The gang of the 3rd, and final, X-Men movie have sure been about haven’t they.
Entertainment TV shows, Entertainment print publications, Entertainment Radio, Entertainment shows like American Idol (giving up advance tickets to the movie to the final three singers), Internet Media sites one and-- oh, wait, no they didn’t. Apparently we in the internet media are too beneath them for THAT.
But my bitterness aside over that faux pas, we’re here to once again swallow the bitter pill (or hand grenade depending on the severity of the suckitude) of potentially bad video game design as we once again walk the “Yellow Brick Road” of dreams that may never be with the newest movie to game translation that is X-Men : The Official Game of X-Men 3 : Last Stand from MARVEL Comics.

For those of you who were NOT the three finalist of American Idol, work in the cha-ching TV slash print media (in such shows as Entertainment Tonight, or the annoying Insider with it‘s equally annoying catchphrase “Let‘s get In-sssssiiiiiiddddeeee….” (bleep)), happen to be a big shot friend and or acquaintance of the celebrities or bigshots from the movie, or you happen to have the essential Hollywood friend making mutant power to make large amounts of cash appear from thin air, then you might not have seen the new X-Men movie yet… unless this goes to print like after the movie’s release that is.
But as I write this, six days prior to the release of the movie, only a few of the high order of the high media have seen the movie to date that I know of. Well, at least you, me, and the rest of us ordinary mortals who aren’t working for FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC, Entertainment Weekly, etc. can pick up the video game version of the movie for our own first look at the movie to come, which came out last Tuesday (10 days prior to the movie release)… only good luck with that.

Not that I’m saying that getting ahold of the game will be hard, seeing how everyone will no doubt be ordering multiple copies for rental and selling, I’m just saying that it won’t be flying off the shelves once people get a grasp of what the game is all about… gee, wonder why.
As I said in my first look at this game this is NOT a direct tie-in to the movie, so while it is set in the same time more or less as the new movie this game is, basically, just X-Men 2 ½. I.e. don’t expect anything in the form of actual movie footage in this game, in fact don’t expect much in the way of any footage period! While in the intro they do use magazine covers featuring actual photo images of Patrick Stewart, Iceman and Moira McTaggart, and we have nice movie like imagery, there is no actual movie cut scenes. Heck, even if they had to gather the cast to shoot short original cutscenes just for this game I would have been more impressed than what they did for this game. And thus we start down the long road of complaints that may make this game a first… I.e. the first MARVEL Comics game to come out that makes the official Fantastic Four video game tie in more fun to play in comparison to this game! And really, how sucky must this game be if it makes playing Fantastic Four a more viable option than playing this game!

It’s not that X-Men : The Official Game is godawful, you do get the basic minimum requirements for a game so that it‘s not the worst thing you ever laid your hands on, I can say that much niceness about the game, it’s just that X-Men : The Official Game is most certainly not fun enough to warrant you spending, what, $40?!? I would not put down that much money on a minimal time passer like this, especially since you can get far better for far lower (mainly the new Greatest Hits version of X-Men Legends II).
It’s like putting out money for a sirloin steak of game content and then getting a brown bag with a hamburger and small fries from McDonalds. This game is OK, but not worth the price tag slapped on it.

Everything is minimal. Gameplay does what it should, but doesn’t have any bells and whistles (not even expandable moves that you can pick up during gameplay) which makes the mutant abilities of the X-Men in this game kind of limited. Also with only three playable characters in this game the mutant mayhem is also watered down, unlike X-Men Legends which offers up a whole lot of mutants for your money.
Top it off with a minimum of unlockable extras and a lacking content and you have a game that should have come out at $20 a pop, but is priced at twice as much.
Heck, they couldn’t even slap together a montage of film footage as the intro for the game, and if the game seemingly can’t even do that much for you you better believe the rest will stumble off the cliff of bad gameplay from there, and fall into the valley of “Rent Only” quicker than they could shill the movie on last week’s American’s Idol.

