There are all kinds of games out there that depict “entertainment violence.”
Entertainment violence where you spray bullets to turn a horde of zombies into a beehive; entertainment violence where you bring monsters to their knees with giant swords and magic; or entertainment violence where you beat up random players in PvP. I believe this is a form of entertainment that pairs exceptionally well with games, standing right alongside humanity’s three basic desires.
And “Marvel’s Wolverine,” a PlayStation 5 game set to be released by Sony Interactive Entertainment on September 15, 2026, also delivers top-notch entertainment violence.
In essence, it’s an extremely raw and gritty form of violence: “A small, hairy middle-aged man with the world’s hardest claws sprouting from both hands dives into the heart of the enemy and literally minces them to bits—only to be mercilessly minced to bits himself.”
Ahead of the release, SIE provided us with a full-game code, giving us the opportunity to play it early on a PS5 Pro.Although I played the Japanese version, the audio can be switched between Japanese and English, and—as befits a CERO Z-rated title—the game is packed to the brim with graphic depictions of violence, including dismemberment and blood splatter, presented without the slightest hesitation.
To all the gentlemen and ladies who’ve been worrying lately—perhaps due to the blood effects restrictions in *The Blood of Dawnwalker*—that “the Japanese version might end up toned down due to censorship…,” please rest assured. Limbs get torn off left and right. Characters get blown to bits by grenades, too.
For those who aren’t fond of gory scenes, there’s a solid option to turn off the blood effects, so you can rest easy as well (though it’s a mystery just how many people would actually play this game with that turned off…).
The game is developed by the legendary Insomniac Games—the prestigious studio that put a smile on gamers’ faces worldwide by letting Spider-Man swing spectacularly through New York in *Marvel’s Spider-Man*.
If you pick up the controller with a carefree expression, thinking, “Since it’s made by that Insomniac, it’s surely going to be another stylish and exhilarating hero action game…,” within minutes of starting, you’ll see the protagonist giving the middle finger with his claws, the protagonist spectacularly tearing off enemies’ arms and legs,a protagonist who fills the screen with a crimson haze of blood, and a protagonist who gets beaten to a pulp and brought to his knees right from the start—I couldn’t help but burst out laughing at this scene straight out of hell.
The range of styles is just too extreme. Where on earth did my dear neighbor go? Standing on the screen was nothing but a ferocious beast.
Is this the best?
X-MEN? Never heard of them. An Unnervingly Tense Opening Set in a Workplace Full of Villains
First off, I was blown away by the worldview and story—they’re so clean-cut and uncompromising.
When you hear “Wolverine,” most people probably picture him as a member of the “X-Men,” the team of heroes led by Professor X.You know, that reliable big brother figure who gets into tense rivalries over Cyclops and Jean, and looks after young mutants at the school. However, the X-Men don’t appear at all in this game’s universe. Yet, it’s set in a universe unique to this game that’s directly connected to *Marvel’s Spider-Man*.
The story focuses on Logan (Wolverine)’s dark past—a time when, having lost his memory and gone feral, he had completely lost his sanity. He was discovered by Nathaniel Essex (Mr. Sinister), and contrary to the lofty ideal of creating a world where mutants could live,he found himself in a dark period as a member of “Team X,” a unit tasked solely with dirty work.
The game begins aboard a helicopter heading to rescue the imprisoned Essex, three years after Logan left Team X, thoroughly fed up with it. At this moment, the active Team X members accompanying the rescue squad are quite the sight.
Piloting the helicopter is Mystique, a blue-skinned assassin capable of freely shifting her appearance. And sitting next to her, radiating a menacing aura, is her longtime arch-nemesis, the giant Sabertooth.
All of her former colleagues are villains.
The work environment is absolutely terrible.
A mad battle design that says, “If you don’t want to die, charge in”
This game isn’t like *Marvel’s Spider-Man*, where you freely swing through a vast open world. It’s a story-driven, linear action-adventure where you progress through linear stages while mowing down enemies.
The basic controls—light attacks, heavy attacks, parries, dodges, and various special moves—are very simple and intuitive for a modern action game. Using your instincts to anticipate enemy attack timings and parrying attacks with your claws feels incredibly satisfying when combined with the DualSense’s haptic feedback.
