X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Movie: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Game: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Summary: Unsurprisingly, both plots are fairly similar. The film functions as an official origin story for Wolverine, in particular focusing on his ties with Weapon X and how he got his adamantium claws (even though X2 pretty much already did that 🙄).

Differences: The game has some noticeable differences in that certain characters like the elderly couple and Bradley are omitted, Logan and Sabertooth's origin in Canada is omitted, and most of the other Weapon X members involvement is downplayed. The game also adds some elements such as the expanded Africa mission, an extended escape from Weapon X including saving a teleporting mutant girl and a stealth level where Logan is depowered, Wendigo experiments, Logan exploring a Sentinel factory and meeting Bolivar Trask, the game all but stating that Mystique and John Wraith are Nightcrawler's parents, and a Days of Future Past-esque intro that bookends the game.

Verdict: The film has some good elements including Wolverine and Sabertooth's relationship, the prologue wars montage, multiple well choreographed fight scenes (the Africa mission, the bar fight, the Weapon X escape, the motorcycle helicopter sequence, the Blob boxing match, and the tag team fight against Weapon XI), Stryker (Danny Huston), Bradley and Sabertooth's meeting, the elderly couple, Ryan Reynolds casting as Deadpool, and the Professor X cameo. But everything else in the movie doesn't really stick the landing and it's the weakest of the X-Men films because of it.

The game on the other hand is M-Rated, has fun and satisfying hack and slash combat, a cool and useful lunge ability, serious body damage and a healing factor for Logan, multiple costumes that are unlocked by fighting another version of Logan, and Hugh Jackman returning to reprise his role as Wolverine.

In conclusion, the game is still one of the best licensed Marvel games ever made and the movie is the one you watch when none of the X-Men films are available 😅.

Movie: 2/5

Game: 4/5

I'd heard for years that this game was far better than the movie and one of the better superhero tie-ins this side of the Arkham Trilogy and Insomniac's Spider-Man games. I recently spotted this on the shelf of a local retro game shop, and I had to pick it up.

And yeah, people weren't lying: Until Arkham Asylum released a few months later, I think this might have been the best superhero action-adventure since Neversoft's Spider-Man.

(You may disagree if you were a fan of 2004's Spider-Man 2. I know that game's beloved, it just never clicked with me. Anyway!)

Let's get the negatives out of the way: It's very linear. It's very repetitive. The pacing can feel a bit off. There are button-mashy QTEs. The framerate and graphical fidelity are inconsistent. I encountered some bugs that required restarting from a checkpoint.

Now, onto the positives:

• Wolverine's moveset feels really true to the character. It's fun to slice foes to pieces as Logan, but it also feels completely different than controlling other superheroes.
• Wolverine has a healing factor, and it's not just a health bar: You can look like swiss cheese one minute, only for those wounds to visibly heal once you've vanquished your foes or found some cover.
• Some of the game's set piece moments are really memorable. I found the escape from the sewer tunnel and fight with the giant sentinel especially awesome.
• You can unlock classic costumes, and wear them in the main story (though not in cut scenes).
• There are multiple difficulty levels and generous checkpoints.
• Hugh Jackman does a great job with the voice acting!

If you aren't a fan of comics or the character and are just looking for an action-adventure game, I don't know that this would be worth your time. But if you have a soft spot for Wolvie and you happen to spot this one in the wild, give it a try!