On top of the PSP version, Griptonite also made a DS game to tie in to this movie, and they took it in a quite different direction. I like it!
This time we get a sidescroller/brawler with a 2.5D outlook and a very stylised art direction. Rather than replicating actor likenesses for a realistic look, characters are more exaggerated and cartoony, with large heads and limbs. It really works! Everyone still looks inspired by the movie portrayals but reinterpreted in a way that works for a DS game.
I like the way it plays too. Logan has a good variety of attacks that can juggle baddies into the air, knock them around and into each other, etc., and his moveset only expands as you progress. The rage meter is here as ever, with its activation in this game giving you a touch-screen-driven screen-clearing attack. Lunging sort of exists, grabbing is not really a thing, and feral senses are purely contextual as they were on PSP but only for finding secret collectibles (comic covers in this case). So some conventions shared by many of the other games were almost passed over here; I appreciate this as it means they’re exercising some freedom to make this game its own thing. Being a sidescroller with platforming, there’s even a common collectible to pick up in the form of floating dog tags.
It’s a short game overall with only five levels, but the stages themselves are pretty lengthy with plenty of climbing around and frequent “kill everything” rooms. Despite several of the levels being in nondescript military bases, they were able to get some decent variety in; for example, the prison level has you going not just through endless cell blocks but visiting the cafeteria, the showers, the laundry, the admin offices… having this range of bespoke content to roam through felt refreshing, and dashing and wall-jumping through it is good fun.
The content veers from the movie a bit but at least Blob and Gambit are there this time… albeit in new locations. Africa and the logging town are skipped, as we start with a flashforward to Logan and Victor’s climactic fight before starting the game proper at the Weapon X adamantium tank. After breaking out and beating up Nord, Logan continues to a nearby generic military base/mutant holding cells. This leads him to the new location of an “ultramax” high-security jail for mutant criminals where Blob is imprisoned. Blob’s directions lead to a Sentinel factory(!) where Gambit is for some reason, and it all ends at Three Mile Island with probably the best Deadpool fight of all these games. There’s even a post-credits bonus fight in “the near future” against a giant Sentinel with Logan in a comics-style yellow and blue suit!
In addition to different specialised soldiers (melee, gun, grenade, etc.) with distinct looks, the prison and factory settings let them include various mutants and robots to fight too. There’s a stack of generic mutants to beat up: walrus man, blue parasite guy, spiky green dude, spitter bloke, budding monster, and big blue explodey jerk. The robots include flying drones, delightfully bulky mini-Sentinels, and sleek advanced Sentinels. Some enemies become tediously damage-absorbing as the game continues but experimenting with the combat engine kept me going.
Between the slick 2D gameplay and the fun art style, this might be my favourite of the games associated with this movie. It’s straightforward in structure and doesn’t get bogged down with adapting the film’s events; in fact cutscenes are quick and text-only (the only shared content with other versions in this case being the occasional line of dialogue). I was split on going back to get all the hidden comics and achievements; on the one hand, I wanted those sweet unlockables, but on the other… oh heck, I’m going to go get them right now! See ya, bub!