With the imminent release of X-Men 3, it is time for the usual cash-in game that seems to accompany any and all blockbuster movies these days. The X-Men characters have become a familiar gaming franchise, with many games of varying genres produced over the years. Some of them concentrate on the fighting aspect of the characters, while others deal with the stories from the comics, cartoons or films. This game is unique in that instead of basing it on the upcoming film (and thereby spoiling the plot, as Revenge of the Sith did), X-Men: The Official Game bridges the plots between X-Men 2 and 3. This is an interesting concept that allows for a new story and creates even more interest in both the last film and the new film in relation to it.

At least it would, if the game wasn't quite so disappointing. It's a real shame, as it seems to have everything going for it; a plot written by Zak Penn (X-Men 2) and Chris Claremont (Co-Creator of the X-Men), development by Z-Axis (creators of the classic Aggressive Inline), voiceovers by members of the cast including all three main characters Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) and Shawn Ashmore (Iceman). Despite all these advantages, this game just never seems to get off the ground.

Ask any true comic fan, "Which character would you like to be?" and after the umming and ahhing and comparing the possibilities of webflinging, flying or a utility belt, I guarantee that most will choose Logan aka Wolverine. He is seen as having so many cool qualities; self-healing powers and blades that come out of his hands! What more could you ask for? Of course, this means that he would make a great computer game character. Right? I will warn those who are nodding their heads now: do not play this game. Wolverine is an underused and badly presented character, in an overall weak game.

The game follows main characters Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Iceman over twenty eight levels, with a mission to defeat Hydra, The Brotherhood and a whole host of villains. Having not seen the third film, it's hard to say what, if any, relevance this game has. For the second film, however it just seems to tie up a few loose ends and follow the same generic storyline of most games of this nature, while swapping between the three characters for their own specific levels. These vary in style and their levels meet those needs, yet this all seems to be a mixed bag of good and bad points. Wolverine is your typical scrapper, but seems to have forgotten half of the fighting skills he had in 2003's Wolverine's Revenge. Iceman soars in the air on a surface of ice and can fire icy projectile at enemies, but he's hampered by the fact most of his levels have time limits, which sap most of the fun away. Nightcrawler can teleport to various areas over the level, which is a wonderful element that this makes his segments the most fun. However, even that is spoilt by the relative simplicity; rather than move about, you can simply teleport in the direction of the compass; do this enough and you will eventually reach your checkpoint. This does not make for a great gaming experience.

The gist of each level is to complete a few tasks, beat up a number of thoroughly stupid guards, (I shudder to think who created the AI and thought it was acceptable) and move on to the next level. At points throughout the game, a boss appears. These are your typical "Hit them in a certain place a few times"-types and pose very little threat. This isn't to say that they aren't fun though - they are. In fact, they are the best part of the game. It's just a shame that the rest of the game is repetitive and very little fun at all. At times the story branches off, which means that (for a time) you can play the game a few times and change how the story and game progresses. This adds some much needed replayability elements for those who are curious about what would happen if they chose differently the next time around. It's very doubtful you'll have the incentive to do this though.

At times the game tries to be too clever; we're presented with a comic-book style to the narrative and cut scenes. These are novel at first, but after a while you begin to feel they just couldn't be bothered to animate the cut scenes! This makes following the story difficult, as you begin to tire of the sight of Storm speaking with no mouth moving. The characters are well designed, but I still felt they're not as good as they should have been. At times you feel like they only designed a few actual levels and added a few bits of scenery to make those same generic levels look a bit different. In some, the lighting is so bad that you can barely make out what you're doing. Even if that is the point, it still doesn't make it fun to watch or play.

The sound is also limited and apart from the excellent voiceovers, all the effects are very forgettable, while the music seems to have a mind of its own; it sparks into life dramatically if you do something as simple as move about, but then once some actual drama happens it goes silent. There is plenty of extra content to discover, which is at least one nice touch; this is unlocked by searching for collectables throughout the levels, which adds a little replayability for those who desire to find them all. The extras themselves are the usual stuff, such as unlockable costumes, but nothing that makes this aspect of the game truly essential.

X-Men: The Official Game is a terrible waste of a usually excellent license. Rather than create excitement for the new film, it actually makes me fear what a non-Singer directed X-Men movie may be like. Both story and game are horrible to behold, meaning that there is very little here to recommend. 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! All we can really hope is that when the next X-Men action title comes along, all the mistakes made in this one are learned from, rather than repeated.

Reviewed by David Simpson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).