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The 2021 PlayStation Showcase offered plenty of updates along with some unexpected reveals like a brand new Marvel title revolving around the fan-favorite mutant Wolverine. While the trailer didn’t reveal much, it was enough to spark a nostalgic look back at the character’s long and topsy-turvy history through video games.
Wolverine’s video game history has taken him through multiple console generations with varying results. While fans may have their personal favorites, it’s clear that critics have liked some of the hero’s games better than others. Averaging their scores on Metacritic and the Internet Games Database, let’s look through every Wolverine-led video game and see which one comes out on top. Games that have not received enough of a critical consensus have been included, but without an official ranking.
Wolverine – N/A
Wolverine’s first video game outing was released on the NES in 1991. Wolverine was a side-scrolling action title that sees the hero trapped on an island where he encounters enemies like Magneto and Sabretooth. Aesthetically, the title has solid graphics for the time and features Wolverine in his classic brown and yellow suit. The game had basic controls like jump, duck and punch, but also erased his healing factor, making items the primary way to regain health. This made the game very challenging, as players could take damage just by being in the vicinity of an enemy. That being said, the title, while challenging, captures the struggle of surviving as Wolverine.
Wolverine: Adamantium Rage – N/A
By the time Wolverine: Adamantium Rage was released in 1994, Wolverine and his rogues gallery had become household names thanks to X-Men: The Animated Series. However, the SNES and Genesis games focused on their own stories. The SNES version tells a story about Wolverine following a path to learn about his past, while the Genesis version puts him on a path of revenge.
Both titles also feature different gameplay styles. The SNES has only one claw attack, but lets players climb walls. As for the Genesis version, it’s more action-oriented and features more claw combos. While both titles share a same name, they’re vastly different, and even though the SNES version has less combat variety, it’s become the more iconic of the two.
X-Men: Wolverine’s Rage – N/A
X-Men: Wolverine’s Rage was a Game Boy Color exclusive that let players take the power of Wolverine on the go. The story follows the hero on a quest to stop Lady Deathstrike from creating a weapon that could melt his adamantium skeleton. While the game is a platformer, the main focus is clearing its 20 levels before the timer runs out. The game has its fair share of enemies and finally allows Wolverine to heal without needing power-ups. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of the GBC, there wasn’t much innovation. Still, Wolverine’s Rage still captures the hero’s essence.
4. X2: Wolverine’s Revenge – 49/100
X2: Wolverine’s Revenge was ahead of its time. The game follows a Mark Hamill-voiced Wolverine as he returns to Weapon X to uncover his past and find a cure to the virus that’s slowly killing him. While the game has its fair share of action that requires some strategy, X2 also has a major stealth component. These moments require Wolverine to use his heightened senses to plan out how to eliminate enemies based on their movements. While the game itself stumbled due to clunky combat and high difficulty, it served as a precursor to other titles, including the Batman: Arkham series and Marvel’s Spider-Man, which feature detective vision and stealth mechanics.
3. X-Men: The Official Game – 52.5/100
X-Men: The Official Game is a movie tie-in title that bridges the gap between X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand. In it, players can control Nightcrawler, Iceman and (of course) Wolverine. Each character also offers their own unique gameplay style, with Wolverine focusing on hack-and-slash combat.
The game takes Logan from Staten Island to Alkalai Lake and even Japan to face off against enemies like Sabertooth and Lady Deathstrike. The controls are straightforward with light and heavy attacks, and Logan can only heal minor wounds as major ones deal extra damage. However, one of the game’s biggest faults is its repetitive gameplay, which can be even more difficult with Wolverine as his enemies are naturally tougher. Nevertheless, it perfectly captures the constant hits Logan endures.
2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine – 72/100
X-Men Origins: Wolverine for the PlayStation 2 came during the final years of that console generation. Its graphics are nothing compared to its next-gen counterpart, and the story itself is also shortened to fit the console better. However, the game’s combat helps make up for the lack of depth in terms of its narrative and graphics. The story follows Wolverine’s early years with his adamantium skeleton and features an exhilarating combat system with large groups of enemies to defeat. What makes it so fun is the upgrade system and great animations. While slashes don’t always connect with the enemies, it’s clear the developers wanted players to feel like Wolverine as they fought.
1. X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Uncaged Edition – 76.5/100
X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Uncaged Edition was like nothing seen in any previous Wolverine game. At a time when movie tie-ins were largely considered cheap cash grabs, Uncaged Edition took its license and made a game that holds up a decade later. Players are thrust into a world where they can control Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine as he slices off limbs while taking damage from gunfire. Yet, when the combat stops, his healing factor kicks in, and all of the damage he sustains fades away in real-time.
Easily one of Marvel’s bloodiest games, Uncaged Edition isn’t afraid to show why Wolverine is the best at what he does. The title also manages to tell the film’s story while adding levels with Gambit and the Sentinels, among others. Because it pulled no punches, this game has become a standard for Wolverine games, one Insomniac’s PS5 game will need to learn from if it wants to compete for the title of best Wolverine game.
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