“Wolverine” Criticised For Mental Health Themes

By
Garth Franklin
-
Insomniac Games

It feels like there has been a lot of stuff dubbed ‘woke rubbish’ lately, from Chris Nolan’s “The Odyssey” to HBO’s “Lanterns,” Netflix’s “Little House on the Prairie,” Rockstar Games’ “Grand Theft Auto VI,” and the just-announced “Days of Thunder 2”.

Currently in the firing line of online furore is Insomniac Games’ “Marvel’s Wolverine” releasing next week. Complaints have included the slamming of the Mystique and Sentinel designs, Insomniac being branded a ‘DEI studio’, the switch from open world to a more linear narrative being dubbed stale, and talk of the developers ’emasculating’ Wolverine.

Dominating much of the discourse, beyond bots and those motivated by monetised engagement clicks, is the fact that the title is the first major PlayStation exclusive since Sony announced it was ending physical media for games. Even though this particular title is being released on physical media, pitchforks are out, and the topic of discs has dominated responses to every clip or post released.

Now, a newly released official post from the game studio’s social media accounts has ignited more discussion – specifically, a gameplay element in which you use Logan’s sense to discover ‘Nightmare Doors’ and complete traversal, combat, and gauntlet challenges to uncover his forgotten memories.

That Wolverine will tackle mental health themes has drawn praise and criticism, with one frequently liked and retweeted complaint on X saying: “Is it really THAT difficult to make a game where you just beat up bad guys and don’t spend HOURS ‘struggling with mental health’?”

That post has been eviscerated for basically not understanding that it’s key to Wolverine’s whole character. Either way, discussion of the game has been seriously trending across multiple platforms for days now.

Pre-loading for the game kicks off today, one week ahead of the title’s release.