A 2009 video game based on X-Men Origins: Wolverine, developed by Raven Software for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. While the film itself kept to the series' usual PG-13 rating, the game is significantly Bloodier and Gorier, taking full advantage of its M rating to show the raw brutality Wolverine is truly capable of.
Hugh Jackman reprises his role from the movie as Wolverine himself, alongside Liev Schreiber returning as Sabretooth and will.i.am as John Wraith. The story mostly follows the events of the film, but includes an array of exclusive plot elements with several nods to the original comics. Unusually for a movie tie-in of this era, the game was met with significant praise for its combat and expanded plot compared to the movie.
This game provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Wolverine himself. In the movie, he needed Creed's help to defeat the newly created Weapon XI but in the game, he fights him entirely on his own.
- Adaptational Expansion: The whole game when the plotline follows the film; the mission to Nigeria (moved to Angola) here) is expanded into several flashback levels of Logan fighting his way through the jungle, mercenaries and local mutants along the way, for example.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Fred Dukes in the film was merely just the team's Dumb Muscle, but here he's more of a Blood Knight in the Africa flashbacks, and tries to attack Logan in the present even before he thinks he calls him "Blob", and after Logan interrogates him, he gloats about how Gambit won't tell him anything.
- Adaptational Modesty:
- In the movie, Logan was completely naked when undergoing the adamantium procedure. Here, he at least wears a pair of shorts.
- In the movies made prior to the game, Mystique was always portrayed as not wearing clothes in her true form. Here she wears an outfit that covers her torso and legs.
- Adapted Out: The character of Bradley, who was featured in the film, doesn't appear in the game outside a brief mention in an audio log. The old couple who helps Logan doesn't appear either since that plot isn't in the game, replaced with an extended escape from the Weapon X Facility.
- Alternate Universe: The game contradicts the film in many ways and portrays some of its events differently, also omitting some elements and adding new ones, so it cannot take place in the same universe as the X-Men film series.
- An Arm and a Leg: Dismemberments are extremely common in this game. Sometimes instead of simply killing an enemy by striking them normally and bringing their health to 0, Logan may enter a brief execution animation that usually involves hacking off limbs or bisecting the mook entirely. Logan takes Bolivar Trask's arm to proceed through the Wideawake facility, and the latter is seen with a realistic prosthetic in the Bad Future in the epilogue.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Completing the bonus challenges that are unlocked by collecting small statues of Wolverine hidden throughout the game grants the player extra costumes based on some of the outfits worn in the comics.
- Bad Future: The game starts and ends with a future Logan in a wrecked urban landscape, the rest of the plot taking place in flashbacks. An alive Bolivar Trask briefly taking Logan hostage, along with a shot of multiple Sentinels ravaging a ruined city, seems to suggest that something akin to Days of Future Past has occurred.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The Uncaged Edition is rated M for gruesome violence compared to the film's PG-13 rating. Obviously, given that two of Wolverine's most common superpowers are surviving all sorts of mortal wounds no ordinary person can live through and having claws made of the strongest material on Earth, it'd make sense for the game to go a horribly bloody route. Logan routinely can have his flesh shot off and have his innards exposed for a bit before his Healing Factor kicks in, and many of the kills border close to being actual Fatalities on occasion.
- Bowdlerise: The non-PS3/Xbox 360/PC versions all toned down the violence to T Rating levels, with little to no blood visible unless completely unavoidable. Of special note is how the PSP version retains the pre-rendered CG cutscenes, but they've been altered to remove nearly all traces of blood and reducing the violence to be less graphic (for example, the intro cutscene has a moment where Logan lifts and slams a mook onto a pipe, impaling him. The animation is the same, but the pipe is missing entirely, resulting in a body slam instead).
- Casting Gag: Steve Blum, who had been the main voice of Wolverine in various media produced both before and after the game, instead voices Wade Wilson, who also gains retractable blades and faces off against Wolverine near the end of the game.
