Super-heroes (and particular those from the Marvel side of the fence) have hit the big time thanks to Hollywood. Gone are the embarrassing putrid sequels of the latter Batman and Superman series. These days its record box office earnings and satisfied fans the world over. The gaming industry has been quick to ride this wave of popularity and with X-Men 2 in cinemas doing a roaring trade there's little surprise in seeing a gaming tie-in. Rather than follow the movie's turn of events though, X-Men 2 Wolverine's Revenge treads off on it's own story.

Wolverine's history has come back to haunt him. The morally dubious Weapon X laboratories that long ago grafted adamantium to Wolverine's skeleton, also implanted a dormant virus in our hero as a failsafe in case he decided to fly solo. Only Wolverine's hyper-healing ability has kept this biological nasty at bay for all these years. The game starts with the virus becoming active, so off Wolverine must go to find the source and cure for his deadly burden.

Being that Wolverine is one of the best hand to hand fighters in the mutant ranks, its an easy guess to expect the game to center on fisticuffs...and lots of them. What we have here is a 3rd person beat-em-up, with you the hero vs the occasional enemy mutants (aka end of level bosses) mixed in with lots of hired goons just asking to be sliced, diced and skewered by the man of the hour. Certainly not an original concept in gaming, but expected territory for the X-Men. The fighting system is quite straightforward, with basic punch, kicks and some simple multi-move combos added to the mix. As an addition we also have 'Strike' maneuvers. These come into play when you bring an opponent close to his end of days, allowing you to execute ferocious takedowns. Dispatching three goons, starting with a reverse double backflip and finishing with some stomach surgery care of Dr Wolverine is always a delight.

Wolverine and his adamantium claws are far from just a simplistic formula for a deadly human blender. Press the left trigger and slink into Senses mode. One of the highlights of the game, your sight changes to a heightened Predator style heat-vision. Footprints, heat-trails from guards and laser security systems are all visible. The stealth ability gained is an extra incentive to use this mode frequently . Senses mode is a winner as it allows diversion from what would have been endless running and punching. With stealth available, planning movement ahead and assassin type neck snapping come into the fray. Smiles all round.

Most 3rd person action games these days seem cursed with a whacked out camera. Poor old Wolverine is saddled with the same age-old problem.. Manually controlling your viewpoint with the right thumbstick is a finicky beast. Very oversensitive, so there's that all too familiar feeling of battling against the controls. Dare to move against a wall, and the camera view becomes restricted, causing big-time blindspots. Walls killed me nearly as many times as Lady Deathstrike did. To add to the confusion, the camera locks down during combat. Most of the time it gives a nice viewpoint, but other times...

Our PS2's seem to be doing a fair job on the visuals of this game, err this is an Xbox game isn't it? Really there are PS2 ports and then there are obviously lazy PS2 ports like this that can only bring on shakes of the head. Jaggies, fuzzy textures and a generally low detail look with not a basic Xbox enhancement in sight. Its like a nightmare ride through the list of PS2 graphics 'features'. Thankfully the soundscape is a bit sweeter with Mark Hamill going all gruff and manly for voicing Wolverine and the fatherly tones of Patrick Stewart reprising his movie role as Professor X.

Underneath the rough visuals and the demon possessed camera Wolverine is a fun romp through Marvel's Mutant Universe. Some levels are purely slug-a-thons, other levels require stealth and then there are the end of level boss mutants that usually require a bit of puzzling or tactics to defeat. On that note, Marvel readers are in for a who's who tour of superheroes and villains in this game. There are the expected enemies such as Magneto, Sabretooth and the like. Watch out for brief cut scene cameos from Spider-Man and Juggernaut as well.