X-Men: Children of the Atom launched on Capcom’s CP System II board in Japan on 8 December 1994, reaching the rest of Asia weeks later and North America during 1995. It was the first fighting game Capcom built around licensed Marvel characters, and the ambition shows in every frame: sprites far larger than those in the Street Fighter II line, exaggerated multi-hit specials, and arenas the fighters can be launched clean out of. The engine introduced super jumps, aerial rushdown and a hyper X-Power gauge that fuels screen-filling signature attacks, giving the game a faster, more vertical feel than Capcom’s own flagship series. Voice work drawn from the contemporary X-Men animated series, including Cathal Dodd as Wolverine, tied it closely to how most players knew the characters. Akuma appears as a hidden guest fighter. Everything Capcom learned here fed directly into Marvel Super Heroes and, eventually, the entire Marvel vs. Capcom lineage.