Tag Archives: Wolverine

X Men ’97 Review

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It’s time for the big sequel to the classic X-Men 90s show. There was definitely a whole lot of hype for this one the whole time so could it live up to that? Well, I’d say it definitely did, they cover a whole lot of ground within the short time frame they had. I’d say there was only one particularly weak episode which is mainly just because I didn’t care at all about Storm’s subplot but beyond that you could expect a lot of action and setup throughout the rest of the season. I’ll be eagerly awaiting season 2 to see what comes next.

The show starts off with the X-Men doing what they do best, saving humanity from the shadows. Storm and Bishop are taken down rather easily during the battle though and the X-Men may not be in their best fighting shape without Professor Xavier. Fortunately, that’s where Magneto steps in. He confirms that Xavier left it in his will for Magneto to take over the team after his death. It’s such a crazy move that the X-Men know in their hearts how true it must be. Only Xavier would think of doing something like this. Magneto must now find a way to get humanity and mutants to exist in harmony. Only problem is, when has humanity existed in harmony with anybody?

This show is allowed to aim a bit older than the original and as a result I would say it inadvertently makes one of the strongest cases for Magneto’s dream over Xavier’s. When I say “inadvertent” I don’t mean that the show had no idea it was pushing the Magneto narrative as it is a major plot of the season but I do think they forgot to give Xavier any compelling points. I usually don’t have a whole lot of patience for the old guy and this show makes it tougher than ever. He really comes off as being completely out of touch with reality and someone who just wants to keep on trying the same old things time and time again. Lets recap the visions.

Xavier believes that mutants and humans can coexist in peace. To that end, he has the X-Men save lives and do their best to get a good image out there. They fight the evil mutants to prevent them from harming this dream but along the way you also have governments secretly funding sentinel programs, plagues that target mutants, and general anti mutant sentiment that has always been rather high. The heroes have been fighting this war for years now and you could argue that the goal is farther away than ever. In this show we see a genocide of mutants as well as yet another sentinel program. Xavier’s response to this? It’s time to give humanity a chance. I think we run into the sunk cost fallacy here.

Yes, Bastion doesn’t work for the government so this sentinel program is a bit different but it doesn’t change the fact that yet again, mutants around the world are being taken down and nobody is ready to stop it. Xavier won’t change his ways or his mind at all though and just continues to go through with the same lines, even deciding to allow a further genocide of the mutants by shutting down Magneto and re-activating all of the sentinels around the world. This is probably his worst idea but I’ll get more into that during the Magneto side. Xavier is criticized for effectively abandoning the planet for love and his critics in the show are not wrong. Yeah things didn’t turn out well for him and he came back, but he is not in a position to just come back and start barking orders. It just doesn’t work that way. He means well, but I do think that he has not kept up with the times. Xavier will have to work hard to be even slightly likable in season 2.

Now lets talk about Magneto. His idea has changed a little more than Xavier’s. The initial plan was for mutants to basically take over the world. He figures that a war between human and mutants is inevitable and so he will have to unite the mutants and destroy all of the humans before they can begin to fight back. Pretty drastic and of course it’s why he is a villain. He then switched it to just separating the mutants and humans but that didn’t work thanks to insider traitors and then the second time they all basically got nuked. So now it’s time to basically cripple the world and give the mutants a chance to survive thanks to their meta abilities. This will also be another genocide though, basically a genocide to prevent another genocide.

Naturally this is a tough call but it’s a lot like Attack on Titan. When you know for a fact that the other side is going to destroy you then perhaps you should be the one to fire first? In most situations you can’t know what the future will hold of course, but in this series you actually get to see the future on more than one occasion. So that’s why I end up leaning towards Magneto’s idea here. It’s just hard to go against him when you know for a fact that his decisions will save a whole lot of mutants. He had to watch thousands and thousands of mutants die right in front of his eyes. Very few characters would have made a different decision at that point. So the big EMP, yeah Magneto was right in that case. The X-Men should have tried negotiating with him rather than just showing up with their bravado and basically aiming to murder him. They acted more leniently towards Bastion which is crazy.

So I definitely enjoyed Magneto’s character a whole lot here. His subplot with Rogue was pretty annoying though and the only blip in his character arc. Even ignoring the age gap, it just happens too fast and he’s been away for too long. It also didn’t make sense for Rogue to entertain this at all. She ended up wavering way too much which caused other problems. The X-Men franchise has always been one to have a lot of dramatic romance plots so it’s not entirely unexpected. The Cyclops drama was just a lot more compelling but we’ll get into that soon.