As I am about to start talking voice acting let’s look at what has to be the worst still image of an actual actor in a comic book character role I’ve seen to date… though it’s not like that’s a special thing since I’m sure there are other bad character pic days to note.
Once you get logged in try to check out the stats on

your playable characters before you start playing, which lists the abilities you unlocked so far (which is, of course, none). Besides noticing that you have a shallow wading pool of upgradeable powers to upgrade, you’ll also notice that while they are using the actual stars’ images for the three playable characters (Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Iceman’s movie counterparts). Now you shouldn’t be able to miss this, I didn’t, because you’ll notice right off the bat that something is terribly wrong with Wolverine’s image! Whoever took THAT image must have been sniffing model glue or something, because it makes Hugh Jackman look like a demented dwarf (as in the AD&D mystical underground dwelling mining once played by John Rhys Davies in Lord of the Rings variety and not the vertically challenged variety), or an evil leprechaun in this image… wonder if this will mean there’ll be a mini game where Hugh Jackman has to hide his Frosted Mutant Charms from players… bleah.

Other actors who are here who I vaguely remember might be from the movie is Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) and Shawn Ashmoore (Iceman) (yes, apologies to the actors if I mispelled your names), oh, and then we have Patrick Stewart who once again revises his Professor X role (who he also did for X-Men Legends I & II). There are probably other movie alumni I can’t remember, but one I do recognize is Tyler Mane (Sabretooth). I guess a true X-Men movie fan can point out whoever else is from the movies.
However there is no Cyclops (his actor didn’t make it), Halle Berry didn’t do Storm’s voice, and… oh, wait, I won’t complain about Ian McKellan because he had a busy year, what with doing BOTH X-Men 3 AND The Da Vinci Code and all, so you’ll hear no complaints about him not being in here from me.

As for the voice acting it’s decent enough, sure. Alan Cumming does his job fine, and I guess so does Shawn Ashmoore (from what I’ve seen of him), and Patrick Stewart pulls voice duty well once again as he did before (considering he‘s done quite abit of voice acting lately, including the highly anticipated Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion for the Xbox)… but of course that also means you don’t need to buy this game if you are just into Patrick Stewart since he did the Legends thing.
But why is it that, for the start of the game at least, Hugh Jackman sounds BORED!! At least during the training level for Wolverine it sounds like Hugh Jackman isn’t putting much effort into the voice acting, but it does sound like he picks up the pace as the game rolls on.

Back to the meat and potatoes of whether or not you should be buying this game, the actual game.
That brings us to the images, which is the next spin down the toilet is cutscenes, which are done in a rather “comic book”-ish style of “moving stills” that have the characters go through the motions of the Chris Claremont scribed story without actually moving, and you won’t know how disturbing it is to see everyone talking at you with the power of their “mind” until you see the “characters” “move through this game.
I mean if a game like X-Men Legends II can actually put together a oh so beautiful chain of cutscenes, which looks damn good even on the PSP version, then how the hell did the X-Men : Official Game cutscene end up being so (bleep)ed out! I mean what the hell!

Once you get past that, and start to play the actual game… get ready to be bored by the averageness of it all.
As I feared this game is a button masher, and a not so eloquent one at that.
Wolverine, who you control first, is sluggish to control. Unlike the fluidic controls of characters you enjoyed in X-Men Legends II, you’ll find yourself controlling a not so elegant mutant as you find out how slow Wolverine can be in a game like this… or how bored Hugh Jackman can sound doing voiceover.
Yeah, yeah, he picks up the pace at the game rolls but right now (as you start playing) he sounds like he’d rather be elsewhere. At least Tyler Mane (Sabertooth) came to work on this level with his game face on, actually doing a decent job for his brief appearance as Sabretooth.

After you fight Sabretooth (which isn’t a very interesting battle to say the least) in this tutorial level for Wolverine (apparently you need to do THREE Tutorials for each of the three playable characters because they are so different) you’ll have to hack and slash your way through cannon fodder soldiers that endlessly pop up during the tutorial. This is where you’ll truly learn how to hate the controls, especially the whole “rolling/blocking” thing. Somebody came up with the uniquely (bleep)y means to do this by having you use the L1 button to BOTH BLOCK and ROLL! This makes it a hardship to attempt to roll, which (if it was easy to do) would have made it easier to get right close and personal to enemies to attack.
Oh, and don’t expect to be able to go to the Options menu and tweak this, because apparently the only use for that is to SEE what the controller set up is, the makers of this game apparently didn’t think you’d ever want to, I don’t know, tweak the controls so that it’d actually work better! Heaven forbid somebody actually wants to adjust the controls so that it’s easier to, say, roll your character.
But then again maybe they didn’t think you’d want to change the controls, since they

also didn’t think you’d want any freedom to do as you wished in the game since the entire game is so tightly scripted and arraigned so you do things their way, with characters that repeat the same actions and tasks over and over again.
Guess somebody dug innovation a shallow grave over at Activision and put it to rest.

