00:00With three very enjoyable Spider-Man games under its belt, there's few studios I'd trust more to
00:06get Marvel's Wolverine right than Insomniac. But to be perfectly honest, the dev has never quite
00:11made a perfect superhero game. I still wake up in a cold sweat each and every night screaming about
00:18those awful Mary Jane stealth sections. While Wolverine has put in some great appearances
00:23across games like Marvel's Midnight Suns and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, it has been tough
00:29to get the sharp-clawed hero right in the past. Insomniac Games' bread and butter has always been
00:35about giving us access to power fantasies, even before releasing Marvel's Spider-Man. Each Ratchet
00:40and Clank introduced bigger, badder, beefier weapons for its cute cartoon hero, and even Spyro the Dragon
00:46felt fresh at the time with his dragon-based powers, including pointy horns and flame breath. Since
00:51tackling Spidey, each subsequent game from the studio has only gotten better at superheroics,
00:56which is why the first-party exclusive Marvel's Wolverine isn't just one of the biggest new PS5
01:02games of the year, but is one of my most anticipated new releases of 2026 across the board. Well,
01:08with that in mind, here's four things that we want, and four things we resolutely don't from
01:14Wolverine's new game. Do combat that varies up endless clawing. Wolverine is rated M for mature,
01:22but based on the violence in the reveal trailer, he's hoping to earn a more thematically appropriate
01:27X. Wolverine's claws tear through torsos, merrily lop off limbs, and our buried in human skulls so
01:33graphically that even Jason Voorhees would tell him to ease up a little. I'd be lying if I claimed a
01:38somewhat unpleasant part of me wasn't gleefully looking forward to slicing chumps into extra bloody ribbons.
01:45What? But keeping combat interesting for a whole campaign is tricky, even with two fistfuls of
01:51knives. This action-heavy slasher will likely keep things fresh by having you buy new moves from a
01:56skill tree, if the Spider-Man games are any indication, but hopefully it'll also have fighting
02:01options unique to each location. We see Wolverine walk into a bar in the trailer, and I'll be livid if
02:07that's not setting up slamming someone's head through a jukebox. Extra points if it then starts playing
02:12the X-Men animated series theme. Tokyo and Canada are also confirmed, which means samurai swords
02:19and maple syrup bottles you can squeeze into enemies' eyes should be too. The former is even
02:24straight from the comics. Don't make us play anyone without powers. I'm still in disbelief that Mary
02:31Jane's aforementioned boring stealth sections returned for Spider-Man 2. I do not want a Wolverine
02:36game that misguidedly tries to add variety by having us play a level as Wolverine's boring mate.
02:42Luckily, if Insomniac is determined to have multiple playable characters again,
02:46there is an obvious solution. Do multiple playable mutants.
02:50With Mystique and Omega Red confirmed, and surely more surprise mutants to come,
02:54how about sections where we play as one of them? Mystique can transform her appearance to perfectly
02:59mimic anyone else, which basically makes her a walking hitman level. A token stealth section would
03:04actually feel pretty novel if you had to constantly avoid running into yourself. Omega Red can release
03:10death spores that kill humans instantly. So how about a minigame where you blow on
03:14the controller and send those spores off to your victims? Actually, no, let's stick that last idea
03:20on the maybe pile. Don't use that motorbike for long, boring commutes. When I saw Wolverine riding
03:26a motorbike in the trailer, I wept. Maybe I've got PTSD from Metro Prime 4. But the last thing I
03:32want is
03:33another game that mistakes a long motorbike ride for compelling gameplay. Faking scale by making me
03:38endure a long commute to where the action is will only give me lots of time to think of nasty
03:42things
03:43to call your game, Insomniac. Such as Wolverine, more like Wolverine, to the concept of respecting
03:49the player's time, that is. Yeah, okay, that wasn't great. But that's why you shouldn't give me a long,
03:54dull drive to think of something better. While the Spider-Man games feature huge open worlds,
03:59it's a highlight thanks to the expressivity of web-slinging. Let's take a break and allow Wolverine
04:04to enjoy some smaller, denser environments. Do Amazing Chase set pieces with that motorbike.
04:12At one point in the trailer, Wolverine uses his motorbike to leap onto the back of a moving truck.
04:17Yes, yes, yes. I want on-road fights atop vehicles that are laughing at the speed limit. I want that
04:23bike
04:24to be a constant launch pad to send me giddily soaring towards enemies in need of a good slicing.
04:28I want fools constantly trying to push Logan off his wheels and getting the old adamantium spikes in
04:34their tires for the trouble, if not their screaming faces. It's about time a studio with a mega budget
04:40remade Road Rash properly. Don't tell the story through endless walk and talk scenes. Hands up,
04:47everyone who bought Spider-Man 2 so they could endure an unskippable night at the fun fair with
04:52Peter Parker and pals. Now, put your hands down before I slap you with them. I am so tired of
04:58the walk and
04:58talk sequence, sometimes broken up with tedious minigames, if you're lucky, as a method of
05:04storytelling. They're an overdone way to disguise and needlessly lengthen what are essentially cutscenes.
05:10Wolverine is all about action. I hope if anyone suggests a stroll to Logan, he rightly buries his claws in
05:17their kneecaps. Don't look like that. That's not even close to the most violent thing he does in the
05:23trailer. Do a story with a fresh take on Wolverine. One of the things I like the most about the
05:29Spider-Man
05:30games are when they play around with the classic story beats, like making Venom a different character
05:35to Eddie Brock in Spider-Man 2. Now, according to Sony's website, Wolverine is on the hunt to uncover
05:41the secrets of a dark past that keeps eluding him. Now, I've got everything across that said dark past
05:47is not simply the time William Stryker gave his skeleton a metallic makeover, because that's been
05:52covered to death by comics, cartoons, and one particularly awful movie. Which, bizarrely,
05:58also gave us the only good Wolverine game so far. So, that's something, I guess. Give us a new origin,
06:06or at least a new dark past to discover, even if it turns out to just be the time he
06:10and Cyclops got
06:11too into a game of strip poker. And don't tell a story that keeps endlessly setting up threads for
06:18later games. Spider-Man 2 had a real nasty case of this. I endured a tedious side quest because I
06:24thought
06:24it was building up to a boss battle with Carnage. Nope. It ends with Cletus Kasady saying the word
06:29Carnage basically to camera before disappearing. Likewise with Chameleon. Likewise with Silk.
06:35I don't mind a post-credits tease, but I didn't pay $70 to watch a trailer for Spider-Man 3.
06:41A Wolverine game with a whole new universe of mutants to introduce could potentially indulge
06:46far too much of this. I don't want a cutscene of Logan saying, oh, maybe I'll check out this
06:51so-called mutant school some other time. Or texting Toad to apologetically cancel their boss fight
06:57because he's too busy with a long boring motorbike ride to the Tokyo level. So, there's our four do's
07:02and don'ts for Marvel's Wolverine. But what do you want and don't want to see in Insomniac's upcoming
07:08game? Let us know and stick with GamesRadar for the biggest 2026 titles.