Cyclops gets a lot of screentime here and really makes the most of it. From the start we see how confident he is and the guy has really mastered his abilities. He has quite a few great fights here and the guy looks more powerful than ever. He is the voice of reason for the team but it’s also clear that things are starting to frustrate him. Certainly having Xavier pick Magneto as leader over him was a big cause for this. Cyclops even has a testy interview in one of the episodes where he calls out the humans. I thought it worked well and in a lot of ways it reminds me of Superman in Justice League Unlimited who was also starting to show a lot of cracks in his cheery disposition.

The biggest drama for Cyclops is the arrival of a second Jean Grey. It turns out that he has been with a clone for a long time now and the only question is for how long has it been the clone? The show is careful to keep this rather ambiguous so it could have been days, weeks, or even years. It’s got to be a very weird situation to be in and Cyclops admittedly doesn’t handle it all that well. The relationship with him and both Jeans gets to be very rocky. It’s not always his fault though as after a while it gets convoluted enough where all 3 of them start to make mistakes. For what it’s worth, Cyclops always does his best but he should have definitely talked straight up with both of them more. His biggest mistake was being real secretive the whole time, like meeting up with one of the Jeans in secret mind melds.

Madelyne (The first Jean) is a solid character as she is the one whose life is really tossed upside down. She is labeled as the clone and overnight all of her friends basically go to the other Jean. It makes sense since it’s not like there is anything debatable about this. The blood test results are quite certain but to Madelyne, her memories all feel real. This basically results in her needing to leave the mansion and from there things really don’t go well for her at all. It does feel like a bit of wasted potential though because we see how immensely powerful she is and then she basically doesn’t get another fight. I do think she could have gotten a bit more to do.

As for Jean, she ends up being on the more timid side for a while since everything is rather awkward to her. She has the memories but doesn’t know which ones are hers so it’s almost like she’s a stranger now. Her whole relationship with Cyclops is certainly strained. By the end of the series she is starting to come into her own again although one moment did not feel particularly earned. The series wrote itself into a bit of a jam with how powerful one of the villains was so Jean had to get a real sudden power up. We’ll see how that ends up developing in the next season.

Wolverine doesn’t get a whole lot to do in this season. He does do well in the fights that he does get and lends a really good hit on Magneto. I would have liked for him to have gotten more to do but at least he didn’t waste a single scene. I do have to dock some points for him on the quick fling with one of the Jeans though. He could have done more to prevent the moment from happening and naturally it was a bad look for that Jean as well. His romance plot was always rather shaky because he is effectively acting like a homewrecker always causing trouble. He really needs to do a better job of sealing his feelings off.

Then we have Morph who is probably the worst at using his abilities. He is not only able to transform into other people but he gets their abilities as well. He can seemingly pick any mutant as we se him pick powerful ones like the Juggernaut at times. So why would you ever pick someone as weak as Deathstrike or some of the other street level fighters? Keep on picking the Hulk and Quicksilver. It’s a fun way to make a lot of guest stars appear but you do have to stretch your disbelief when he gets tagged while being the Quicksilver for example. I assume his copies do have some severe limits but super speed is super speed. If he ever learns how to fight then Morph will really be a fighter to be reckoned with. Compared to the rest of the X-Men he doesn’t seem to have had his big character arc yet so I’ll be expecting that to show up in season 2.

Same with Bishop who appears early on to lose against some thugs and then returns at the very end to aura farm a bit. Bishop’s powers are really handy with hos he can absorb energy and fire it back. He should easily be one of the heavy hitters here so I am expecting big things from him. Generally he’s not quite as fun as Cable but this is his chance to outshine the other guy. Cable looks good as always. He really does his best to keep on changing the past so it’s always tough when the future remains bleak. After a point you have to assume that the future is just doomed to be a dark one no matter what happens. It’s almost as if the Marvel Universe is always doomed to destruction. Still, he never gives up.

Then we have two characters in Jubilee and Roberto who get a fairly big role. Roberto is the newest member to the group and he tries to keep his mutant identity a secret. I feel like the reasons should be fairly obvious but this doesn’t stop Jubilee from putting a whole mountain of pressure on the guy. After a while you really feel bad for him because I would want to keep it a secret as well. Mutants are constantly being hunted and the ki is rich so now it will be a double target. Sure enough, things do not go very well once he does reveal his identity. I didn’t think that Jubilee was particularly patient on this and later on when they end up fighting, Roberto has to try and be the voice of reason while Jubilee is out for blood. Jubilee may have gotten older but she still feels immature. I will give her props for battling well in the Modok level though. It was easily her best appearance as she used a whole lot of strategy to come out on top there. Things could have easily gone sideways otherwise. She is still a fun character but the romance didn’t make her look particularly good. In general the pairing just didn’t seem to work very well with how easy it was to pull apart.