If you thought Innovation was going to pull through as the game advances, let me be the one to disappoint you by assuring you the makers of this game went out of their way to pull the life support on innovation so it dies a slow painful death in this game. The other two characters are good proof of said passing.
While Wolverine is a hack and slash beat-em-up leveler (which he‘ll never get past no matter how much you play), Iceman takes on a 3rd person shooter style of gameplay as you “slide” (fly) through level after level of shooter combat that has you using Iceman like a jetplane, “ice sliding” through the air, shooting enemies, putting out fires, whatever. Not the most original idea I can think of for Iceman, to say the least. But wait, it gets worst with Nightcrawler.

As Nightcrawler you’ll play through the game’s platforming slash stealth levels as you sneak, teleport, and goes through all the trappings of a platformer in each level with jumping, stealth action, and “puzzles” that include several flavors of “find the control panel“.
Find the control panel and “hack” said control panels, find the door with the control panel and “hack” said control panel, find a mission oriented device or piece of equipment connected to a control panel set up somewhere in a “maze” of a room(s) to “hack” said control panel, find your way back to an exit (connected to a control panel) so you can “hack” the control panel. Yeah, so does that make Nightcrawler a giant rat in a maze? He’s got the tail for it, but do you have a taste for brie?

The mutant powers are base minimum, and for some reason all your mutants have Wolverine’s healing ability since they all can regenerate energy by standing still while you hold down the L2 button. Yeah, that sure sounds oh so original and gives the gamemakers an excuse not to give you the ability to hold any items for healing or stats improvement (whatever “Stats“ those might be in this bland game).
If you were hoping for the five course meal of powers and abilities that you basked in from X-Men Legends I & II you’ll be greatly disappointed. Even when it comes to the few abilities you do have tweaking said abilities is more of a chore than a joy, as you can only earn upgrades from playing levels over and over again (start with easy, 1 upgrade point, then do the next two until you have all three). Yeah, I guess you could pretend this is supposed to endear a sense of replay value in you towards this game, seeing how you could play each level over and over again, but I wouldn’t say that.
Also I wouldn’t say that going straight to the three points and the hard difficulty would be wise either, because unless you’re highly agile in button mashing it’d be a pain, that and this quickness of level playing would remove some of the… cough… “replay” value of the game… and make the game end faster.

As for the unlockables? The common theme of this game is minimal content it seems, which once again shines here as (unlike the rich tableu of choices and things to unlock in X-Men Legends I & II from comic covers, comic related X-missions, loading screens, alternate costumes and sketches from the design work on the game) the unlockables of this game is downright skimpy. Hell, you are not even given a chance to unlock movie interviews, on set behind the scenes, and game development sketches are here. You just have two costumes (one street and one “classic”) and an extra Danger Room level for the three characters, and that’s it. Talk about sucky.
Heck, at least Batman Begins had more movie related tie in stuff than this, and a richer set of costumes to offer which, in comparison, makes it‘s unlockables better than these unlockables!
The way things stack up in terms of this game this is, without a doubt, the worst tie in game I ever saw because it practically AVOIDS TYING INTO THE MOVIE IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE THE OFFICIAL GAME OF!! I mean what the hell! Not even a trailer of X-Men 3 to glimpse at?!? How cheap!!

Oh, and look who you are fighting in the start of the game!
When you head back to the location of the end of X-Men 2 in order to retrieve parts of Cerebro, you’ll find that the place is crawling with agents of… what? The Sentinel building US Military? No. The forces of Mr. Sinister? Apocalypse? The Reavers? No? Who do you… what?? HYDRA?!? As in the organization best known for fighting Captain America and Iron Man and whateveer HYDRA?!? What the!!
Yeah, apparently because Chris Claremont thought it would be cute to write HYDRA into the game, or whatever, you’ll end up fighting COBRA inspired lookalike troopers for awhile, with a battle with Lady Deathstrike and the life support system of a decapitated Sentinel head (if you play as Wolverine) to break up the monotony of the level. Oh, and later on you’ll get to fight Madrox the Multiple Man… imagine MY surprise at that! As you probably have already speculated it didn’t take me long to stop playing this game, because the boredom of

the repetitive gameplay drove me away.

