I've always liked the X-Men, what with their range of mutant powers, and the creativity of the evil mutants they encountered. But best of all I like Wolverine getting angry and breaking things. Activision's 3rd person action beat 'em-up 'X2: Wolverine's Revenge' lets you smash lots of things, people included.

Partially based on the story of the forthcoming movie, X2, we learn something of Wolverine's origin throughout the game, whilst he's desperately seeking an anti-virus for the 'Shiva' killer bug, which has become active in his system. Wolverine's Revenge isn't going to be a small feat either featuring 6 acts which take us through some of Wolverine's past as well as his current mission, and these 6 acts consist of 23 levels in total, all packed full of enemies for you to hurt.

Fighting is the main aspect of the game, and as such Wolverine is capable of a range of attacks. Punches, kicks and jumps can be combined to look highly impressive, and there are also 'strike' moves. When battle becomes a bit tough, and it will, Wolverine can run. He can move on all fours to make a faster get away, as well as making himself a much harder target. When you're not beating people up, or fleeing from the scene, you'll discover that almost every object in a room can be smashed. For the fun of it Wolverine can smash through boxes and windows, as well as through various electrical equipment in the rooms.

Of course, the game has to feature a stealth mode. It seems to be essential in 3rd person action games these days. When Wolverine uses his heightened sense of awareness in the stealth mode the screen takes on an orangey appearance. Wolverine can now sneak up on enemies to perform special moves on them, and he can spot traps such as laser beams, as well as seeing additional items to pick up. Throughout the game Wolverine will progress as a character if you are able to pick up dog tags, making strikes more powerful, essential when you face tougher enemies later in the game. On the subject of enemies, you'll come across some memorable ones if you're a fan of the comics. Lady Death, Omega Red, Sabretooth and Magneto all feature, as well as others. If you think this will be too much for you the likes of Beast and Rogue turn up to assist during the game, and you have a constant link to Professor X.

One strange thing about the game I discovered is that Mark Hamill provides the voice of Wolverine. Yep, Luke Skywalker. From the audio I've heard, he does it well though. With every punch or kick from Wolverine is a grunt or roar of approval. Initially very satisfying, but unless there is a wide variety of these they may well tire quickly. The difficulty level of the game is reported to be fairly high, which is somewhat rare these days, so hopefully the challenge won't put people off what could be one of the better super hero games and movie tie-in's to date.