding down and then pressing an attack button. Various attacks will work, actually -such as Storm's lighting storm.

Recovering from being floored

If your character has been knocked down, quickly tap any button to make them roll and get them back on their feet faster. Hold backward or forward depending on which part of the screen you want to roll towards.

Air combos

Air combos are the art of doing a combo on the opponent who is in the air. The example on the left shows a very basic Psylocke air combo: Launch the opponent into the air with her crouching fierce punch, do a super jump to leap up to the opponent, press the jab punch button and then finish it off with a psi flash.

Hyper X moves

By filling up the X Power gauge completely, your character can use a hyper X move. These moves are flashy and powerful attacks, which can do a lot of damage if they connect.

Meet the Bosses

JUGGERNAUT

"I'm... unstoppable!" Juggernaut will be the seventh opponent you face in the single player mode and is the game's first boss. He is extremely powerful, and even his normal attacks do huge amounts of damage. The special move he likes to use the most is his earthquake -he'll hit the ground and send a quake your way, you must block these low to avoid being hit by them. Due to Juggernaut's strength, you can often hit him, and whilst he'll take damage, he won't show it and can continue using his moves despite being hit.

His X ability move will power him up for a while (he flashes orange) making him even stronger. Sometimes Juggernaut will grab onto one of the girders and try and batter you with it. Try your best not to get hit with this as it does a lot of damage. He can also pick up fallen opponents and slam them again, so get up quickly.

Juggernaut's hyper X move, the head crush, is his most dangerous move of all, and has him charge headfirst at you. The amount of damage it does will vary, but if every hit connects expect to lose around 75% of your health. When fighting Juggernaut, let him start spamming his earth quake move and then move in before he recovers from it. This should let you make a move or throw against him.

MAGNETO

"You dare rise against me? The human era is over. The mutant era has come!" The master of magnetism is the second and last boss in the game. And he will destroy you, repeatedly. Ranking as one of Capcom's cheapest ever bosses, Magneto has lots of fun ways to ruin you. His attacks do tons of damage, his X power gauge fills automatically (!), he can fly...

...his EM pulse will keep you pinned down, he's fast, and his hyper X move, the magnetic shockwave, does so much damage you don't want to even know about it. Given that this X power gauge fills by itself, expect Magneto to use the magnetic shockwave several times in a fight, if you last that long.

Did I mention his X ability move gives him a shield that makes him totally invincible for a while? He also has a move where he'll summon several energy spheres and send them towards you. If you get hit by this, your character will be sent directly in front of Magneto, and will be stuck there for a few seconds, giving Magneto an easy change to combo. And this move cannot be blocked! Magneto's main weakness seems to be that sometimes you can keep getting him caught in air juggling combos, but aside from this he's one of the toughest fighting game bosses around. "You are beaten!"