- Canon Marches On:
- Mystique is in the game, depicted as a former CIA supervisor of Logan's team and in a relationship with Wraith to (presumably) explain how Nightcrawler came to be. However, X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past would give Mystique a completely different backstory where she lived with Xavier for most of her life.
- In a similar fashion, the game has a level with Bolivar Trask (a black man like in X-Men: The Last Stand) building the Sentinels in revenge for the deaths of several of his coworkers, which is later contradicted by Days of Future Past depicting an alternate Trask played by Peter Dinklage with a different reason to build the Sentinels.
- Clothing Damage: A mechanic in the age which allows for whatever Logan is wearing on his upper body to be destroyed by enemy attacks and not regenerate. His pants, meanwhile, will remain intact, if bloodied.
- Composite Character:
- The first mission is to a village in Angola which guards an Adamantium meteorite, giving it a backstory closer to Vibranium in the comics.
- In the comics, Professor Thornton was the Weapon X scientist who wanted revenge on Logan for cutting his hand offnote . In the game, this detail is given to Bolivar Trask.
- John Wraith is a combination of himself and Azazel, the father of Nightcrawler. Wraith is seen showing affection for a pregnant Mystique and asks her what she thinks about naming the baby "Kurt"; implying that he is the father of Nightcrawler.
- Continuity Nod: Several mutants are indirectly referenced in the audio logs, including Jean Grey, Storm, and Cyclops.
- Cool Shades: Sporting a different style than in the movie, Nord/Agent Zero wear these in the game.
- Darker and Edgier: Especially in the Uncaged Edition.
- Demoted to Extra: Downplayed. Wade Wilson wasn't a major character in the film, but his presence is less felt in the game. Namely he's the only character in the flashback mission who is never heard speaking until the last segment.
- Elite Mooks: Quite a few of them, and in various flavors. Simple riflemen and machete wielders are common fodder, but mutant swordsmen, living rock monsters, cloaking shotgunners, and teleporters start appearing that can take a hell of a beating.
- Giant Mook: The towering, oversized monstrosities Wolverine can battle in the jungle levels by clinging on their sides or backs, an enemy made exclusive for this game. There are also the W.E.N.D.I.G.O. prototypes in the Weapon X levels who are similarly fought.
- Gorn: Easily one of the most violent Marvel video games. Alongside The Punisher. Demonstrated viscerally with Logan himself, as his skim and large portions of his muscle can be cut and blasted away by enemy weapons, revealing his organs and skeleton underneath until he heals up.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Some unique kill animations will have Logan sweep his claws so hard that it slices clean through an enemy's torso.
- Horrible Judge of Character: One of the audio logs found in the Sentinel facility, Robert Kelly calls Sebastian Shaw "someone who can be trusted". Considering who Shaw is in the comics, Kelly is deeply mistaken.
- Humongous Mecha: Wolverine fights a Sentinel at the end of the Project Wideawake level. unlike regular Sentinels (several prototypes of which appear earlier and stand around 12 feet tall), this one is at least 8 stories.
- Magic Pants: Logan's tank top disappears piece by piece as he takes damage, while his pants stay the same. His shirt also gets completely restored whenever he levels up.
- Marathon Boss: The boss fight with Gambit is more like several boss fights as he keeps escaping to new heights and regaining his health, before finally culminating in a duel on top of a huge sign that both he and Logan break apart to try and defeat the other.
- Mirror Match: Sabretooth copies a lot of Wolverine's moves as a boss. There's also the other Wolverines clad in comic gear that have to be defeated to unlock them for use in the main game.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Unlike in the movie, Wade's upgraded self has sinister-looking glowing red eyes.
- Sequential Boss: Gambit's boss fight takes place over several smaller fights broken up by him running away and Logan chasing him up a huge casino hotel under construction.
- Stealthy Mook: The Ghost troopers can cloak themselves to become invisible. You can detect them by using feral senses.
- Vocal Dissonance: Steve Blum provides the deep voice of Wade Wilson.