Question for players of X-Men Legends and other X-Men games

[doctorchallenger]

I was hoping I could get the community's help with some research I 'm doing for my dissertation:

How prominant is Wolverine as a character in the X-Men legends series?  I haven't played it, so forgive my ignorance.  Is it like Freedom Force? Does it start out with a single character like Minute Man, and a player can recruit more characters as he goes along?  If so when is Wolverine recuited? How critical is he to winning the game?  Are there any levels when he plays a critical role?

Also, I am aware that there are other X-Men games out there.  If anybody wants to describe Wolverine's role in those games as well, I would welcom that information.

Thanks in advance.

Doc

[Talavar]

For X-men Legends 1 & 2, I don't think Wolverine is critical at all.  As you play through both games you gain access to more characters, and I don't think Wolverine is required at any point in either (though it's been awhile since I've played them).  In X-men Legends 1 you certainly needed Iceman much more than you needed Wolverine.

In Marvel Ultimate Alliance Wolverine is more prominent - you have to use him at the beginning of the game as part of the default team up to a certain point, and he generally features strongly in the CGI cut scenes.  Same in MUA2.

[Tomato]

Wolverine is among your first four Player characters from XML 1 to MUA2, and is always playable from the start... he's only unusable on character-specific levels.

[BWPS]

In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he is absolutely essential to the plot and gameplay and the player is forced to use him throughout.
In X2: Wolverine's Revenge, he plays a crucial role in every second of the game.
In Wolverine: Adamantium Rage, Wolverine is the only playable character.

Are you trying to get your doctorate in Canadian history or Mutant Psychology or what?

[daerdevil]

In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he is absolutely essential to the plot and gameplay and the player is forced to use him throughout.
In X2: Wolverine's Revenge, he plays a crucial role in every second of the game.
In Wolverine: Adamantium Rage, Wolverine is the only playable character.

Are you trying to get your doctorate in Canadian history or Mutant Psychology or what?

The Doctorate in Canadian History had me laughing for about 5 minutes straight. 
PhD in Loganology, perchance?

[doctorchallenger]

Actually, I am getting my PhD in US Cultural History.  My dissertation is an examination of the influence of American gender politics on mainstream superhero comics, from the Silver Age to 1990 (roughly).  My concluding chapter will also touch upon the development of the current enthusiasm for superheroes in motion pictures.  I examine Wolverine as a particularly important and prominent avatar of masculinity that develops in the wake of second wave feminism of the 1970s.   I wasn't seriously considering discussing video games, but I may make mention of it just to bolster my conclusion, especially given that he is essentially the star of at least 3 video games (Thanks BWPS!)

[Tomato]

3 games+... There are at least 2 more Wolverine games done prior to the PS1/N64 if I recall right, not to mention the sheer volume of X-men/Marvel games that prominently focus on the character.

[Previsionary]

3 games+... There are at least 2 more Wolverine games done prior to the PS1/N64 if I recall right, not to mention the sheer volume of X-men/Marvel games that prominently focus on the character.

Tom is correct. Think of it like this, Wolverine is the MOST popular X-man and he, along with Storm, Psylocke, Cyclops, and maybe Nightcrawler, are used as the faces of mutant kind for marketing purposes. So... if there're ANY game that uses the X-men property, 95% chance of Wolverine being in it in some form... and the majority of the time, he'll have enough focus drawn to him that he'll somewhat come off as the lead even when he isn't. Let's not forget all the cameos Wolverine makes in other games as well (Ultimate Spider-man and Tony Hawk Skateboarding come to mind immediately).

I think this wiki entry will give you an idea about how much of a media... um... attention seeker Wolverine is even outside of comics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_in_other_media#Video_games.

[lugaru]

In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he is absolutely essential to the plot and gameplay and the player is forced to use him throughout.
In X2: Wolverine's Revenge, he plays a crucial role in every second of the game.
In Wolverine: Adamantium Rage, Wolverine is the only playable character.

Are you trying to get your doctorate in Canadian history or Mutant Psychology or what?

Flawless victory.

As for Wolvie I think he is an old fasioned Pulp Hero (more than anti-hero) and he really lends himself well to the minion bashing action of an arcade style fighting game.

These days things just get more violent and most characters in video games regenerate, so he is a natural video game hero.

And honestly I think XO: Wolverine got a lot more criticism than it deserved, especially compared to the Arkham Asylum praise.

Still at the end of the day I rarely used him in the X-Men games... I'm a big fan of Night Crawler, Colosus, Storm and Ice Man who seems broken in almost all games including MARVEL VS CAPCOM 2