Nick Kyme

On a routine trip to the supermarket, a copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine for the PS3 caught my eye. With a few funds knocking around this month, I figured I buy it. Boy, I wasn’t disappointed.

Just played the first couple of levels (currently, I’m roaming the Weapon X facility without any of my powers and feeling vulnerable – eek!) and I’m loving it. To say it deviates from the movie a fair bit is something of an understatement, but then direct movie tie-in games that follow the plot religiously are seldom any good.

The entire first level in set in Africa (I think) and there’s more than a fair share of hacking, slashing and maiming to be done as Wolverine cuts his way through the jungle, ancient temples, across rope bridges and even down rivers (there’s a great little section when you get behind a boat-mounted machine gun and have at it – nice!). As well as mercs toting machine guns and machetes, there’s also weird lava-swordsmen types and a huge Leviathan lava monster to cap off the level with. Pretty sure that didn’t make it into the film.

I’ll say right now, this is mindless fun. There are some puzzles, but the gameplay mainly resorts to kicking the snot out of anything that comes at you. It’s a gore-fest from slash one with Wolverine cutting of arms, severing heads and generally bathing in his enemies’ blood. Not for the youngsters then – certainly not. There’s a nifty upgrade system whereby Wolverine earns experience for killing enemies, achieving objectives and retrieving dog tags that can be spent on new skills or upgrading existing ones. As well as claws attacks and lunging, Wolverine can also make use of his ‘Feral Senses’. This is just a dupey way of directing you if you get lost or highlighting items of interest in a particular location (such as those elusive dog tags). It also comes in handy if you’ve got invisible enemies to fight.

So far, I’ve had a total blast with this game. You don’t need to think that much, it’s button-mashing heaven (which is nice if you just want to unplug brain for a while) and satisfyingly brutal. As well as the Leviathan beast, I’ve also taken on Sabertooth (two pretty large fight sequences, inside and outside a Canadian bar) and a Wendigo beast (a big, Hulk-like monstrosity that took great joy in throwing me around the room before I started leaping on its back and stabbing the crap out of it with my claws – grr!).

I’ve always been a fan of the Wolverine character (what comic book fan isn’t?) and this game really helps bring him to life. It’s carnage personified and embraces a lot of X-Men lore not shown in the movie. I’m really looking forward to the next gaming session now, where I can unsheath my adamantium claws and start ripping through the bad guys again. Snikt!

Colour me conflicted.

I’ve just been browsing the likes of IGN and Empire.com and seen A) the reviews for X-Men Origins: Wolverine and B) the latest game play video for Batman: Arkham Ayslum.

I’ll not preamble, I am bloody gutted that Wolverine seems to have attracted such appalling reviews (I’m talking about the verdicts, not the standard of writing and analysis). Two and a half stars seems to be the norm, comparisons to Electra have been made – holy shit, that it seriously bad news.

I had tentative hopes for this movie. The trailers looked good, a bubble of optimism was slowly building that Wolverine might not be a steaming pile of horse crap. Am I to be swayed by such damning indictments then; should I believe what I read in Empire (the magazine that stunningly, and somewhat notoriously, gave Attack of the Clowns – ahem – Clones, a frigging 5-star review – sheesh!)? I have to pause… take a breath. Remember Kymey, they gave the awesome Iron Man a fairly lame three stars, they might have got it wrong with Wolverine…

Then why is there a niggle at the back of my head telling me otherwise? Why is my crap-o-meter (everyone should have a crap-o-meter by the way; they’re invaluable for avoiding costly fanboy optimism for movies/games/TV shows that you really want to be good, but deep down know are shit) veering into the brown quadrant?

I had planned on seeing this movie tomorrow, on heading over to the local multiplex and await silver screen pleasure in super hero form. My enthusiasm abruptly dampened by the lacklustre reception it’s received, I’m contemplating awaiting Wolverine on DVD. What to do, what to do?

I said to myself, I said, ‘Kyme: this movie might stink, it might – there’s always a chance – but if it gets three stars, like Iron Man did, I’m going baby’. So at two and a half (man, do I hate half star reviews – commit damn you, commit!), what decision do I make. Well, I’m not ready to consign Wolverine to the Elektra pile (it has got to be better than that). Even X-Men: Last Stand (although easily the weakest of the three and massively disappointing) wasn’t that bad. It was bearable comic book fair, it was. Honest it was.

To top that all off, I’ve just found out that the video game tie-in is actually good! Am I living in some weird backwards/bizarro world or something? Isn’t the movie supposed to be great and the game meant to suck? I blame the credit crunch on this strange state of affairs, I really do. (Still, if the movie is a load of ass, I can always buy the game, right?)

Well, you know what: I can’t decide whether to go see it or not. I’ll sleep on it and let you know tomorrow. If my review starts with expletives (apologies for the abundance of those in the post, I’m feeling foul-mouthed and vehement about all this) or weeping then you’ll know I’ve had a bad experience. Man, am I hoping that Empire has it wrong (again…).

On the opposite side of the super hero coin (a la Harvey Dent’s good heads/bad heads) is the latest video for Batman: Arkham Asylum. Upon stumbling on this, denial and despair was mixed with belated joy – this new combat video where the Dark Knight throws down against Bane looks awesome!

The hype has been steadily increasing over recent weeks for this latest run in for the Dark Knight on consoles, and hopes are high. It’s too early to get really excited yet, but it does look like the dog’s nether regions. The Bat’s fighting moves look pretty cool, varied and authentic if a tad clunky (something that has bothered me about the footage I’ve seen since day one – begone crap-o-meter, begone: don’t show your stinky face here, sir!). And who doesn’t want to go toe-to-toe with Bane, huh?

It’s well worth heading over to IGN to check this out. First, you’re treated to a bit of butt-kicking, Dark Knight style, on some clown-faced perps (doubtless, musclebound hoods of the Joker’s), then old Bane comes lumbering into view, bereft of mask and vest but rippling with brawn. He tosses Batman through a wall, even seizes him in a trademark ‘Bane will crush your spine’ type move before it cuts out and you’re left to wonder if the game will be as good as it looks to be.

Fingers crossed then that this will restore my faith in super hero adaptations, be that to video game or to the silver screen.