However, that’s not where this game truly shines. The “Rage Gauge” in the upper-left corner of the screen—this is the game’s standout feature that really drives itself into your very marrow as you control Wolverine.
This gauge fills up as you attack enemies. Amazingly, if you have two bars stocked, even if your HP drops to zero and you die, Wolverine’s healing factor kicks in and instantly revives you right on the spot.
“Wait, so does that mean he can respawn infinitely like a zombie, making the game a total walk in the park?”
You thought that, didn’t you? I totally thought the same thing at first, too. But the reality wasn’t nearly that easy.
First off, the enemies are incredibly aggressive, and their attacks hurt like hell.They’re also tough to guard against, and they mercilessly surround you in groups to beat you to a pulp, so even on Normal difficulty (level 3 out of 5), a single misjudgment will drain your health in an instant—leaving you on the ground before you even have a chance to fill your Rage Gauge. I got knocked down a terrifying number of times before beating the game. You can adjust the enemies’ strength to some extent.
The enemies’ motivation is just crazy. I mean, seriously—an old guy whose entire skeleton is made of the strongest metal and who regenerates instantly no matter how badly you hurt him is charging at you in a weird costume, letting out a war cry? How can anyone even stand up to him? He’s way too brave.
You might start to wonder which side is actually on the side of justice, but rest assured—the enemies are such total scum that they make even Wolverine’s violence seem tame (or rather, Wolverine is actually a really good guy at heart).
Getting back to the Rage Gauge, the main reason this game captures the essence of Wolverine so perfectly is the mechanic where “the Rage Gauge gradually depletes over time if you don’t do anything.”
So, what does that mean?
If you play it safe—thinking, “My health is in trouble, so I’ll hide behind cover for a bit and see what happens…”—your lifeline, the Rage Gauge, will drop rapidly, and you’ll eventually die without even being able to use Super Recovery.
So, what do you do if you want to survive? You have no choice but to let out a war cry, charge at the enemy in front of you, sink your claws in, and keep slashing away until blood spatters everywhere.
Furthermore, once the gauge fills to the third stage, you’ll transition into “Demon Strength Mode.” While in this mode, you’re incredibly powerful and can unleash finishers that take down enemies in a single hit—but the gauge drains at an insane rate the entire time, and to make matters worse, Demon Strength Mode activates automatically—a feature that’s more of a nuisance than a help!
You’d want to save it for tough enemies or when you’re in a pinch—since you’re getting stronger—but you’re already in a rage, so that’s just not going to happen! Also, since activating a finisher increases your gauge, the developers have cleverly designed the game to encourage you to take down enemies with even more ferocity.
Thanks to this crazy system, players are inevitably forced to become “that crazy guy who charges headfirst into danger zones—Wolverine.”
You parry enemy attacks, kick them against the wall, and drive your adamantium claws into their heads to finish them off.Amid the violent spectacle of blood mist swirling and limbs flying off, your survival instinct and destructive impulse become completely intertwined—and that’s when you realize, “Oh, right now, I’m totally Wolverine…” It’s a combat experience where game design and character essence are perfectly aligned.
The story is great, too
I mentioned earlier that Team X is a workplace full of villains, but in reality, this is taking a serious toll on Wolverine’s mental state as well.
While his fighting style is that of a bloodthirsty Wolverine, in reality, he’s a man who cares for others, cherishes children, and—despite being a solitary beast—possesses the goodness of a decent person. Of course, for someone with such an upright heart, a workplace full of nothing but dirty jobs is simply impossible. His mind can’t handle it.
The story really picks up when Wolverine meets the woman destined for him, Jean Grey. As he heads to neon-lit Tokyo in pursuit of a kidnapped former colleague, the narrative begins to interweave with his lost past.
I’ll spare the details, but it’s wonderful how Wolverine’s humanity is gradually brought to light through the careful depiction of his interactions with Jean.Liam McIntyre, who played Wolverine, used subtle facial expressions and gentle gestures that created a striking contrast with his beast-like side.
The stylish Wolverine even pays attention to his claws
Character progression elements are also included.
