PlayStation 2

X-Men: The Official Game

X-Men 3 The Official Game hat seine Stärken und Schwächen. So freute ich mich über Abschnitte mit Nightcrawler, während Wolverines Auftritte eher nervten. Fans kommen um diesen Titel nicht herum, aber auch Freunde unkomplizierter Action können einen Blick riskieren.

With a bucket of burnt popcorn and a gallon of flat soda swirling down the digestive tract, the marriage of Hollywood and video games has belched up another unbearably foul and highly acidic wad of phlegm. Billed as an experience that goes beyond the motion picture, X-Men: The Official Game attempts to tell the story that bridges the gap between the second and third films. It’s a sound idea, but the execution couldn’t have been worse. With a thirst for blood, this game violently jabs Wolverine’s claws into the hearts of gamers, comic fans, and moviegoers that had hoped that it would provide further insight into this remarkable silver screen saga.

"X-Men: The Official Game" soa como oportunidade perdida. A idéia de ter um controle diferente para cada personagem é boa, mas faltou desenvolver melhor cada um deles. Os fãs dos mutantes deverão gostar de controlar os heróis e ficar por dentro do que aconteceu entre o segundo e terceiro filmes. Para os outros jogadores, ao menos Noturno deverá agradar com seu estilo de combate "ninja", mas, no geral, deverá ser uma aventura rápida.

"I hope the movie is better than this..." was one of the few key phrases that kept cycling through my head as I played along with Activision's terribly under-realized plot bridge, X-Men: The Official Game. It's the epitome of wasted potential and had me wondering aloud such other popular axioms as, "Man, this game is easy! Is that really the only thing my guy can do?" and "What's up with this dummy AI?"

The lousy movie-licensed game genre claims another victim in X-Men: The Official Game. Based loosely in-between the stories of the second and third films in the X-Men franchise, X-Men is a completely unremarkable beat-'em-up (with a few boilerplate shooter elements tossed into the mix) that feels just haphazard enough to likely have been rushed through development to get it onto store shelves ahead of the film. It's not that it's entirely broken, mind you, but X-Men's missions are entirely generic and devoid of captivating content, and there are enough annoying little glitches and other obnoxious things prevalent throughout to give the game that thrown-together feel.

If you're looking for a great X-Men game, consider the enjoyable Legends series. The generic, thrown together experience known as X-Men: The Official Game is not what you're looking for. Again, there's nothing terrible about the game, but it's so painfully average that it's not worth a purchase. If you're interested in learning why Nightcrawler wasn't in the third movie, it might be worth a rental, but only if you're really curious.

The gameplay is mediocre with a dash of repetitiveness and restrictiveness thrown in for flavor. The graphics feature glitches, dull textures and a certain lack of creativity in design. The sound is all over the map with fine voice acting but terrible sound effects and music. Overall this game feels like wasted effort and squandered potential. Put Nightcrawler in his own game with a Prince of Persia-esque control scheme and you'll have a hit. Until then you can go on living without playing this one.

Dire que la déception est au rendez-vous tient de l'euphémisme tant on attendait l'adaptation vidéoludique d'un des plus gros blockbusters de l'année. Le résultat est sans appel : X-Men : Le Jeu Officiel est un titre bancal à la difficulté fluctuante et proposant des scènes d'action dont la nonchalance est proportionnelle à la redondance qui s'installe à mesure qu'on progresse. Le sénateur Robert Kelly aurait apprécié.

The whole affair feels like a variant attempt at taking the franchise in a creative new direction that was crushed under the inevitable weight of movie release time constraints and limited budgets. Much as it pains me, this time the X-Men have earned the right to be feared and hated by those they've sworn to protect.

Making a great X-Men game ought to be easy. All the ingredients are there for you -- iconic characters with awesome superpowers, evil villains, reluctant heroes, giant robots. It's scarcely possible to think of a license that's better suited to video game usage than this. So why is this just another in a long line of disappointing licensed games? Official it might be, but this game will still prove a letdown to X-Men addicts and gamers alike.

Though X-Men: The Official game features a decent enough concept - you take control of Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Iceman in events leading up to the X-Men: The Last Stand movie - the subpar execution sucks away any fun.

Games based on films have been notoriously bad with few exceptions. X-Men: The Official Game does nothing to remedy that problem, and gives players no real incentive to play. Combat is basic and missions are terribly repetitive. There are some decent boss fights and some unlockables, but the game won't keep most player's attention for even one playthrough.