Wolverine: Adamantium Rage (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Wolverine's back, this time on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, and he's still pissed off about adamantium. Not to be confused with the SNES game of the same name.

I hate it when companies develop different games for different systems but give them the same name, it's just confusing. It'd be forgiveable if they were based on a movie or whatever like the Batman 1989 games, but they're not, so I don't forgive them.

Okay that's just creepy.

Like in the SNES version, there's a database of info about Wolverine and his foes on the title screen. Wow, Bloodscream huh? That's pretty bad.

Oh, I guess Wolverine agrees with me.

It's going wavy, so I guess we're going to a flashback.

I had to splice two screenshots together so the monitor is visible, because I don't have screenshot space to waste.

It seems Wolverine's daydreaming about when he got his metal coated skeleton. I guess back then he was the only person around who didn't have clearance for that computer. Actually considering what he does to a computer screen at the start of the SNES game for no good reason, maybe they just want to keep the monitor hidden from him.

Two more screenshots spliced together.

Apparently they scientists didn't realise Wolverine was a mutant before they started the procedure. I would have thought at least one of them would have done an x-ray and seen the claws before pouring metal into his body.

No he isn't turning into the Hulk, they've just got the place lit green. For a creepy 'mad science' kind of ambience.

And then Wolverine breaks his chains and...

Wait, what? Did I skip something? Are we back to the present day now?

It's got the same name as the SNES game, so I'm going to assume that they have the same plot; this is the present day and Wolverine was told to come here by an email.

Never mind, there's no time for speculation. I've got robots and scientists to cut up.

Wolverine seems much more responsive than in the SNES game, and even though the controller has half the buttons on it, he seems to have just as many moves. Like this double jump spinning claw somersault for instance.

For a scientist this guy seems to be taking a lot of punishment. What's the point of having all these cool well animated attacks if they barely seem to hurt the enemies? At least there doesn't seem to be a counter telling me to 'kill 15 enemies to proceed' in this one.

Graphically though I think both games are roughly equal. I think I slightly prefer the Mega Drive Wolverine sprite, but I can't say either of them are bad.

Right, I've brought the lift down... now what? It's not moving.

Ah, I flick the lever and... oh, now it's going up without me.

It's going to be one of those kinds of games isn't it? I guess I need to flick the lever while the platform's still coming down, then jump on it before it goes back up.

Damn these flying robots are annoying. My spinning claw somersault move seems fairly useless against them and despite all my other attacks I can't seem to find one that'll consistently connect with it. I've got regenerating health, but it's so slow that this thing actually has a chance of killing me.

Fuck it, I'm making a run for it. So long you flying bastard!

Of course he has a friend, waiting to ambush me on the floor above.

At least this version has lives, so I was able to jump right back into the game. Though it really does seem to take a lot of slicing to kill anyone in this. I'm starting to think it's not worth the effort.

Also that picture on the bottom right is starting to worry me. I'm not sure what happens when the little red dot hits the Wolverine head silhouette but I can't imagine it'll be anything good.

Another lever, nothing obvious changed when I flicked it though.

Disappearing floor, awesome.

Well at least now I know what the switch does. It puts the floor back. No clue how that makes any sense.

Uh, how the hell do I get past this beam then? Actually first I need to figure out how to get up there, then I can worry about how to get past the beam.


LATER.

Turns out I needed to break a hologram generator on the floor beneath, then do a running spinning blade somersault move to get up and onto the beam platform. Then I dive through the now flickering beam, do a running jump... and totally fail to reach the ledge on the other side.

I mean seriously, I pretty much only got halfway across. No clue what I'm doing wrong.

Then I fall all the way down and land by the floor restoring lever again. So I need to pull the lever, go up the stairs, jump across the newly restored disappearing floor, through the broken hologram generator, up the lift, dive through the flickering beam...

Right, okay. Let's try this jump again.

Huh, what the fuck? Did I run out of time or something?

Oh shit, that's no innocent child in distress, that's an evil time bomb with pigtails!

She explodes and now I'm down to my final life.


SEVERAL LEAPS LATER.

Oh come on, I was SO CLOSE that time!

Back to the lever then I guess. And then the stairs, the disappearing floor, the broken hologram generator...

THERE, I made it! I just had to spin a few times in the air to get across. And now I can flick the mysterious lever.

And I may finally proceed.

Holy shit, what's that? A robot dog?

Whatever it is, I don't like it. Stay down!

Kick, kick, kick... I really wish these enemies didn't take so long to kill.

And then I'm killed by a humble robot. Again.

The other X-Men show up to gloat. Or mourn, whatever.

Shame they didn't show up to help, that could have been useful.

There's no continues, but just to be fair I started up a new game and played it again. And this time I've reached a boss, which I've had to disassemble piece by piece.

I'm not sure what the correct strategy is supposed to be here, I just got in close and hammered the attack buttons until he fell apart.


BUT SOON AFTERWARDS...

I made some progress after the boss fighting, but my timer ran out and that damn exploding child caught up to me again in the middle of a missed jump. And then it was all over.


This one nearly pissed me off as much as the SNES game, but for different reasons. This Wolverine is fast and nimble but takes forever to kill anything. SNES Wolverine is slow and powerful, but it's a pain to get his attacks to connect. This version forced me to repeat sections of game over and over each time I missed a jump, the SNES version had me searching maze-like levels forever for the last few enemies to kill. I just don't want to play either of them again.

In fact no more Wolverine games for a while. I need time to regenerate my naive enthusiasm and misguided curiosity.