There’s a skill tree that lets you customize your Berserker to your liking, with options like a skill that restores health when you stab enemies repeatedly, a boost to the Rage Gauge’s rate of increase, extended parry input time, and an increase in the number of rotations for the signature spinning slash.
Just like in *Marvel’s Spider-Man*, there’s an extensive selection of costumes as a treat for fans—ranging not only from those in the original comics, anime, and movies but also including outfits from *MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls*, which was just released this past August.
My personal favorite is the yellow costume from the movie *Deadpool & Wolverine*, and I really enjoyed getting into character while playing with “Like A Prayer”—the song that played in the movie—as my background music. Just like in the movie, you can slice off limbs left and right—that’s one of the great things about games based on original IPs.
And what really hit the spot for me personally was the fact that you can customize not just the suit, but even the “shape of the claws.”
What does “changing the appearance of the claws” even mean??? Are there craftsmen behind the scenes diligently filing and shaping the adamantium claws?
Honestly, the details are so minute that you can’t really tell the difference while you’re actually moving around. The photo mode is well-developed, so it seems like it would work well with that.
I was impressed by the attention to detail in the Japan stage
Japan is featured as one of the stages in the main story. And it’s not just a quick bonus level you breeze through—the Japan segment actually takes up a significant portion of the game.
While the story doesn’t take you all over Japan—it mainly unfolds in Shinjuku’s Kabukichō district—the atmosphere of the city is outstanding, thanks to the location tests conducted with the full cooperation of SIE Japan.
(*Details of the location test are posted on the official blog—it mentions 5.6 TB of footage shot at various locations and a smartphone with a shattered back cover, reflecting the team’s hard work. Be sure to check it out.)
Thanks to the staff’s hard work, *Marvel’s Wolverine* is packed with the gritty, chaotic essence of Kabukicho. There were also none of those mysterious Japanese text displays with weird fonts that are so common in foreign games. When Kabukichō is the setting, it’s hard not to compare it to Kamurochō, as depicted in Japan’s pride and joy, the *Yakuza* series. However, this game offers its own unique portrayal that conveys a “foreign perspective combined with respect for Japan,” and it faithfully recreates the atmosphere of Japan.
Still, since an overseas studio is taking the time to depict Japan, I’d really like to see at least a little bit of that “absurd Japan” that a Japanese studio would absolutely never produce…
Just as I was thinking that, it appeared!
The Village of Ninjas! It’s exactly what you’d expect from ninjas!
Whoa! This is it!
First, they put me at ease by showing a photo-realistic, “model student” version of Japan, and then suddenly they throw in these over-the-top, Hollywood-style ninjas. It was the perfect change of pace.
By the way, these ninjas belong to a group called “The Hand,” and since they also appear in *Spider-Man: Brand New Day*, which was released in July, the timing is just perfect.
Flaws That Become Apparent as the Game Progresses
I’ve highlighted the positives so far, but I also need to be frank about the flaws that caused my enthusiasm to gradually fade as the game progressed.
First, compared to the *Marvel’s Spider-Man* series—which blew us away by blending an open world with the PS5’s lightning-fast loading times and web-swinging—this game offers very little in the way of “innovation” or unique experiences.
Structurally, it’s a solidly crafted “linear, story-driven action-adventure,” and to put it bluntly, it’s a very compact game. If you buy it expecting the overwhelming sense of freedom you get from swinging around the streets of New York as you please, you might find the limited scope of your movements rather confining.
In terms of combat as well, the roster of enemies remains virtually unchanged, and combined with the fact that Wolverine’s attack animations against large enemies are almost identical, you’ll face a sense of monotony where even new enemies only perform moves that feel like déjà vu.
Above all, what I found most unsatisfying was that Wolverine’s adamantium claws—which should be his defining feature—lack almost any sense of realism in this game.
Even against minor enemies, it takes slashing them over and over again just to finally take them down. It makes you wonder, “Are these actually aluminum claws instead of adamantium?”
It would have been nice if there had at least been a perk to boost Wolverine’s base attack power during the story campaign, but the only way to get it is—of all things—in the “New Game+” mode after beating the game, which is incredibly frustrating. Make him stronger during the first playthrough! I think they could have increased his attack power once you’ve collected all the claw skins.
