Moving down the list, the last-gen version of this movie tie-in game has more to do with the movie but also is pretty dull.

Alongside the HD console game, a version was released for PS2 and Wii by Amaze, who I know for their Spyro and Eragon handheld games. I chose the Wii version, which is played with Wii remote and Nunchuck. Of course this means waggling is required; when used for the occasional contextual action or quick time event this is fun enough, but for advanced combat moves you need to do specific actions which are never easy to selectively perform. Thankfully you can get through the entire game by button mashing the basic attacks; different combos result in a variety of moves but I couldn’t reliably pull off specific ones and they’re not functionally distinct anyway.

The game system is essentially a more boring and limited version of Raven’s. There’s no environmental kills, the grab has been hugely nerfed, and lunging is either very short range or for contextual progress. Enemies go down easy, so deaths are usually from environmental obstacles, but frequent checkpoints lessen the blow. Otherwise there’s similar traversal and light puzzles to break things up, along with the use of “feral senses” to track stuff, or find the hidden collectibles (cloaked Sentinel observers (robotic drones) take the place of dog tags to grant experience, and Blob tokens allow you to rematch the Dukes boss fight… although why you would want to I have no idea).

You’ll be slashing up lots of nameless goons, which differ by the area (be it racist lumberjacks, African mercenaries, casino thugs, or black ops supersoldiers) but within their ranks there’s little variety aside from the occasional brutish cyborg, and no mutants except for Gambit’s beefy enforcers Alastair and Edmund Shard, who have fire and electricity powers and are unique to this game.

As for the plot, it sticks closer to the movie (no Mystique helping you take down a Sentinel lab) and is therefore less interesting to me. Naturally it expands on some sequences; for example, the Gambit chase now takes you through a hot sauce plant, a dive bar, some rooftops, and onto a ship. Also the Africa flashback, which is stated here and in Raven’s game to be taking place in Angola and done in one chunk between the Alkali Lake segment and the Blob confrontation in Las Vegas (apparently). This sees you fight through a village and surrounding landscape and into an Adamantium mine, while giving the Team X members an opportunity to interact and express themselves over the radio. It’s a different angle than the HD game but I appreciated it.

Special mention should go to the ending of this sequence. Some of the prerendered cutscenes made for Raven’s game are included here; the ones relating directly to the movie plot, that is. The climactic scene where Logan’s ethics lead to conflict within Team X and its eventual disbandment was partially spliced into the Adamantium bonding scene as a flashback, which I thought covered it for the game’s purposes. But then they play the whole scene anyway at the end of the Africa chapter… except it’s been heavily edited. I suppose to target a lower rating for this version, they removed all the blood (this applies to other scenes in the game too) and any penetrating bladed weapons. The whole violent scene plays out the same way, except with no splattered gore, Logan’s claws and Wraith’s knives leave no mark, and Wade’s katana literally disappears in midair at one point. It’s hilarious to watch back to back with the original scene, and redundant to include anyway given the character beats are already included in voiceover dialogue during gameplay, and they find the Adamantium source during the chapter so they don’t need to question the locals about it.

Anyway, the real lowlight of the game are the boss fights, which on top of being dragged out and yawn-ariffic already, are plagued by that evil of the era: the quick time event. These scripted sequences require randomly selected button presses with a short response time, and if failed set you back and restore your opponent’s health or in extreme cases kill you, requiring you start all over again. Also, Blob actually has attacks where he sits on you and farts. I wish I was making that up.

In the ranks of 3D Wolverine games I’ve played so far, it’s about on par with “The Official Game”, but Raven’s effort has opened my eyes about how dynamic and flashy you can make Logan in a video game. Perhaps it unfairly raised my standards, and I know your regular licensed dreck is starved for time and budget, but there’s not much to recommend this, sadly. Play it if you want to see Deadpool easily killed by dropping a big fan on his torso.