Wolverine is an action video game. It is a licensed game based on the Marvel Comics superhero of the same name, as well as the X-Men.
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I can't give this anything better than a 2 star.
Wolverine on the NES is a rough one. The idea is cool, but man, the controls are stiff and fighting enemies is more frustrating than fun. The levels are confusing, the graphics are pretty lackluster for an NES game, and the whole experience just feels kinda rushed. It's a bummer, because Wolverine deserves a good game, and this definitely isn't it. Diehard fans might get a kick out of the novelty, but for everyone else, there are much better X-Men (and Wolverine) games out there.
It's crazy, I initially liked this game.
The first 3 stages were a solid NES platformer with decent graphics and maybe a little bit of an annoyance but not too bad. That annoyance being the fact that there is zero recovery time when you get hit.
Goddamn this shit went from like a 6 or 7 out of 10 to like a 1/10 when I got to the water level. You absolutely have to play this shit to believe it. It is insanity. The buttons get reversed underwater for no reason, there are fucking tons of bubbles being shot at you with zero way to fight back, you have to dodge a ton of shit that sucks you in and do it with your limited air.
I managed to beat the level then the rest of the game but that blight soured my entire fun with this game. Really disappointed with this one especially with how much I enjoyed it initially.
The first 3 stages were a solid NES platformer with decent graphics and maybe a little bit of an annoyance but not too bad. That annoyance being the fact that there is zero recovery time when you get hit.
Goddamn this shit went from like a 6 or 7 out of 10 to like a 1/10 when I got to the water level. You absolutely have to play this shit to believe it. It is insanity. The buttons get reversed underwater for no reason, there are fucking tons of bubbles being shot at you with zero way to fight back, you have to dodge a ton of shit that sucks you in and do it with your limited air.
I managed to beat the level then the rest of the game but that blight soured my entire fun with this game. Really disappointed with this one especially with how much I enjoyed it initially.
Not terrible, but not great. Pretty cool for a 6 year old.
The controls are all over the place.
Wolverine (NES) is home to some of the most odd game design decisions in recent memory bringing down what would otherwise be an okay game.
The animation is smooth for a NES game, but unfortunately this results in delays in Logan's punches and ability to crouch. You can bring out your claws to deal extra damage to enemies, but it also depletes your HP for every stab you throw out. The massive problem with this idea is that it's incredibly easy to be hit in this game, and instead of taking hitstun your HP just gets drained as you linger in any hurtful hitbox. The combination of all these makes the thought of using your claws pointless when all you're most likely doing is making your death quicker.
One nice thing though is that the jumping is really responsive and pretty easy to use, which means most of the time you're probably going to be playing this game pacifist, because of how annoying it is to kill enemies without taking some form of damage. The game is also shockingly generous with it's respawns, and by that I mean it literally respawns you maybe half a screen away from where you died or even closer sometimes. I actually got shot once as I was respawning by the same floating Silver Surfer lookin' dude who killed me on my last life. You still have limited continues to worry about though, you start with one iirc and can earn more thankfully.
You'll notice the game has an "AIR" meter, this thing is only meaningful once in the whole game which is the water stage and it was also only a problem once in that entire stage for me. What's even the point? It's the same thought I have with the "BERZERKER" meter where apparently after you kill enough enemies with your claws you go temporarily invincible and start throwing punches randomly. Once again, only happened once for me because it just felt much more optimal to play the game mostly pacifist and only killing enemies when needed. This playstyle is only more enforced by the game not having a time limit for it's stages, so go ahead and take an ice age to clear a stage if you want.
The game definitely gets ruthless starting at the spooky scary stage and you start being given jumps that require absolute perfection to clear, I'm talking seemingly pixel-perfect jumping and enemies start getting stationed in places making it hard not to take constant dps from them wandering into your sprite.
The endgame stages require absolutely dick-brained nonsensical shit to clear. When you finally confront Magneto near the end of the game instead of just throwing you repeatedly into the ground like the real Magneto would do, he uses this weird contraption to throw boulders at you. What's the solution to this? Punch the machine? Nope. Punch the boulders back at the machine? Nah. Punch the lightning blocking the way to Magneto himself? Can't be, it instantly kills you. Ah hah hah, no that is the solution. Punch the lightning, then chase Mr. Defeated-By-A-Wooden-Gun a bit and pound his face into mush. I thought Logan himself was degraded in this game, but this game's version of Erik/Max/Magnus/Whatever fucking name he goes by now is a fucking pansy.
