Wolverine adds to his world record achievements with a new videogame release
Today is the release of Marvel’s Wolverine, a new and very much blockbusting big budget bub ‘em up from Insomniac Games, the same team behind the Marvel’s Spider-man games. (I lack the creativity to work a “snickt!” joke into this article as well, so just pretend I have please.) With this, Wolverine cements his title as the character with the most spin-off X-Men videogames, bringing his total up to six.
A long-standing favourite, the super-healing supe with metal bones and some retractable fist-claws got his first titular videogame all the way back in 1991, which saw the launch of Wolverine (without the Marvel’s prefix) from now-defunct Software Creations.
This NES game saw Wolverine stuck on a remote island, although in fairness the X-Men were on hand to give advice. The side-scrolling, 2D platformer was a far cry from where Wolverine has ended up today, in an all singing, all dancing (and, um, quite violent if we’re honest) 3D action adventure.
Wolverine, or Logan to his friends (and his friends’ girlfriends he’s weirdly pining over), is voiced by Liam McIntyre in the new game, which is a bit of a change. Previously, Wolverine has been played by prolific veteran voice actor Steve Blum, who has portrayed the role in 22 games, the most voice credits as Wolverine in a videogame.
Of course, we yet don’t know if the world’s favourite Canadian can opener will set new records with Marvel’s Wolverine, but it seems likely, as anticipation has been high ever since this game was revealed in a hack some time back.
The game trailers show many of Wolverine’s old friends and foes making an appearance, including a fearsome stomping Sentinel robot and a no less fearsome but much more fashionable Mystique, so there’s plenty to dig into. And maybe even a cross-over with Spider-Man. Who knows? Not me, because I’m writing this article. You keep me chained to my desk, honestly.
Of course, Wolverine is famously portrayed by Hugh Jackman on screen. His stint alongside Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool & Wolverine (USA, 2024) broke records as the highest-grossing R-rated film ($1,338,071,348 [£1.07 bn; €1.26 bn] by 30 January 2025) and the highest-grossing opening weekend for an R-rated film at the global box office after pulling in $445.4 million (£350.7 million; €408.3 million) in its opening weekend of 24–28 July 2024.
We even surprised both the actors with their certificates while they were in the UK appearing on TV show This Morning.
Jackman also previously held the record for longest career as a live action Marvel character after starring as Wolverine for over 16 years, but Wesley Snipes' surprise return as Blade in Deadpool & Wolverine took the title with a total of 25 years 340 days.
All images courtesy of Marvel/Sony.