Then we have Storm and Forge which takes the cake as the most boring plot. Like I said in the intro, it’s the only part that I just didn’t care about. So Storm loses her powers and Forge helps her out but naturally there is some drama and then he also begins to like her. The romance is rather fast and Storm is a bit too emotional the whole time. I think she heavily overreacted when finding out the kind of technology that he was working on. The random demon that showed up was pretty interesting but then ended up being taken away too soon. I think the idea of this plot could have been interesting but it just dragged on a bit too much. It also could have helped if Storm had looked more impressive in the opening instead of being taken out by some random humans.

The Beast has his own romantic subplot where he is a jerk to a reporter right away. Yet another superficial romance plot where one misstep causes a lot of friction. I blamed Beast on most of this because he didn’t really give her a chance. Beast generally didn’t have much to do in this season which isn’t really his fault though. I’m guessing he will be doing a whole lot more in the next season. Nightcrawler didn’t appear until later on in the season and yet his role was felt a whole lot quicker. He does well in the fights and the teleporting is always really cool. It’s the kind of ability that you really want to have on your side because of how versatile it is. That can always be handy in a fight.

Time for Rogue and Gambit which is naturally a whole magnet for drama. They were always flirting back in the old days but would let the status quo stay the same. Well, now Gambit waited too long and Rogue is drifting around which ends up causing a lot of regrets for both of them. To Gambit’s side, he can only blame himself for not trying to make things more official sooner. By waiting he really did not put himself in a great spot. He does get some pretty cool fight scenes though and generally did a good job in the series.

I’m afraid Rogue comes across as way too indecisive the whole time. She’s rather petty with Captain America and then can’t stop herself from crossing the line later on. While I have no issues with her big decision near the end of the series, it would have probably worked better if not for a lot of the baggage from earlier on in the series. So you could say that things really did not go her way. Her powers look impressive as always though, she is easily one of the strongest X-Men.

There are a solid array of villains running around here. I enjoyed both Gyrich and Trask as always. They have been meddling in the X-Men’s way for a very long time and are up to their old trick. Up to a point you almost have to respect their endless determination here. They will continue doing everything they can in order to destroy the humans until they are stopped. Everyone knows it and yet they are hard to stop. The show deals with this theme as well but a whole lot of humans openly support them. It’s why even in Jail they are able to get big updates on what is going on in the outside world as well as tools on what to do next.

Master Mold even gets a little bit to do here. The first iteration doesn’t look all that impressive but the second one is on point. You’d think sentinels are old hat by this point but the show finds a way to make them still look impressive. I suppose at the end of the day with enough of them they will always be fairly powerful. Sinister also gets to show up and does pretty well in his fights. The guy has always been a fairly strong combatant who just ends up picking fights with opponents who are stronger than him each time. Not a good recipe for success of course and he definitely finds that out the hard way each time. I do think they’ve done about as much as they can with him though so I don’t think the guy needs to appear much more in the future.

Bastion gets a big role near the end but I can’t say that I bought into his backstory all that much. Yeah he had a rough past but that’s true for so many characters in this series. He didn’t have to fully go evil or anything like that. So he’s fully responsible for what’s going on and should have made better life choices if he didn’t want it to go like this. His design and abilities are pretty cool though. Definitely makes for some pretty fun fights.

There are also a ton of guest stars throughout the series with more minor X-Men characters showing up as well as people completely unrelated like Avengers and other figures. I definitely appreciated this because it makes the universe feel that much bigger. Yes, you can end up questioning where the heroes are during other event and that’s valid but showing them on occasion is better than nothing. I also have high hopes that in the next season we will see a bit more of an active role from some. It’s best not to get your hopes too high of course. This is still an X-Men series but I can actually picture an Avengers vs X-Men series now which would definitely be really cool. There is a lot of build up for it after all. The trick will be in not making the Avengers appear to be complete government lackeys but since the X-Men are always infighting it’s possible that the X-Men will even end up being the villains here. In the comics it would usually depend on the writer for the tie-in/event.

There are probably over 100 different guest stars across the series and so keeping that balance throughout the seasons will definitely be the key part. Still, if any series can do it, this one can. As the first big revival season, it’ll be difficult to defeat this one but still season 2 could have a shot. In the meantime the series certainly succeeded on a technical level as well. I enjoyed the opening remix as well as the general tunes during the show. The animation may not be as good as the original show but they did a good job of emulating the look and I would say that it worked out pretty well. There were some real crisp cuts in the fights for several episodes.

One thing that the show continues to do really well is challenge you with moral debates as well. The X-Men go through a whole lot of difficult ordeals, both physically and mentally. This season is no different as the heroes have to fight against their own extinction and there are several ways to go about it. So the debates with Magneto vs Xavier, Madelyne vs Jean, and others are all very interesting. The fights don’t tend to be one sided as you can make good cases both ways but it’s good practice as a thought experiment for you to think about it and pick a side. As for the romance drama, well that’s gonna be more of a miss generally but I suppose even that is usually handled with some tact. Although most of the romances still end up getting a thumbs down.

The show ends off with some pretty big cliffhangers for season 2. I would say it was about 50/50 for me in terms of excitement. I really liked the stinger in the present timeline as this villain is always really exciting. That should make for some great entertainment. The plot in the past? Eh, I don’t really care so much about that one. It’s an origin that’s fairly straight forward unless they throw in some curveballs. The future should be fun as that always tends to be the best era. So a lot to look forward to in season 2, we’ll have to see how it stacks up against season 1. I would say the only worrisome element will be if we don’t spend a lot of time in the present since the guest stars were really starting to exert their presence and this will feel like they’re stalling for season 3 to be the big Marvel crossover event season.

Overall, X Men 97 was definitely a great series. It really goes by quickly and every episode was really exciting. The animation does a good job of emulating the original series and of course the ost is solid as well. This is a show that has nailed all of the fundamentals and so it is not a surprise that the product ends up being great. I can really recommend it to anyone and while watching the original series will give you the greatest level of enjoyment, you can jump into this one and still have a real blast. Episode 1 gives you all that you need to know about who the X-Men are and what they stand for.

Overall 8/10

X-Men Legends Review

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I remember playing X-Men Legends 2 a long time ago. It was a really fun game and definitely one of the titles that I spent a lot of time on with the PSP. I never got around to getting the first game though so it’s nice to finally get to experience it. For sure you can tell that it is a bit dated in some ways compared to the second but the gameplay holds up well. It’s a really solid all around title with a good amount of content.

The game starts with a girl being attacked by the Brotherhood of evil mutants. We put a stop to that real quick and try to get to the bottom of this. It turn out that she is a mutant with top tier potential. We convince her to join our group and now she is in for a real exciting time as we deal with threats like Magneto, the Juggernaut, and even the government itself. If we don’t watch out, it will be game over for everyone involved. Does she have what it takes to really assist us against these fighters?

It does seem a bit iffy to have her on the missions so quickly but there is some down time between missions so maybe we can say the game takes place over a year or so. In that case at least she would have had more training. We do get to play a few missions in the danger room to be sure so it’s not like she’s going in completely fresh. It’s just a big difference between fighting out there and in the real world. I’d also note that as always the Danger Room seems incredibly impractical. The X-Men lose control of it as always and she almost dies. I’m shocked that more people haven’t died in there but Prof X. doesn’t seem to care as he just tells her to get back in there and try again later. Not the most sympathetic character around that’s for sure.

The gameplay is an overhead style similar to Ultimate Alliance or Warcraft. You control teams of 4 characters as you go through a level and defeat all enemies/activate consoles. The objectives a level will differ so you won’t always have to do a whole lot of fighting. Keep a close eye on the objectives so you don’t just waste time. You can access them from the start menu at any point in case you forget what’s going on. Each character has 4 special moves and then of course you have the standard and power blows. There is almost never any reason to use power blows though so that part of the moveset ends up becoming unnecessary.

Your characters level up as you go through the game so it’s important to keep in mind their stats and abilities. I tended to focus on a glass cannon build so I put all of the stats into pure attack power. This makes all of my fighters hit like a truck and I found it to be useful with the sheer amount of enemies that the game throws at you. You’ll be there for a long time even with heavy attack power but I felt like a battle of attrition would be more in their favor. You also get points that you can use for your abilities.

What I would do is max out the main power X3 for all characters and with any extra points I would put that into more health and energy. It’s fun just how many options there are in the game and it’s something that Legends does very well. It’s a super customizable experience. When playing through the game, I could have a completely different experience than someone else playing at least from a gameplay perspective. Whether the game is more of a hit and run or full aggressive style will depend on your earlier choices.

It’s part of what I love about RPGs. Being able to make your own choices in terms of how you want to proceed is just great. That’s not even getting into the equipment. Then you also have danger room missions back at base to increase your exp further and you can find collectibles which boost your base stats permanently. So the more you explore the game, the more you are rewarded here. There are even a few bonus missions outside of the main events you could tackle. I accidentally knocked one of those out and it was cool seeing the original costumes since in the present they’re based more on the Ultimate X-Men looks. Still good, but not nearly as solid as classic.

The graphics are definitely really good. I would say the faces may not have aged super well but in gameplay the character designs and everything look really good. I like the special effects used for the super powers as well. So definitely no complaints from me here. The soundtrack is forgettable though which is unfortunate. I think you really could have come up with some great tunes for a game like this right? Comic book games can be a little hit or miss in this department though so it really does depend.

There isn’t really a post game here so make sure you have all of your fun while you are playing through the campaign. Like I said it’s fairly long and there are some stuff you can do on the side so I would say you are really getting a lot of bang for your buck. I’d like to see something like this for each of the comic book teams. In general Marvel has had quite a few of these so I need DC to step it up and get us a Justice League title or something like that. Now that would be awesome!

