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Good: Nightcrawler levels, a couple Iceman stages, some boss fights

Bad: Terribly repetitive, basic combat, occasional graphical glitches

Why: Does Professor X look like Zordon from Power Rangers?

The X-Men franchise has been represented with varying levels of quality in the videogame industry. There have been a couple great titles (the old arcade game, X-Men Legends) and a host of disappointing ones that feel rushed and/or unfinished. Unfortunately, X-Men: The Official Game falls into the latter category.

Events unfold between the second and third movies, but nothing of any real significance takes place in the game's narrative. Some big fans of the movie series were excited about the game, considering it claimed to explain Nightcrawler's absence from the third film. If you're thinking about playing through this title for that reason don't'. The scene isn't worthy of your time or your money.

Missions unfold in a branching path with three playable characters: Wolverine, Iceman and Nightcrawler. Wolverine is the straight-up brawler character, and his levels are easily the weakest out of the bunch. He can't really do much except for basic melee attacks and health regeneration. Because of this, all of his stages are generic and repetitive. Most simply involve moving from room to room while countless enemies are thrown at you. Some stages (especially in the later sections of the game) almost reminded me of Smash TV, in that they were simple rooms with an endless swarm of enemies. Wolverine's attack combos are about as basic as they get, and his rage mode isn't of much use.

Iceman's levels are a little more tolerable thanks to his fun control scheme. They're all essentially "surfing" levels, thanks to Iceman's ability to lay down a path of ice in front of him at all times. They almost play like a watered-down Ace Combat, complete with airborne enemies that you have to lock-on to. The actual controls work well, but the objectives lend themselves to some fairly tedious objectives. Most missions require you to constantly put out fires or freeze things while simultaneously fighting an enemy or destroying objectives. Like Wolverine's levels, it just seems like a cheap way to extend the length of the game. Why add more interesting objectives when you can just throw more enemies (or in Iceman's case, fires) at the player for 10 minutes? It seems like lazy programming and it really takes down the quality of the game.

Nightcrawler is the most entertaining to control thanks to his warping ability. His levels are the only ones that feature both entertaining platforming and combat. Simply navigating around the levels is fun considering you can pull the right trigger to warp virtually anywhere. Once enemies enter the equation, you can use this ability to warp behind enemies and take them by surprise. On top of this, there is some basic Prince Of Persia-esque platforming, although it's limited mostly to wall runs and pole swinging.

X-Men is a mixed bag in the graphical sense. Whereas the main characters are well-designed and look good in HD, all of the enemies are as generic as can be. The environments are bland and uninspired, no matter how many destructible items are included. There were many times that I noticed graphical glitches. Characters animate jerkily, and there was a reoccurring glitch involving the weapons of dead enemies floating to the ceiling. No aspect of the soundtrack stands out as either "good" or "terrible," it's just there. Like the rest of the game, all of the technical issues seem phoned in.

Games based on films have been notoriously bad with few exceptions. X-Men: The Official Game does nothing to remedy that problem, and gives players no real incentive to play. Combat is basic and missions are terribly repetitive. There are some decent boss fights and some unlockables, but the game won't keep most player's attention for even one playthrough.

Graphics: D+

Sound: D+

First Play: D

Replay Value: D

Gameplay: D-

Overall: 62% D