“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”
Genre: Action-adventure
Developer: Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Platforms: Nintendo DS and Wii PlayStations 2, 3 and Portable; Xbox 360; PC
ESRB rating: “M” for mature
Price: $59.99
Grade: C-

Superheroes get that name by administering justice with a minimum of blood and fuss. The furniture might be overturned and some holes left in the walls when they leave, otherwise peace is restored and the post-battle cleanup doesn’t cut too deeply into the public tax base.

Wolverine, on the other hand, needs someone with a fire hose to follow him around and wash away all the gore. The man of adamantium with the murderous manicure is like a Cuisinart set on high and let loose across the kitchen floor, julienning anything in the way. He does it somehow though without fraying his jeans, staining his wife-beater shirt or mussing his heavily moussed locks.

At least that’s the basic impression Game Guy got from playing the new “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” the companion game to the just-released movie, and presumably just the first of several explanations as to why the X-Men couldn’t come up with a better name for the collective.

Though a movie companion, as a lot of games are these days, “Wolverine” veers off on its own tangent, with James “Logan” Howlett starting his journey to superherodom following an attack on the helicopter he’s riding in Africa. He survives the crash, of course, tries to find whether his hot-headed brother, Victor Creed, escaped the wreckage too, and … well, then players are subjected to a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards through five story chapters that would make even a superhero dizzy.

Better then that players try not to make sense of the story and focus on the plot, which is, to slash, maim and eviscerate the opposition. There’s no real strategy — button mashing works well enough — and no real reason for this game other than to supplement the movie release. Enemies are recirculated, albeit in different garb, and some of the same moves needed to wriggle out of one tight spot work equally well in escaping from another.

On top of that, there are continuity issues in the console versions; Wolverine occasionally jumps onto invisible floors and escapes death from explosions shielded by invisible walls, none of which seem planned or make sense if they were. The herky-jerky character movements that occur will make players wonder whether this game was a rush job. And Wolverine dies. A lot. In fact, his powers of regeneration are the most impressive aspect of the game, otherwise players would have a devil of a time making it to Chapter 2.

As superhero-themed games go, you can’t find one much bloodier, or more boring — unless your idea of a good time is playing chicken with a Cuisinart.