By: Samuel Moreno | 06-08-22
There was a time when Activision license was secured Marvel for the publication and distribution of video games based on the most popular characters of the publisher. Under his tutelage, titles came out that are quite beloved today such as ‘Marvel: Ultimate Alliance‘, the three spider-man video games based on the films of Sam Raimi, and various titles of X Men.
Precisely from that last franchise, Wolverines He was the character that received the most attention, in part thanks to the success of the adaptation starring Hugh Jackman.
No one would imagine that, on May 1, 2009, we would see the adaptation of ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’, which was based on the infamous movie that came out that year where we saw Logan’s past, before joining the school by Charles Xavier.
It’s been 13 years, and it seems that X-Men Origins: Wolverine has already been forgotten. However, it is surprising to find that many people still care for it, since this is one of the few cases where a video game based on a movie turned out better than expected.
The different versions of X-Men Origins: Wolverine
The X-Men Origins: Wolverine video game had a release “transgenerational” appearing on platforms like PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and even editions for Wii, PS2; as well as portable devices (DS, 3DS Y PSP).
They all differed, beyond the graphics, by the explicit content that the versions of PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. God of War had already done its thing on the market with its first two installments, making the genre hack’n slash will bounce back once again. Hence why several companies began to find an excuse to venture into the genre with different results. X-Men Origins was one of those particular cases.
On platforms like YouTube you can find people who have been able to enjoy the different editions of the Wolverine video game. However, the consensus is that theUncaged Edition” ends up being the definitive version thanks to the fact that it was much more attractive, compared to the censorship of the PS2 and Wii editions developed Foundation 9 Entertainment (formerly known as Amaze Entertainment)
Wolverine’s ‘God of War’
Although they sound like big words, it was noticeable that X-Men Origins: Wolverine drank a lot from what made God of War popular. Enemies in large numbers, devastating combos, and a totally Logan’beast‘ who did not hesitate to disembowel the enemies. Elements that gave great fidelity to the violence of the character in several of his stories.
And although it was based on the 2009 film, there was also time to take some creative liberties to be able to explain – much better – the character’s past.
For this task, he was entrusted to Raven Softwaretoday known mainly for his work on Call of Duty: Warzone, who years before the premiere of X-Men Origins already had experience working on adapting Marvel characters. They were responsible for today’s classics’X Men Legends‘ (2004), ‘X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse‘ (2005) and ‘Marvel: Ultimate Alliance‘ (2006).
Unreal Engine 3 was the engine of that generation, and several video game studios had been delighted with the accessible way of being able to develop different titles. Thanks to the use of UE, the Wolverine game worked well enough to be considered a good action title with destructive environments.
Raven was not alone in the development, as they had the support of ‘BlurStudio‘, a company specialized in CGI cinematics, which had already surprised with its work on the cinematic videos of Ultimate Alliance and X-Men Legends.
Hugh Jackman’s involvement
Raven would have Hugh Jackman reprising the role of his iconic character. The actor had already had experience in voice acting three years earlier when he participated in the official X-Men video game along with other actors from the film.
This time, the leading role was focused on him, and fortunately Jackman managed to capture very well all his performance that we saw on screen, to the version created by Raven Software, far surpassing other interpretations such as when Activision had Tobey Maguire playing Peter Parker in the official video games of the trilogy, but his voice acting was not convincing.
With X-Men Origins: Wolverine it would be -up to the date of writing this article- the last time in which Hugh Jackman would lend his voice to an adaptation of the character beyond the big screen. Other actors who participated in the film also returned to play their characters as Lev Schreiber (Victor Creed) and will.i.am (John Wraith)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is missing
The January 1st, 2014 The commercial relationship between Activision and Marvel would end, so several video games that were distributed by the company behind Call of Duty were withdrawn from digital platforms, one of those affected was X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Today, it is impossible to get the video game, unless you find a way to buy it in physical format. It does not seem that on the Marvel Games side there is interest in relaunching the game, taking into account that there is already a new title in development called ‘Marvel’s Wovlerine’, by Insomniac Games (Marvel’s Spider-Man).
And while I’m pretty sure Insomniac’s Wolverine game will turn out great, I’ll still have a lot of love for the official X-Men Origins: Wolverine video game. You could tell that Raven put as much love into it as she could, because as they say in a behind-the-scenes video, they wanted to honor the character and the comic book fans.