X-Men: The Official Game

PGNx Media

The three main characters are very detailed and authentic to their film counterparts. Wolverine is bigger than the others; Ice Man retains that young look, while Nightcrawler looks as weird as usual. The animation is solid, as well.

Game Chronicles

Some of his levels are filled with ridiculous amounts of enemies, and even though the levels appear to have multiple stages or sections, there isn’t a checkpoint in sight. I love a challenge, but I hate mindless repetition.

Pelit (Finland)

A technically sound, if a bit too easy and short action-adventure. The three significantly different heroes are a nice touch. But why buy the movie licence, if the game has little to do with the movie? [June 2006]

VGPub

This is a perfect rental game, since it’s fantastic in short bursts, and its flaws are only exposed during long play sessions.

Game Over Online

X-Men: The Official Game isn't a terrible game, but it's not any good, either. It managed to dip down below mediocre and into the realm of "Why bother?" It's short, uninteresting, and probably won't keep your attention based solely on the fighting, either. It's an odd mishmash that just doesn't work out the way it was supposed to.

PSM2 Magazine UK

A solid playable affair that suffers death by a thousand cuts in the form of too many niggling short-comings. Another so-so X-men game, then. [July 2006, p.73]

PSW Magazine UK

A very solid mutant romp, with some cool levels, varied gameplay and pretty sweet graphics to boot. It's certainly better than the average movie tie-in, although we'd advise you not to rush into buying unless you have at least a mild interest in the X-Men universe.

GamingTrend

The difficulty and repetitive nature of the levels does eventually wear down on you.

Worth Playing

Games may not be art, but if they were, X-Men: The Official Game would be like one of those posters of a wizard and a dragon locked in a magical duel to the death.

WHAM! Gaming

Although playing as Wolverine and Nightcrawler is more fun, in the end, even their missions eventually become monotonous. The game definitely could have benefited from more mutants.

Cheat Code Central

Everything considered, the gameplay, the graphics, the dialog, the music, make X-Men: The Official Game an officially average game.

Gaming Target

It picks out a crew of three playable X-Men no right-minded comic book geek would pair, and slaps together a fairly mediocre combat system without a good deal of balance.

Official U.S. Playstation Magazine

With the exception of a few factual glitches (it's Shadowcat that can walk through walls, not Nightcrawler), the game's pretty solid and fun overall. [July 2006, p.76]

Times Online

Nice graphics and smooth gameplay are no substitute for imagination.

IGN

The combat and stage design are substandard in every way, enemy AI is ordinary coin-op fare, and the presentational elements are nowhere near the level we've come to expect from Marvel or Activision.

GamingExcellence

The killing part is fun when you find the special X-Men powers amusing, but that river runs dry approximately an hour into the game, which is actually a decent ratio when compared to the total playtime of about six hours.

GameSpot

It's not that it's entirely broken, mind you, but X-Men's missions are entirely generic and devoid of captivating content, and there are enough annoying little glitches and other obnoxious things prevalent throughout to give the game that thrown-together feel.

GameZone

X-Men: The Official Game had the potential to break free from the stereotypically bad superhero genre but ended up contributing to it.

eToychest

One of the chief problems with X-Men lies in its mission structure. Branching paths are often a good thing, but when they are as disconnected to point where any semblance of an underlying plot is compromised at these are here, any benefit of such a feature is wasted.

Gaming Horizon

There is a nice variety of combat amongst Wolverine, Iceman and Nightcrawler and the voice acting by their movie counterparts is solid. Beyond that though, X-Men is disappointing in just about every other regard. The graphics are dull and lifeless, the enemies are predictable and the gameplay is brain-damagingly repetitive.

PSX Extreme

If you’re looking for a great X-Men game, consider the enjoyable Legends series. The generic, thrown together experience known as X-Men: The Official Game is not what you’re looking for.

