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X-Men: The Official Game


The many faces of Wolverine

A look back at every game with Marvel's feral fighter

Words: Shane Patterson, GamesRadar US

Everyone’s got their favorite superhero, but none are as consistently badass as James Howlett. Sorry, Logan. Sorry again, Wolverine. With incredibly quick healing powers, an indestructible metal alloy grafted to his skeleton, and three claws that emerge from his fists, Wolverine quickly made an impact in the comic book world with his first appearance in 1974. He has since been the front runner of the X-Men, discovered his mysterious past with the Weapon X project, and joined the Avengers not too long ago. But really, it’s those claws that make him liquid cool.


Above: A real Wolverine 

Above: The Wolverine of our hearts 


Above: An unlockable costume in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Peep the rest of the article for the other two unlockable costumes 

Now that Wolvie’s been synonymous with the Tony-award winning Hugh Jackman since 2000’s X-Men movie, we haven’t seen too many comic book Wolverine games. With X-Men Origins: Wolverine just around the corner, we thought we’d remind you of his past gaming excursions with this handy chart:

Marvel’s X-Men (LJN, 1989) - NES
Wolverine’s taking front and center on this pretty cool box art, which resembles a comic book cover. Good luck spotting him in the game. He looks more like Teddy Ruxpin than a mutant with metal claws. Doesn’t matter - the game is incredibly difficult (almost unfair), seemingly broken and you needed a secret code to reach the last level.

 


Above: Wolverine’s in there somewhere

 


X-Men: Madness in Murderworld (Paragon Software, 1989) – DOS, C64, Amiga
X-Men II: Fall of the Mutants (Paragon Software, 1990) – PC, DOS

Murderworld played like a side-scrolling arcade game as the X-Men fight Magneto and Arcade in an amusement park. On the other hand, Fall of the Mutants played mostly from a top-down perspective (except the battle screens). Squint and you can barely make out Wolverine’s almost dog-like head.


Above: Showdown of the century against the Minor Demon

 

Spider-Man and the X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge (Acclaim, 1992-1994) – SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear
You start the game as Spider-Man until you happen upon members of the X-Men in bondage. From there, you complete two themed levels (Wolverine’s are circus-themed) for each of the five mutants in this criminally difficult game. Strangely, Wolvie’s bio incorrectly specifies his name as “Logan” - a name he adopted) and that his occupation is “adventurer”… whatever that means.

Above: Sexy 

 
46 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
Ddz53  - 6 months 29 days ago 
Never the same suit, but always hairy
ELpork  - 6 months 29 days ago 
GHAAA that creed comparison!? why?
bobalou27  - 6 months 29 days ago 
awesome. just awesome
PK64  - 6 months 29 days ago 
3 oh yeah wolverine is homosexual
helix92  - 6 months 29 days ago 
Wow thats a lot of games. The new one looks pretty cool but whats the bet that it will just be another average movie tie-in. They should do a "Many faces of Batman" when arkham asylum comes out.
GamesRadarCharlieBarratt  - 6 months 29 days ago 
@helix92 - Shane already did!

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/batmans-best-and-worst-games/a-2008071195254141016
GamesRadarShanePatterson  - 6 months 29 days ago 
That's not all Charlie! Batman's Best and Worst Games is the first "Want More" link on the 4th page!
GamesRadarCharlieBarratt  - 6 months 29 days ago 
Fourth page? I can't be expected to click three times!
RebornKusabi  - 6 months 29 days ago 
As a huge Venom fan, I ****ing loved Venom-Wolverine in Web of Shadow's! One of the coolest parts of the game, hands-down.
GoldenMe  - 6 months 29 days ago 
Oh you two, calm down. Let's just keep hoping that Wolverine can face Ken again in Marvel vs Capcom 3.

Capcom, please?!
Koouunn  - 6 months 29 days ago 
u guys make fun of the genesis 1, but that 1 was my favorite. then was Marvel vs Capcom 2
CNnegative1  - 6 months 29 days ago 
I laffed at the creed comparison.... well played GR....well played
NipplesTheSuperHippo  - 6 months 29 days ago 
When I was reading this, I found out that if you say x-man around 30 times to yourself, your mind will explode!
good work by the way, really good read.
NipplesTheSuperHippo  - 6 months 29 days ago 
sorry, that would be x-mEn
nyef  - 6 months 29 days ago 
"One day Logan, everything the sun touches will be yours"

lol gotta love the lion king
Corsair89  - 6 months 29 days ago 
Wolverine kicks ass. I can't wait until Marvel vs Capcom 2 comes to XBLA.


reCaptcha: formerly peabody
twishart  - 6 months 29 days ago 
man, I played the SHIT out of Mutant Apocalypse.
Dead  - 6 months 29 days ago 
Oh man I'm getting a HUGE nostalgia rush from that mention of X-men for Genesis. As hilarious as I now realize it was, that was the soundtrack to my childhood.
Dead  - 6 months 29 days ago 
Also I now have to buy Web of Shadows just to see Venom-Wolverine.
BoondockSaint54  - 6 months 29 days ago 
I loved that old arcade game. The one thing I didn't like about the X-Men games was you could only use the powers to much before they went bye-bye for a while.
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