Review of Wolverine (NES)

Wolverine is a game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991. Wolverine is the popular marquee character from the X-Men franchise who shouts cheesy one liners and makes even cheesier poses with his claws. He's got tons of loyal teenage followers, but does this game live up his name? Let's find out.

Story : Not much to write about here, but you play as Wolverine and the villain in the game is the same as Wolverine's arch villain and nemesis in the comics, Sabretooth. Definite bonus points there. You also fight Magneto along the way, but Sabretooth is the true goal and he also pops up frequently to taunt Wolverine. Very cool.

Graphics : The sprites are very anemic looking and aren't animated very well, both heroes and villains. Wolverine's punches look weak and don't thrill you to use. Popping out your claws is semi satisfying, but not when you realize it drains your life. The stages lack some detail but are still satisfactory. Overall, the graphics are merely mediocre teetering on bad.

Sound : One area where the game really shines is the music. Excellent tones and compositions with very interesting melodies and tonality. I highly recommend the music in this game. Like or not, you will at least remember it.

Game play : Average side scroller plat former action game. The biggest flaw of the game is the fact that you don't become momentarily invincible if you're hit. You just take a ton of hits over and over, leading to a very fast death. There are also a huge amount of instant death traps like pitfalls. Additionally, using your claws does twice the amount of damage but harms you as well. So, using claws isn't a viable option either.

You also have a berserker rage bar, which is sort of interesting to say the least. It fills up and then Wolverine goes crazy and starts punching the air and moving around at random. The bar goes up when you kill people. I'm not exactly sure why this is in the game, but it's a bit funny at least.

Wolverine's controls are very, very bad. Not responsive or fluid at all. Jumping takes a ton of getting used to. Often you will under shoot or over shoot your jump, even when you get used to it. Frustrating! Crouching down takes a long time, as does standing up.

Re playability : Only replay if you're using cheats and are listening to the music. There's not much else going on here.

Overall : 4/10. Nothing in the game is really worthwhile but the music, which is unique and excellent.