Overall, X-Men Legends is a pretty fun game. It has a well rounded cast and switching between all of the characters is fun. The game’s actual length is rather solid and there is a good amount of replay value to be had here. There’s really everything to like about this title so you definitely want to pick it up. If you haven’t played the sequel yet then I would definitely advise playing that one afterwards so you continue on with the adventures.

Overall 7/10

Wolverine: Snikt! Review

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It’s time to check out a Wolverine comic that has a very distinct look to it. That’s because it’s drawn by the guy who did Blame! and right away you can definitely see the resemblance here. I’d even say it feels like a crossover to a point because some of the villains have the same designs. That future dystopia is also so massive that you could in theory have all of this happening without it going against the canon but I’m not expert enough in the timeline to really be able to say for sure if that’s accurate or not. Either way it’s a pretty fun comic with a lot of action everywhere.

It starts off with Wolverine just minding his business when he is approached by a girl who asks him for help. He’s not exactly sure what is going on and before he knows it, she has taken him decades into the future. The human world has been conquered by the technological machines that they created and humanity’s final pockets are about to be exterminated. The only thing that can hurt these creatures is Adamantium which is in short supply at the moment. They only have one soldier left with a cannon that can even injure these guys and they can no longer make any more ammo for it. Wolverine is like a living weapon since his bones are reinforced with the stuff so he is their last hope. He doesn’t really appreciate how abruptly he was brought here but at the end of the day Wolverine is still a hero and so he will do his best to save the day.

Like I mentioned there is a whole lot of action here. Once Wolverine jumps into the fray that’s pretty much the ret of the comic. There is the occasional break to quickly go over the lore and objectives but otherwise it’s Wolverine against a bunch of these robots. He doesn’t have to hold back this time and as the fighting goes on you can see how he’s even enjoying it a bit. Wolverine likes a good fight after all and with the odds against him like this he can really show off a bit.

The art is pretty solid all the way through. The robots definitely look very sinister and it captures the spooky atmosphere very well. Wolverine himself is the only character that takes a bit of getting used to at first since he does look really different in this style. I think it’s the face but either way that’s just a character design thing. The action is what we’re here for and it’s pretty satisfying to have Wolverine diving into the fray and really taking names the whole time. The last soldier from the future side is also able to deal some damage and get one last win in so I was happy to see that as well.

The characters in the future are nice enough although there is no real time to develop them all that much. Once Wolverine is in the future and the story is established then it’s time to jump right into the action. Can’t say I have any complaints with that though, for a compact story you have to move fast. It is probably a bit hard to believe that the future would ever turn out quite this way though. Surely some heroes would still be around to stop the machines right? In the end I think the easiest thing to do here is just imagine that this is a parallel future. It’s not one that will ever happen to the main universe but it happened to someone else’s.

With the main girl’s ability to travel through time, she does seem to be the equivalent of a modern day mutant. Whether it’s the exact same thing or not is hard to say but in a way it doesn’t matter all that much. She has some special abilities and can use those to save her future. I wonder as a last resort though if she could have just brought everyone back to the past. That would have its own share of issues of course but at least would get her out of harm’s way. It feels like they wouldn’t have had much of a future left anyway if Wolverine had failed in his mission after all.

As for the robots, they make for pretty solid antagonists. They’re more on the mindless side but they do tend to strike back pretty hard with sheer numbers. Even for Wolverine and his healing factor it can be difficult to wade through that many enemies. I’m a little skeptical on his getting knocked out during the first fight but the characters mention that his healing factor may have been a little slower due to time travel messing up his system. It is at least an explanation so for now I can use that. I’m glad it was at least addressed since otherwise I would have had more questions there.

I’d definitely be game with more titles like this with Marvel heroes entering the Blame! type of future. The stronger ones of course could really just dominate but others on Wolverine’s level should have a decently tough time with some of the opponents. Wolverine was fortunate in a way that he broke into the main lair so quickly and got to avoid the stronger types of enemy units. Those would have really given him a tough time all the way.

Overall, Wolverine: Snickt is a pretty good comic. It definitely delivers on the action all the way through and the artwork is solid. This story works really well as a stand alone and quickly sets the stage so there is a real plot. I think this could have even gone on for much longer with more and more storylines/characters thrown in but not everything has to be an ongoing. I would definitely recommend checking this one out whenever you’ve got a chance. It’s good fun and shows how unpredictable the life of a hero can be. One moment you are just relaxing and the next you are back off to battle!