Ok, let’s get down to the brass tacks of it : is this game the game for you?
People who are hot on the movie who pick this up, thinking they’re getting a piece of the movie with this game, are going to find that they’ve been lied to. This seems to NOT touch on the movie at all, and I wasn’t willing to play all the way to the end just in the brief hope of digging up any X-Men 3 movie footage!
People who are hot on the X-Men who pick this up, thinking they’re going to get a solid X-Men gaming experience, they also have been lied to. This is a kiddie pool compared to the Olympic sized depth of X-Men Legends I & II, not worth shelling out hard earned money for.
Oh, and let’s not forget that this game is heavily scripted and laid out, which means there is 0.0 chance of replay value as the game will play out the same way over and over and over and over again (and no, having to play the levels over and over to get all three upgrade points, or to play all the scenarios, is not replay value in anyone‘s books). Where games like Incredible Hulk : Ultimate Destruction went forward with Grand Theft Auto sized environments and freeform missions, X-Men : The Official Game goes backwards with small tight confined levels and heavily scripted stories that offer no freedom for gameplayers. Not the kind of “evolution” gamers have been hoping for, to say the least.

Add it up and you’re going to find that X-Men fans who are looking for a gaming experience to compliment their X-Men 3 : Last Stand experience will be far better off getting X-Men Legends II : Rise of Apocalypse than a game like this. PS2 owners? If you don’t already own it go buy X-Men Legends II. Xbox owners? Ditto, go get X-Men Legends II if you haven‘t already bought it. Same goes for PSP owners, because you‘ll be happier with the mutant mayhem of X-Men Legends II (it is presently one of my favorite games for the PSP that I can‘t recommend enough).
The only two systems who don’t have the X-Men Legends II option is the GBA and the Nintendo DS… go get X-Men Legends II for the GameCube if you have that? Pick up Card Fighters DS for the Nintendo DS because I heard it should be damn good? How about Tales of Phantasia or Final Fantasy Advance IV for the GBA? Anything to avoid owning this game!

But as for the PS2 version (of which I just reviewed) if you must have your mutant movie tie-in fix then you might as well rent this, play it, beat it and return it. Ownership is not recommended for this underwhelming mutant mayhem that will disappoint more than please, especially since they’re going to charge you $40 for a game that isn’t worth $40. Ok, nuff said since breaking this down is pointless (because me repeating over and over that you should be playing X-Men Legends II seems abit extreme)…
Ok, fine, here’s the breakdown. Don’t forget that I warned you though.

X-Men : The Official Breakdown
What’s Hot?
X-Men Legends II : Rise of Apocalypse. Yes, it doesn’t feature Hugh Jackman and co, but it DOES have Patrick Stewart, and what else do you need as a movie fan but Patrick Stewart as Professor X?
That and the game is actually fun, and doesn’t disrespect X-Men fans by insuring that the content truly gives the true fan of the merry mutants all the content they need, and some content you didn’t even know you needed until it was given to you!

What’s Not?
This game! Yeah, Hugh Jackman and company are voicing in this game (to a point), and Chris Claremont wrote this, but who cares! This game is short, it’s limited, it lacks replay value, and it’s a button masher. Get a more intelligent, longer lasting, addictive X-perience in X-Men Legends II! Oh, and pray for X-Men Legends III sometime in the near future.

Moments to Remember?
Unlocking alternate costumes in X-Men Legends II and discovering what a skimpy little outfit Scarlet Witch has… uh? This game? Nothing.

What to Ignore?
Apparently they thought they were innovating in this game when they did whatever the hell they did in this game… yeah, right. I don’t feel any innovation out of this game, do you?

Overall?
Not to paraphrase the Hulk, but… (ahem)… FANS SMASH!!
A truly disappointing button masher of a game, those who truly want a mutant experience that will make you treasure your X-Men fandom will be far better served picking up X-Men Legends II : Rise of Apocalypse. Without a doubt this game is all around the homo superior of X-Men gaming, mutating to new levels of ability that makes it the advancement of video gaming evolution. Yeah, for “pretty pictures”, some movie actor voice acting, and Chris Claremont you’ll have to get X-Men : The Official Game, but you’ll find you’d rather have solid addictive gameplay over the bells and whistles of nice looking graphics, voice acting and Chris Claremont.

Why Activision indulged this selfish (and pointless) game when fans really needed X-Men Legends III is something I will never quite understand. Please, Activision and MARVEL Comics, it’s not to late to redeem yourselves after the disappointing flop that is X-Men : The Official Game! Go back to the people who made the X-Men Legends games and tell them we want X-Men Legends III! You… are our… only hope!!
(OK, hurry up Blockbuster! Bring me my next vic-- I mean review… that means you, Da Vinci Code.)