X-Men: The Official Game review

Three strikes and you're out

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Graphics and lighting are nice

  • +

    Nightcrawler levels are tolerable

  • +

    Um... some of the actors are here

Cons

  • -

    Doing the same thing

  • -

    forever

  • -

    How interesting this could have been

  • -

    Slideshow cutscenes are mega cheese

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You know, for a while there, superhero games were experiencing a renaissance. Most of Marvel's heavy hitters, Hulk, Spider-Man and even the X-Men, have seen solid games that make excellent use of the license – but X-Men: The Official Game plays like a drunken blend of three separate games that can't get their act straight.

Set in between the second and third films, you play through completely linear levels as either Wolverine, Nightcrawler or Iceman. Each handles extremely different from the other and tries to offer a unique perspective of gameplay, though all they really do is piss you off. You can power-up each mutant after they complete a mission, tagging points on strength, healing or other such things, but these unlucky X-Men never learn anything new.

Let's start with Wolverine. Cool character, total badass. But here, all you'll do is mash on the attack buttons for hours. Every mission is "defeat the guards" and then "defeat the teleporters that the guards spawn from" and, finally, "defeat the guards." The Silver Samurai, Lady Deathstrike and Sabertooth all show up, but beating them is just a matter of, you guessed it, punching and kicking. A lot. No cool abilities, like climbing walls with your claws - no, just punch. And maybe kick.

Iceman gets off a little easier. He's always flying around on his ice sled, blasting various targets out of the sky. You're either blowing them up in a sectioned-off arena setting (like with the giant fire-snake level we've seen so much of) or hovering straight through a tunnel Starfox-style. Not terribly boring, but nothing changes from the first mission to the last. Sled around, shoot some stuff and on to the next mission that plays exactly the same.

Then there's Nightcrawler, who could potentially hold a game on his own. The bit here is constant teleporting - you can zip all over the terrain, from flagpoles to dangling wires, even right behind unaware enemies. If the stealth portion mattered at all, and every stage didn't boil down to more punching, Nightcrawler's levels could have been something. Instead, they just make you hate Wolverine's straightforward bashing stages even more.

More info

GenreAction
DescriptionAn overhead tap-a-thon featuring four playable heroes, witty banter and some dirty, ugly graphics. A different kind of boring from the console version.
Platform"DS","PS2","Xbox","Xbox 360","PC","GameCube"
US censor rating"Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+"
UK censor rating"Rating Pending","Rating Pending","Rating Pending","Rating Pending","Rating Pending","Rating Pending"
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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Brett Elston

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE.