Platform: Xbox 360
ESRB: M
Number of Players: 1
Publisher: Activision/Raven Software
Release Date: May 1, 2009
Website: www.uncaged.com

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A definite surprise, seeing as how Wolverine is both movie-based, and fun.

Graphics:
As with many aspects of this game, the quality of the graphics was surprising. There are times when it feels like watching the Wolverine movie. With the characters whose actors allowed their likenesses and voices to be used, the resemblance is uncanny. Raven Software, known best for their comic hero games, definitely knows how these mutants move and react. Unfortunately, there are many obvious glitches in the game, which sometimes make it frustrating. For a game so tight in other areas, it’s a shame that they didn’t have time to work out all of the graphical bugs. While walking into a black hole could be avoided, it seemed like a good idea at the time…

Sound:
Not all of the actors from the movie are here (sorely missing Deadpool, Gambit, Blob, etc.), but the ones who do sign on (Wolverine, Sabretooth) make this game more enjoyable with how real it can seem at times. It also speaks to the quality of the game when talent from the movie are on-board.

Controls:
Controlling was amazingly easy and second nature after a while. For anyone who has ever played a God of War game, the controls were very similar, only you had claws instead of chain blades.

Rarr!

Flow:
The game followed a story line that jumped from the past to the present, to the past and back to the future, over and over. While different and kind of interesting, it did feel a bit like being jerked around after the 10th jump. “Yeah, let’s storm the laboratory! Oh, what, now we’re back in the jungle?”

Fun Factor:
Very fun, and addicting. Most of the achievements require a basic understanding of how the game works, and the perseverance to play through it again. The developers also included hidden little nods to some of their favorite things throughout the game. One of the achievements however, is trying to find every single hidden dog tag scattered through the game… all 95. For some reason, Raven decided not to include some way of tracking which had been found in which level. This adds to the difficulty of the game, but not in a good way. Hopefully this will come up if they decide to add DLC. Also, you get to fight a Sentinel! How cool is that?

Female Factor:
There is a certain blue lady who makes a cameo…

Replay Value:
Moderate. There are reasons to replay the game, like collecting enough kills and dog tags to earn a higher gamer score. It is also satisfying enough the first time to feel fine about beating it once and moving on. You decide!