After that you're greeted by a small cutscene where Logan is with Jubilee and Psylocke and maybe some other guy I can't remember, then Sabretooth appears and Logan tells everyone "I GOT THIS GUY, LEAVE HIM TO ME". In character for sure, but what follows is absolutely fucking obnoxious. You can go ahead and punch Victor Creed in the face or stab him in the dick with your claws as much as you want, but the bastard absolutely will NEVER go down. He will NEVER die via this straight-forward and traditional method of fighting someone in a video game. What's the solution? To punch his constantly-jumping ass as much as you can until he falls off a cliff that is a long ways away from the starting point of the fight.
Fucking bullshit, god it was fucking annoying. One of the worst final bosses in recent memory.
It's a shame this game is bogged down by so many idiotic gameplay choices serving to needlessly overcomplicate it, because if they made the attacking more responsive and just made your claws the default attack method and didn't bother with shit like "AIR" meters and moronic endgame boss fights it would've probably been a decent game. Geoff Folin's ost is definitely the highlight, so there's that at least.
The animation is smooth for a NES game, but unfortunately this results in delays in Logan's punches and ability to crouch. You can bring out your claws to deal extra damage to enemies, but it also depletes your HP for every stab you throw out. The massive problem with this idea is that it's incredibly easy to be hit in this game, and instead of taking hitstun your HP just gets drained as you linger in any hurtful hitbox. The combination of all these makes the thought of using your claws pointless when all you're most likely doing is making your death quicker.
One nice thing though is that the jumping is really responsive and pretty easy to use, which means most of the time you're probably going to be playing this game pacifist, because of how annoying it is to kill enemies without taking some form of damage. The game is also shockingly generous with it's respawns, and by that I mean it literally respawns you maybe half a screen away from where you died or even closer sometimes. I actually got shot once as I was respawning by the same floating Silver Surfer lookin' dude who killed me on my last life. You still have limited continues to worry about though, you start with one iirc and can earn more thankfully.
You'll notice the game has an "AIR" meter, this thing is only meaningful once in the whole game which is the water stage and it was also only a problem once in that entire stage for me. What's even the point? It's the same thought I have with the "BERZERKER" meter where apparently after you kill enough enemies with your claws you go temporarily invincible and start throwing punches randomly. Once again, only happened once for me because it just felt much more optimal to play the game mostly pacifist and only killing enemies when needed. This playstyle is only more enforced by the game not having a time limit for it's stages, so go ahead and take an ice age to clear a stage if you want.
The game definitely gets ruthless starting at the spooky scary stage and you start being given jumps that require absolute perfection to clear, I'm talking seemingly pixel-perfect jumping and enemies start getting stationed in places making it hard not to take constant dps from them wandering into your sprite.
The endgame stages require absolutely dick-brained nonsensical shit to clear. When you finally confront Magneto near the end of the game instead of just throwing you repeatedly into the ground like the real Magneto would do, he uses this weird contraption to throw boulders at you. What's the solution to this? Punch the machine? Nope. Punch the boulders back at the machine? Nah. Punch the lightning blocking the way to Magneto himself? Can't be, it instantly kills you. Ah hah hah, no that is the solution. Punch the lightning, then chase Mr. Defeated-By-A-Wooden-Gun a bit and pound his face into mush. I thought Logan himself was degraded in this game, but this game's version of Erik/Max/Magnus/Whatever fucking name he goes by now is a fucking pansy.
After that you're greeted by a small cutscene where Logan is with Jubilee and Psylocke and maybe some other guy I can't remember, then Sabretooth appears and Logan tells everyone "I GOT THIS GUY, LEAVE HIM TO ME". In character for sure, but what follows is absolutely fucking obnoxious. You can go ahead and punch Victor Creed in the face or stab him in the dick with your claws as much as you want, but the bastard absolutely will NEVER go down. He will NEVER die via this straight-forward and traditional method of fighting someone in a video game. What's the solution? To punch his constantly-jumping ass as much as you can until he falls off a cliff that is a long ways away from the starting point of the fight.
Fucking bullshit, god it was fucking annoying. One of the worst final bosses in recent memory.
It's a shame this game is bogged down by so many idiotic gameplay choices serving to needlessly overcomplicate it, because if they made the attacking more responsive and just made your claws the default attack method and didn't bother with shit like "AIR" meters and moronic endgame boss fights it would've probably been a decent game. Geoff Folin's ost is definitely the highlight, so there's that at least.