Overall 7/10

X2: Wolverine’s Revenge Review

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All right it’s time to jump in for some Wolverine adventures. This game plays out a lot differently than what I would have expected though. The focus isn’t really on the action and slashing the foes in front of you. Instead it is mainly a stealth game where you have to be nimble and hide in the shadows like Carmen Sandiego. When you find an opening, then you strike but otherwise you are taken out of the game real quick. The shots just do too much damage.

The basic plot though is that Wolverine has been poisoned and is slowly dying. He needs to find a cure and fast or it’s all over for him. The X-Men would help but they’re all rather busy which isn’t a great excuse but hey it’s something. So Wolverine will have to travel around the globe to find the cure and that means tangling with old enemies like Sabertooth and the whole Weapon X group. If anyone could handle this though, it would be Wolverine. He’s been through a lot over the year and isn’t about to throw in the towel just yet. No way!

So the stealth is my main issue with the game though mainly because of how it’s executed. You could absolutely pull off a stealth Wolverine game where it’s like he’s going back to his wild side and you’re picking everyone off one by one. Yes it may be a bit of an odd decision but not necessarily a bad one. No, the real problem here is how the levels are really long so if you make one mistake then you have to go all the way back to the beginning. That part is absolutely brutal because some of these levels are 15-20 minutes long. You’re losing so much every time and of course it makes you a bit impatient so then you end up losing again and now you’re in a rather rough cycle.

The easiest fix here would have absolutely been to add more checkpoints. That’s all you have to do. Add in those checkpoints and you are really set for anything. Then you can stomach the stealth a lot better and losing isn’t as bad since you can quickly get back to where you were at. I guess the game was really intentionally trying to be difficult but this was the wrong way to do it. Give me a challenge but don’t make me keep on replaying large parts of a game. I’m trying to progress as much as possible.

Then the few times we do get a boss fight with actual combat, there is always a gimmick around. For Magneto you have to chase him a lot while getting hit by objects and then if he runs over to his generator for a few seconds you lose by default. The final boss has unlimited health so you actually can’t beat her in hand to hand combat and are forced to go use some background objects. Likewise when you fight Sabertooth you have to throw him into a train. He can’t be beaten normally.

See a pattern here? Again that doesn’t have to be a bad thing but it felt like the game absolutely did not want to let you fight any of the opponents straight up. Even fighting the minions would usually get a little dicey because their guns deal so much damage. So what you have to do with those is hide behind a wall for a while as your health very slowly starts to recover. Have a book or your phone handy because the game is not kidding for this part. They actually want you to just slowly get the health back. Cmonnnnnnnnn

The actual combat gameplay isn’t too bad but it’s a bit sloppy. The hitboxes don’t always match the character models so a lot of times you are hitting the opponent but he doesn’t feel it and then he misses and so the two of you keep on taking shot at each other but neither one is making much headway. Eventually you connect and he goes down but it doesn’t feel very polished at all. The budget for this game was not nearly as high as it should have been and the game knows it.

As you get deeper into the game you will learn how to work around this and get a win. It takes time but you won’t be stuck. Some parts are just really hard to guess like the final phase of the final boss. For reasons unknown that boss is completely invincible so you have to go to the edge and wait for her to be in position to fall off. Why is this so bad? Because it’s the 4th phase of the fight so most likely you’re going to try and attack her since that makes sense and then you die. I don’t see how you could possibly guess on the first go around and so that means the game is dooming you to lose at least one life there. Not cool if you ask me.

It’s like an invisible block that makes you die in Mario Maker. It’s just not a fair way to go out and so you end up blaming the devs. This game has quite a few moments like that and each time it makes you shake your head. You know that you did not deserve to lose like that and so you’re wondering why the game had to mess with you. Okay so I had a lot of issues with the game design but on the positive side I’d say the graphics are fairly good. All of the characters and their costumes stand out pretty well. They look very classic all the way and the level designs are also good. A map would have been really nice but there’s only a few that are big enough to get lost in.

Then we have the soundtrack which is actually pretty good. There are some tense themes here and in general there is a wide variety. The sound clips at the start of a mission can get old as you keep on hearing them over and over again though when you lose. “Stay quiet, Stay low, Stay Alive!” is something I had to hear Wolverine say dozens and dozens of times. It’s why every game should allow you to skip cutscenes and should not replay the same dialogue option every time although I now that’s a bit harder to work around.

In terms of length I’d say the game is fairly satisfying. That’s in part due to the difficulty of course but still this is not a game that you will be conquering in one day and that’s important to note. It’s going to be sticking around for the longhaul and really making sure that you bring your A game because without it you really will get stuck on the levels. There’s not really any replay value unless there is a bonus ending of sorts but there is a challenge mode where you can have some fun in.

