X-Men 3: The Official Game

Mutants with special powers always make for a promising game. There are few boundaries to what they can do, and that's especially so with the X-Men because there are just so many of them. They can fly, turn into flaming balls of fire, kill enemies with super powerful fists – you name it, there's a mutant to do it.

X-Men 3 stars three of our favourite mutant outcasts – the claw-handed Wolverine, stealthy sneak Nightcrawler, and Iceman (whose name is helpfully descriptive). The trio are on a quest to invade Stryker's lab and stop Magneto's evil plans following the events of X-Men 2, where Stryker took over Cerebro and used its power to suppress the men of X.

The story isn't important, although without the game's narration you'd struggle to work out why you're moving a mutant around a nondescript isometric environment. Beginning outside Stryker's lab, trying to find a way in, you get to grips with Nightcrawler and his teleportation skills. If there's a gap, he can warp across it, and if there's an enemy, he can do a fairly good job of smacking him up.

All three mutants have increasingly powerful skills that are unlocked as you progress. For Nightcrawler, it's a teleport attack – hold down '5' and a small bar charges up a deadly attack that can be fired from a few safe steps away.

Wolverine is, as ever, the character of choice for fighting (not that you actually get to choose which X-Man you play and when – that's decided for you at the start of each level). His razor claws leave most enemies flat on their backs after two on-target swipes. Once upgraded, you can also charge up his attacks to make them strong enough to smash through walls.

The final playable character is obviously Iceman. He's the most fun, because his attack turns enemies immediately into solid blocks of ice, and he can traverse gaps with an icy slide.

All three characters are also able to push blocks, which is fortunate because there's enough block pushing in this game to make Lara Croft green with envy. Nearly every puzzle you come across is solved by either pushing a block onto a switch, or stepping onto switches in sequence to open doors and reach keys.

As well as seeking out keys and solving puzzles to make it to the end of each act, there are treasure chests scattered around each level. Most are hidden, so require some exploring off the beaten track, and finding them is a fun additional challenge.

But a useful one, too. The different coloured gems they contain either boost your HP (health) bar or Mutant bar (using your mutant powers depletes this one) or simply give you X points. Collect all of these on a level and you're given an end-of-level score bonus.

The fighting isn't at all complex, but it's kept interesting by the switching between characters. The boss battles, though, are quite lame. Lady Deathstrike is the first one you face, and she's typical of what's to come: a minute of running around, seizing your chance when she stops for breath and hiding to regain health if you lose too much.

The puzzles, meanwhile, are mostly average, and keeping a lookout for cracked walls and hidden platforms containing treasure chests is actually more fun than the game itself.

There are none of the colourful comic book graphics you might expect, either, or even a rousing superhero backing tune. The visuals do their job but they're pretty bland, and sound effects are saved only for when you punch or use a special powers – the rest of the game is silent.

What really lets X-Men 3 down, though, is its length. There are just three acts, the first of which can be completed in about 15 minutes. And the first act is completely representative of the rest of the game – it continues as it starts, with average fighting, block-pushing puzzles and boss fights.

Still, the controls work well – once you're used to the slightly odd angle the game is viewed from – and the game is divided up into bite-sized levels, which are perfect to play on the move.

But, everything considered, this is just an average adventure made a bit more exciting by the variety of mutant powers. When you think about how good a game featuring ice-spraying, claw-wielding mutants should be, this is a disappointment.

X-Men 3: The Official Game

A neat adventure in parts, it's only let down by its dull visuals and some repetitive puzzles featuring gaming's staple, the humble pushable block
Score
Kath Brice
Kath Brice
Kath gave up a job working with animals five years ago to join the world of video game journalism, which now sees her running our DS section. With so many male work colleagues, many have asked if she notices any difference.