"My super sense of smell tells me there's something really foul here!"

This is a terrible game. In order to convey just how bad it is, I'm willing to offer a little anecdote of my experience with Wolverine: Admantium Rage (WAR).

I started up the game and waited patiently until I could wield admantium claws like Wolverine. The usual SEGA logo popped up. Then another logo popped up. Then, approximately 5 more, each delayed for a good five to ten seconds, until, finally, the title screen popped up in the most anti-climatic fashion. Pressing start, I prepared myself for WAR. Before the game actually began, I sat through a ridiculous cinema having nothing to do with the comics. First, Wolverine is shown reading a paper. He's mad about the paper for some reason. Next thing you know, the screen turns all weird as if Wolverine was on drugs. There is no text explaining what's going on, but in each clip, Wolverine is obviously very mad. I pressed start at this point, because, after 5 whole minutes, I realized that I haven't even played the game. This was a mistake.

Once the game starts, you have immediate control of Wolverine, in his bright yellow costume, inside a giant laboratory. At first, I found the control super weird. For some reason, when you stop running, Wolverine keeps on moving. I guess its all the Admantium rage. After a while, I was almost able to get used to this until I encountered my first enemy. It was a flying robot head, naturally. It flew towards me and I slashed, but my slash struck the air above the robot head. It flew back towards me, and I struck again, this time, my slash hit the air below the robot head. This went on for some time and I lost a lot of energy. This made me think that sometimes having too much energy is a bad thing because you can keep getting hit over and over and the game starts to get boring. Eventually, I discovered that if you jump up and slash at the right time, you MIGHT be able to hit the robot head. After taking more damage, I succeeded in dispatching the first menace, and proceeded on to more mundane mayhem.

Eventually I found a switch. Ahh, WAR has puzzles, too! I hit the switch, which is difficult because you have to be a certain distance from the switch (bad controls make Wolvy slip and slide, remember) and you have to duck and use either you kick (if your farther) or slash (if you closer) I slashed. Unfortunately, I wasn't close enough. How stupid of me. My claws flew past the switch and sheered the living hell out of the digital air that surrounded Wolverine. After a whole minute of careful planning, I hit the switch. Now, I don't know about your advance laboratories, but the ones I know intimately don't have long switches, on the ground, with a red ball attached to the end, and which cause platforms to raise even when your not on them. Well, in any case, this laboratory does. So, once the switch was hit, the platform started raising, quickly. So, like any good mutant, I jumped up to it. Looking back, I realize how stupid I was. You see, in this highly advanced laboratory, you can't simply walk over to platforms that are about to rise. You have to run, like a mad man, and jump and grab it as its flying off into the distance.

I played a few more minutes of WAR before I stopped, forever. The game was just a poor, poor quality game ( or a good, good example of crap, whichever way you want to look at it). Technically, the game looks good, but this does not make up the many flaws in design that become apparent after only one minute of play.

To conclude: don't play it, don't waste your time, don't let Wolverine's rage become your own.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/14/03, Updated 07/14/03