Overall, X2: Wolverine’s Revenge is a game where the gameplay sacrificed the story’s effort. I actually thought the story was really good with a lot of characters running around everywhere. It managed to stay exciting the whole time and the ending leaves a ton of cliffhangers for a possible sequel. The game was having quite a bit of fun here even if you knew the odds were not great that they would be able to complete this plot. Well, if you’re looking for an old superhero game that you haven’t played yet, this one is just obscure enough where it could fit the bill. It’s not going to touch most of the big ones or even come close to those but you definitely can’t call it a rehash or anything like that. It was trying its own thing from the start.

Overall 5/10

Wolverine vs Superman

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This is a tribute to Logan. Wolverine did not look good in this one. He made a lot of the wrong calls in terms of heroics until the end and he was getting beaten up left and right. He wouldn’t last a minute against a serious Superman. Superman’s got the edge in all relevant stats here and is still the strongest comic book hero out there. If there is a fight to be had then you can bet that Superman is going to win it. Superman wins.

Logan Review

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This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

Wolverine’s had a checkered history with his films. Most people didn’t care for the first one or even the second all that much. This was the one that finally made the books as a definitive title for the character. At least for most people because after seeing this one I can confirm that it is the weakest film in the X-Men franchise. Yes, weaker than X-Men origins. It’s a very depressing look at how the Marvel Universe could have turned out for the mutants and Wolverine never really got to have his happy ending.

The movie starts up in the future where Wolverine is even more of a drunk than usual and doesn’t have any qualms about using his claws on people now. He’s just sick of everything turning out so badly so he’s been saving up money for a while now. He’ll take Professor Xavier away and they’ll both basically die. Wolverine even got himself some adamantium bullets to finish the job. Before any of this can happen, a lady appears asking for his help. Wolverine definitely says no since his adventuring days are over but she is murdered and her daughter Laura ends up hitching a ride.

Professor Xavier insists on their helping her so Wolverine is stuck now. He’ll have to try and get her to her final destination which is supposed to be a safe haven from the mutant hunters. This won’t be easy though as something is up with Wolverine’s abilities and his healing regeneration has been greatly reduced. Meanwhile Xavier has a lot of seizures now and can barely use his abilities either. Time is not on their side so the race is on.

I definitely have a lot of issues with the film, mostly just around how depressing it all is so lets go with the positives first. The fight scenes are very solid. I think that characters with a strong regeneration ability should be used to fighting a little recklessly because any trade is actually in their favor. So they can be good with either landing hits on their own, or dealing out equal damage. It makes sense so I’m cool with that and Wolverine does get in some good combos once he gets going.

I do think he feels very nerfed but at least there is a story reason for it. Otherwise I would expect Wolverine to look much better in this film. Another positive is that Laura’s character was handled very well. She has grown up with a rather lousy life at this point and so she is doing her best to move on forward. She doesn’t dwell on the past all that much and only talks when necessary. She really just wants to complete her mission and get to safety to put this life of violence behind her. When she does fight Laura is calculated and ruthless in destroying her opponents.

She’s not some kind of super hero so she doesn’t have to worry about the mercy rule. Laura’s life has always been in a do or die scenario so if she doesn’t strike quickly then she knows that it could all be over. I thought she was definitely the highlight here and in general I always liked her character. It would be a lot of fun to see her more in some future movies.

Okay now lets talk about some of the iffy stuff. First we have to talk about Wolverine. I’m cool with a main character being reluctant to help and not wanting to get back into the hero game. So when he turns the lady down the first few times you can understand. There is no obvious threat at the moment and there are presumably others who can help. Once she asks him for help again by flagging his car (Wolverine runs an Uber type operation) and it’s obvious that she is in critical danger, he shouldn’t have left her again.

Bring her and Laura with him in the car. Abandoning her was just an awful look and I can see why Laura was so upset. Logan tries abandoning Laura several times as well later on in the film. He also puts Caliban in a rather bad spot by having him drive off with the villain. This version of Logan has absolutely 0 qualms about killing so just stab the guy a few more times to make sure that he doesn’t get up,. I’ll give him less grief about this though since he thought that the guy was dead.

Logan is just way too depressed here though to the point where he acts like a villain. It’s almost like Bruce Wayne nearly murdering Terry McGuiness back in the first episode of Batman Beyond by turning off the suit. There’s a line that you cross when you go too far into being a thorn in the way of justice. That’s just how Logan is here and it takes an extremely long time until he finally gets ready for action.

Then you throw in the fact that he’s a lot weaker here and it’s annoying to see him lose just about every fight that he’s in. Common thugs are beating him up left and right, never mind the X-24 clone who really lays him out. Even if Wolverine’s not a nice guy anymore, you hope to see him getting some wins but until his rage mode near the end he is getting thrown around a whole lot. It’s not cool and it definitely doesn’t help him as a character. I just didn’t like Logan here, his days of being the Wolverine were definitely long gone.