Games Master UK

Predictable action game that fails to excite or exploit the great characters at its disposal. [July 2006, p.74]

Next Level Gaming

Only controlling three characters, no multiplayer of any kind, and reverting to basically a 3rd-person "beat 'em up" is not the way to take this franchise.

Games Radar (in-house)

You could probably leech out a weekend's worth of so-so gaming, and at 30 bucks, you'll still have plenty of cash to check out the upcoming film. It's bound to be more exciting than this.

1UP

While the gameplay does have its high points (again, mostly surrounding Nightcrawler), it's also quite often littered with monotony thanks to seemingly nonexistent enemy A.I., confusion (poor level design), and frustration (glitches, a sometimes lack of checkpoints, and uneven challenges).

TotalPlayStation

Brain-dead enemy AI, a story that does nothing to recall some of the better arcs from the comics -- especially around this, perhaps the most powerful storyline the comics ever saw, and an experience that isn't befitting of the development team all add up to something that's wholly underwhelming and reeks of missed potential.

AceGamez

It's sad to say, but after playing this I spent a good few hours playing Wolverine's Revenge and having more fun in the process - and that game is over three years old!

ZTGameDomain

The disappointment comes from the fact that it simply feels average. I left the game feeling like I wanted more, whether it was better visuals, more diverse game play, or simply a fresh helping of innovation.

PSM Magazine

Toss in some lame, animatic-style storytelling, and you have a good reason to save your mmoney for movie tickets or comic books. [Aug 2006, p.84]

Game Almighty

All in all, this game is a renter at best. It is enjoyable at first glance, but gets old quickly. ¬X-Men: The Official Game falls short in too many areas to become a worthy video game companion to the film franchise.

GamePro

Thanks to some horribly generic gameplay and uninspired combat, it ends up continuing the disappointing trend of movie license video games.

Game Revolution

This caught-between-generations game manages to just barely clear graphical obstacles and shallow depth by introducing some simple, fun game mechanics.

GameSpy

Perhaps the worst offense of all would have to be Wolverine. Not only has Z-Axis managed to take everyone's favorite adamantium-infused Canadian wildman and turn him into possibly the most boring hero ever, they've pinned a sizable majority of the action upon playing as him. Boring, you say? Yes.

Yahoo! Games

Like many games of this style, there is some vague, half-guilty pleasure in the mechanical repetitiveness of the game's combat. But ultimately, X-Men is in the time-honored tradition of licensed games -- rushed, derivative, and well worth avoiding.

Game Informer

Unless you despise the X-Men movies and simply want more ammo that can be used to insult your friends, I strongly advise that you avoid this game like you would a French kissing toad. [July 2006, p.104]

Jolt Online Gaming UK

As it is, X-Men: The Official Game is “officially” a horse’s turd of an experience that’s approximately as painful as Wolverine’s claws inadvertently sliding out while he’s wiping his arse.

Electronic Gaming Monthly

The play-style variety may be decent--and you get to upgrade abilities--but each character's level sets grow horribly repetitive and pointless, with stingy checkpoint placement compounding the frustration [July 2006, p.91]

Play Magazine

X-Men: The Official Game is pretty awful. [July 2006, p.71]

Gaming Age

While the voice work is fine, the whole thing just comes off as so low rent, it’s hard to take it seriously. It’s a shame too because the filler story isn’t that bad.

Play UK

This game is ass; don't buy it. Don't even rent it. [Issue 141, p.106]

Edge Magazine

Had The Official Game provided a consistent overall challenge, it would have been bearable, if unexciting. But it hasn’t, and it isn’t. [July 2006, p.88]

games(TM)

When accurately describing videogames, we tend to use the word ‘dross’ rarely, but this particular X-Men title has forced the word from us in a spectacular fashion. [July 2006, p.130]

Official Playstation 2 Magazine UK

Uninspired action, laughable cinematics and repetitive action make this the summer blockbuster tie-in to avoid. [July 2006, p.88]

VideoGamer

The idea of giving the player three fairly unique characters to play as is good one, but the game design verges on plain stupid at times.