So, as I'm sure you've noticed by now, every movie CEO seems to think its a GREAT idea to take what normally are excellent movie licenses and kill them with video game versions. From Batman to Superman, it is the rare gem that escapes this bastion of bastardization. Even rarer still are actually GOOD game adaptations. More often than not, what you get is watered down, half-assed dreck.  Will this be the case with the newest entrant into this ongoing saga?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (hereafter called Wolverine) is a game designed to take the story of the movie and add its own tweaks. Like the movie it goes into Wolverine's history, starting from when he didn't have Adamantium, going through the loss of his first love and touching on the relationship between him and his brother (more likely half brother), Victor Creed.

Starting off, the first level acts as a tutorial of sorts, showing you various moves, counters and so forth. It also introduces you to Wolverine's healing factor and explains how he can die. If you've been a Wolverine fan, you already know all about his history and abilities, but for people new to Wolverine, some background is always a good idea. And this is done in such a way that it adds to the action on screen and doesn't distract the player from raining down dismemberment, gore and death. You can unlock the higer difficulty settings by beating the game as well.

The story is presented through the use of cut scenes as well as things like computer terminals, where Wolverine can listen to work and personal logs to gain a better understanding of what is going on. But it is not overwrought in such a way as to detract from the action, which is what Wolverine is all about. Cut scenes and logs are perfunctory and serve only as a quick respite from the action and are not the main focus of the game.

Another nice thing to see (finally!) is the fact that when they decided to do this game, someone apparently got up and said "Let's do it RIGHT!" To that end this is NOT the Wolverine you may have seen in the Saturday morning cartoon or on the old SNES system. This game fully embraces the Mature rating. There is evisceration, disembowelment, beheading and some enemies are just ripped apart. Contrast this with earlier kid friendly games in which Wolverine's claws seemed to gently massage or at worst, tickle his enemies. The developers not only saw the movie but have obviously gone back to the comic books to get it correct.