Superheroes really are back in 2026. As if they ever left. The record-breaking success of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” segues nicely into next week’s long-awaited release of Insomniac’s “Marvel’s Wolverine,” a game with structural echoes of the company’s beloved “Spider-Man” games, with significantly less kid-friendly violence and more linear, intense storytelling. After a prologue/tutorial that feels a bit rocky in storytelling and gameplay, “Wolverine” settles in spectacularly, strapping players into a rollercoaster narrative and telling them not to panic. With remarkably fluid combat, gorgeous graphics, strong voice work, and compelling storytelling, this is one of the best games of 2026, which has already been a remarkably great year for gaming before roughly a dozen more intriguing titles come out before Thanksgiving. The Sony disc drama aside, it’s a good time to be a gamer.
“Marvel’s Wolverine” also owes a wonderful amount to the movies most readers have probably seen about the man with Adamantium bones. At first, it feels like it’s intentionally echoing the excellent “Logan,” the best film about this beloved character, in its sketch of a slightly older Wolverine forced into a protective role for more vulnerable mutants when the evil Bolivar Trask starts kidnapping them. The plan to eradicate mutantkind sends Logan back to his allies at Team X, including founder Nathaniel Essex and familiar faces like Sabretooth, Mystique, and Jean Grey, sketched very differently here than the Sadie Sink version from “BND.” More on that later.
After Team X rescues a group of mutants from Trask’s captivity, including Callisto, “Marvel’s Wolverine” pivots again to incorporate other comic book and film source material. It’s the kind of story that never directly mimics something you’ve seen before, but one can definitely feel the influence of Bryan Singer’s films on Logan’s search for identity and even Jean Grey’s ultimate arc (don’t worry, comic fans—I didn’t just spoil that it goes full Dark Phoenix à la the horrendous “The Last Stand”). As the story moves to Japan, it also brings in some of that country’s influence on this character, as seen cinematically in James Mangold’s underrated “The Wolverine.” You’ll even get to slice and dice your way through hundreds of members of The Hand, also seen in the best action sequence in “Brand New Day.”
And I do mean slice and dice. Parents should be warned that this game is far more violent than they may expect from the developers of “Miles Morales.” The developers don’t dull Logan’s blades in the slightest, allowing you to use them to stab, mutilate, and decapitate on a regular basis. The combat gameplay is familiar in its mix of strike, parry, dodge, and special powers, but it’s as fluid as any game like this that’s ever been released. As techniques, unlike new skills that recharge over time and one improves at the base mechanics, Wolverine becomes almost a Tasmanian Devil of a killing machine, taking enemies out at a rate befitting one of comicdom’s most beloved heroes. It gets to the point where one sees a dozen enemies and doesn’t question how to get through them but wonders why there aren’t more. By the time I got into my New Game Plus playthrough, I had fully mastered the combat of “Wolverine” as much as any game in years, and the adrenaline rush of a perfectly executed move simply never abates. I’ll honestly miss it.
Of course, a game can’t just be about decapitating fools who underestimated a man with claws. As for the rest of the experience, the set pieces are so spectacular that you can forgive the lackluster exploration. As for the latter, Logan often has to find something in a room to push the story forward, which basically just amounts to looking for the white dot that cues you to hit triangle. It’s not exactly thrilling. On the other hand, there are a couple of motorcycle set pieces that are so spectacular that you’ll wish there were more of them, and the big action sequences are as impressive as any MCU movie. The truth is that “Marvel’s Wolverine” gets the big and basic things right; so the minor connective tissue like running around the Team X facility to find the triangle that will push the story forward isn’t really a drag as much as a little break from the intensity before it becomes numbing.
Something else that elevates “Marvel’s Wolverine” over many games of this generation is its attention to environment. As you can imagine, when Logan turns into a blade whirlwind, nothing is safe, and the designers brilliantly allow you to leave a mark, whether it’s just a blade scratch on metal or something more intense. For example, you get into a fight in an arcade in Japan, and no claw machine is safe. Most combat sequences end in the kind of environmental destruction rarely seen in games where you can still take cover behind a wooden box, and it’s the kind of detail that really elevates the overall experience. It should also be noted that this game makes use of the PS5 controller in expansive ways, whether it’s a radio signal or just the hum and buzz of action. And the load times are insanely fast. You can go from startup to combat in actual seconds.
Finally, while “Marvel’s Wolverine” is incredibly fun, it’s also narratively richer than many superhero games. Without spoiling, Logan and Jean Grey become allies not just in stopping the big bad of this game but in figuring out the details of Logan’s lost past. Like in the Singer movies and some of the comic arcs, Logan is a killing machine who doesn’t really know how he got that way, and the script here lands in a place that’s both satisfying and poignant. It’s as rich as the great Uncanny X-Men arcs that this comic book fan grew up loving, and a reminder of how both superhero fiction and gaming can be so much more satisfying when it’s developed with true love, care, and mutilations.
Sony provided a review copy of this game. It is available on September 15, exclusively on PlayStation.
