The many faces of Wolverine

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: 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.