I can’t say that I liked how Xavier was portrayed either. The guy is half crazy and can’t even control his own abilities with the seizures now. I have a super hard time believing that this could happen to a telepath, particularly one of Xavier’s ability. The twist of how this affected the X-Men was also awful. It’s certainly a convenient way to make sure that nobody else shows up but it’s not satisfying at all. To think that this is how it would all end after so many battles and fights to achieve peace between humans and mutants.

This ending is certainly not what anyone would have hoped for. I’d have much preferred Xavier to go out in a blaze of glory or something like that. In the end, the world went from being fantastical to quite normal since the world seems like any everyday place now. At least Caliban seemed like a reasonable guy right from the start for the heroes. He was probably the only one who seemed like a nice guy with no drawbacks so of course things get really rough for him here.

As for the villains, Pierce is the main one and he’s okay I guess. There’s just not a lot to him and you could think of the guy as an average thug only he’s got some tech so he can fight a little bit. I think with a bit more screen time he could have been better as the charismatic kind of villain but the film was not able to pull that off. Dr. Zandar is your average twisted scientist villain who just likes to be as evil and cruel as possible so there’s not much to him either. Not a quality villain.

The only one who seemed solid was X-24. At first I actually thought he was Sabretooth who somehow managed to return to the main lines once more but the twist worked out rather well. I like the idea of this guy being as savage as Wolverine was in his prime so the dilemma is in how to take this guy out. He really is quite strong and made for an impressive threat. Whenever he was on screen you knew that things were going to get really tough for the heroes.

As you’d probably expect, this film gets very violent. You really have the claws in full force by both the heroes and villains with the usual human experimentation going on as well. It’s trying really hard to be the most violent of the X-Men films to live up to the Wolverine rep and it earns this but at the detriment of the film. You don’t need all of this excessive violence and it takes away from the action scenes. The movie definitely should have toned things down and it would have helped out.

At least the ending of the film is solid enough. I didn’t have any issues with it and it seemed like a classic way to end things. I absolutely would have preferred a happier ending with more room for big sequels and all that but it still wasn’t bad. It’s not a grim dark ending either, just more of a bitter sweet one so the heroes couldn’t win on all fronts and had to settle for a few.

At the end of the day, part of the problem with this film is that it’s going more for an apocalyptic future vibe rather than being a full blown comic book movie. You don’t have too many big battles with lots of super abilities and flashy CGI. Instead you usually have very dreary backgrounds with the characters fighting very ordinary humans aside from X-24. The fact that the humans do well is sad in itself. At least by the end you have them taking the Ls as the heroes finally get ready for combat.

Overall, Logan’s not a good movie. It really wrecks Logan’s character quite thoroughly and I would say that Xavier was really mishandled as well. Laura was a shining point in the movie at least. You’re better off watching Dark Phoenix as the true end point to the X-Men series as that one soared above expectations and did deliver with a lot of fun fights and cool plots going on. If Wolverine does get another film, I’d like them to just put him in a fun setting and let us see Wolverine the superhero as opposed to Logan, the jaded old timer.

Overall 4/10

Wolverine vs Eggman

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Suggested by Destroyer Eggman has a lot of great robots, armors, inventions, and the works but none of them will be quite enough to stop Wolverine here. Wolverine has had many power ups over the years and is a savage fighter. All he has to do is get up close and land a single hit. With his Phoenix Force form that won’t be difficult to do at all. Eggman’s just going to end up being completely doomed here. Wolverine wins.

Nanny 2 vs Wolverine

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Very few characters have ever been able to break Wolverine, but I dare say that Nanny came close. Still, Wolverine won’t be losing this battle. In a fair fight there is no way she can overcome his metal bones or his healing factor. Meanwhile Wolverine just needs one clean shot to slice straight through her. A robot is never a good match-up against this particular X-Men member. Nanny will definitely give it her best effort though. Wolverine wins.

Dante vs Wolverine

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Suggested by Anonymous Wolverine makes for a pretty good match against Dante because he’s got a crazy healing factor too. Both of them can really slug it out for long portions of time and since Wolverine got his own Phoenix Force he can also battle at high speeds. Wolverine may manage to give Dante a pretty exciting time, but at the end of the day it won’t be quite enough for him to claim victory. Dante’s been doing this for too long to lose here. He’s a pro and he knows it. Dante wins.

Sonic vs Wolverine

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Suggested by Anonymous Wolverine is pretty powerful and he has obtained quite a few power ups over the years. One of these power ups was the famed Dark Phoenix which gave him absolutely unlimited power. That would allow him to defeat just about anyone but it still won’t be enough when out against the matchless speed of Sonic the Hedgehog! Sonic has access to his Super form which lets him fly and amps up his abilities by a drastic amount. Wolverine is strong, but Sonic can injure him and with the speed advantage as well it’s all over. Sonic wins.