X-Men ’97 pays tribute to the X-Men arcade game in a new sneak peek

X Men ’97 doesn’t have to limit itself just now to nostalgia to X-Men: The Animated Series. That’s the lesson from this week’s episode, which features a major tribute to Konami X Men arcade game, a staple side-scroller of every great 90s arcade.

It’s unclear why Roberto Da Costa and Jubilee are zapped into a video game in this clip, premiering exclusively on Polygon courtesy of Marvel Animation, but judging by the episode title “Motendo/Lifedeath – Part 1” and the cheeky little “ © Motendo 1997” on the game’s opening screen, it seems likely that this takes place somewhere in the Mojoverse, a weird dimension where viewers are everything and ratings equal power.

You would think that would be confusing X-Men: The Animated Series and the X Men The arcade game is hardly a mashup, but there is some nice irony in it. Although they came out the same year, the Konami game wasn’t based on the Fox cartoon series at all, but on X-Men: Pryde of the X-Mena 1989 animated series that never made it past its pilot episode.

With a few years of distance, Fox took another stab at bringing the X-Men to the small screen X-Men: The Animated Series. But Konami was hard at work in its own right X Men arcade game, based on the character designs of Pride of the X-Men and that show’s core cast: Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Dazzler.

Jubilee, which was not created until 1989, did not appear in Konami’s game. But the ’90s cartoon anniversary star spent so much time at her local mall’s arcade that she accidentally discovered her powers there — so it doesn’t matter perfect feeling like she wouldn’t be surprised at all if she got zapped into a video game.

You can watch the rest of the episode from which this clip comes on Disney Plus when “Motendo/Lifedeath – Part 1” premieres on Wednesday, April 3.