One of my biggest problems with the new X-Men film, X-Men United (and the previous films) is that they aren't true X-Men presentations as the universe is laid out in the comics; I hate the fact that I have to suspend belief and pretend that characters like Rogue and Iceman are new characters in the team (Iceman was one of the original X-Men long before the name Wolverine was ever even heard of). But that's fine. I can suppress my comic book knowledge and pretend to believe in a new storyline penned by folks that are trying to make a film work in Hollywood.

The films are obviously successful and so Activision, who holds the Marvel license, has to make games based on these films work as best they can. But their latest endeavor, despite some great moments and one interesting character that saves it from being completely abysmal gaming experience, just doesn't get the job done - despite the fact that it doesn't follow the latest film at all - but rather tells a story that takes place prior to the film's plot. While X-Men The Official Game isn't completely worthless (it is playable and does give you a chance to play as Nightcrawler) most of the game focuses on one character and that character isn't quite as exciting as he could have been... Let's get into the guts of this game to figure out why it doesn't work as well as it should...

X-Men the Official game tells a story that takes place before the events of the movie and lets you play as Wolverine, Iceman and Nightcrawler. The game starts out with some Danger Room training simulations for Wolverine and Iceman, followed by a mission to the infamous Alkali Lake where we are re-introduced to Nightcrawler - hands down the best character this game has to offer. From there the game branches into two different paths - the one following Logan and the other with Kurt, with the latter being more enjoyable. As you play you'll be able to unlock rewards - both in the form of enhancements that can alter your mutant DNA (offording you extra health and enhancements to each characters' special gifts) and mini-challenges where you collect special items to unlock special in-game rewards. The problem with this game is that it is almost a plain old vanilla beat 'em up with no deviation from this formula in the game. Similarly Iceman, a character that really could have been a wonderful character in this game, is probably one of the more uninspired charters in the game; He is confined mostly to mission where he flies on his ice ramp battling larger than life enemies in ariel combat that just isn't fun. Wolverine has a similar problem as he uses formulaic and limited attacks and power-ups to battle hundreds of the same enemies. We expect this kind of a thing from a beat 'em up but there's just not enough variety to make things exciting.. The only real saving grace is Nightcrawler who uses his powers to teleport effectively to move about the levels and sneak attack his enemies. But even that gets old as players realize that they have seen everything in his (and the others') arsenals at the very beginning of the game.

The three main characters do offer different fighting styles at least: Wolverine has his patented Adamantium claws, his berserker rage as a special attack and the ability to heal. Iceman can also heal (since when we're not sure, considering this has never been one of his abilities in the comic books or the movies), navigate on his ice slide (allowing him to basically fly) and use his myriad of ice attacks). Finally Nightcrawler has the ability to travel very quickly using his teleport abilities, heal (yet again not a power he had before this game) and use stealth attacks like teleport behind enemies and pummel them with his fist. As we mentioned already, Nightcrawler's combat style and skills are the best of the three. The healing abilities are good indication of the fact that the developers of this game were looking for an easy way out. If they really wanted to make healing realistic they would have simply dropped some sort of power-up at key locations in levels dealing with iceman or Nightcrawler. Instead they have given each of them abilities that used to be exclusive to Wolverine... Go figure.

While Nightcrawler's and Wolverine's mission tend to put players in close quarters combat situations, Iceman's missions tend to be in the air, dog fighting larger than life enemies. Iceman's levels feel like you're playing a rail shooter, which is not the kind of experience you want to jump to when playing a beat 'em up game. While there's certainly some excitement to be had in comparison to Wolverine's levels, it certainly feels like these missions don't fit with the rest of the game.

Much like the aforementioned situation, the story just feels disjointed and is sometimes difficult to follow because the way it has been broken up, branched through different missions, etc. The way the story is presented whoever, is pretty interested. The game uses a combination of live action and comic book style stills to tell the story and at least the main characters in the game (Wolverine, Iceman, Professor X and Nightcrawler) feature the voice actors that are in the X-Men movies. Graphically there's not much difference between each version of the game, but the Xbox and Xbox360 versions do look the best. The question remains whether the Xbox 360 version is truly worth the extra money, because even with high definition support the game is only barely a tick above the Xbox version in terms of graphics splendor....

While X-Men isn't completely worthless (I have to give props to the developers for Nightcrawler in this game), it certainly could have been a better experience. As it stands, it's simply a mindless beat 'em up with a few unlockables and some formulaic gameplay. If you really have to take the plunge and are an X-Men fanatic, we suggest a rental first.. - James Fudge.