Despite being a man with the world’s hardest claws, there are so many objects he can’t slice through—like flimsy construction site fences and wooden doors—that it reveals the unpleasant reality of in-game limitations. I can’t help but brand him as “a tragic beast whose fangs have been pulled and who has been weakened by the system.”It’s a shame that Wolverine’s signature traits have been reduced to such a pathetic state, especially since his humanity was so well-depicted in the story.
Additionally, as a trade-off for focusing on linear progression, there isn’t much side content available. The “Nightmare Trials” scattered throughout the field offer time-attack challenges and wave-based combat where you select perks in a roguelike style, but beyond that, the only other activities are searching for material crates to unlock skins and collecting “whiskey”—Wolverine’s favorite drink—from various locations.
Even though it’s a story-driven, linear game, the exploration elements are thin, representing a clear downgrade from *Marvel’s Spider-Man*.
Furthermore, there’s no denying that the “Nightmare Trials” feel like they were tacked on. Clearing them reveals fragments of Wolverine’s lost past—offering a glimpse into the setting where Wolverine traveled through Japan and the world from the 1800s to the 1900s—which is excellent for reinforcing the main story.
The problem lies in the gameplay of the Nightmare Trials themselves. While the time trials end in about a minute, the wave-based combat ties you up for at least 14 minutes if you’re aiming for the top rewards. Since there’s an exceptionally powerful perk that drastically cuts down on playtime, I even resorted to rerolling to ensure I could select it right from the start. Even so, being forced to repeat the same monotonous, bland combat for over 10 minutes is painful—and to make matters worse, “Gates of Nightmare” suddenly pops up right when the story is building to a climax, which significantly disrupts the overall pacing. As gameplay, the “Nightmare Trials” have almost nothing to commend them.
Furthermore, since the side content is sparse, players inevitably end up focusing solely on the main story—but that main story itself wraps up in about 14 hours.
Even when the second playthrough begins after beating the game, the gameplay remains unchanged—with only a few additional skills and perks—so I couldn’t help but feel a sense of dissatisfaction after reaching the ending.
In *Marvel’s Spider-Man*, for example, there are post-game activities like exploring New York or playing side missions, but this game lacks that. I suppose that’s because the second playthrough—which is usually added via DLC—is included from the start here.
To be honest, when viewed as a full-price game, I couldn’t help but think, “Isn’t this playtime way too short for this price…?” That said, there’s definitely a growing audience these days seeking compact, shorter games as a reaction against “massive titles that take a long time to play through.”During the recent State of Play, there was even a game advertised as taking only about three hours to complete, and seeing people actually delighted by that brevity was a real eye-opener for me.
Overall Impression—While it successfully captures the essence of Wolverine in some ways, there are also some shortcomings
Overall, this title isn’t a revolutionary blockbuster that breaks new ground in gaming. There are also clear flaws, such as the lack of content in the latter half.
The stage design, stripped of all unnecessary elements; the vibrant atmosphere of Kabukicho, meticulously crafted down to the finest details; and above all, the berserker experience created by the insane Rage System—which demands, “If you don’t want to die, charge in and keep tearing enemies apart”—undoubtedly delivers a Wolverine-esque gameplay experience unique to this title.
For Wolverine fans who are tired of stylish, well-behaved superhero role-playing and want to spend a wild, amazing day off—throwing rationality to the wind, splattered with blood, and driving their claws into enemies’ throats—this game’s scale might be just what they’re looking for.
Game*Spark Review: “Marvel’s Wolverine” PlayStation 5 September 15, 2026
"Attack or Die"—the "Super-Regeneration Berserker" system works great with the gameplay mechanics!
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GOOD
- A combat system that matches Wolverine’s signature ferocity
- A story that keeps you hooked
- Liam’s performance brings a different take on Wolverine—Logan—than the live-action adaptations
- Insomniac Games’ development structure allows for a steady stream of new releases
BAD
- Lacks sufficient content
- Aluminum claws
- The “Nightmare Trials” filler content is, quite literally, a nightmare
￥12,355
(価格・在庫状況は記事公開時点のものです)
©2026 MARVEL
©2026 Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. Developed by Insomniac Games, Inc.
