Wolverine’s Metascore Drops from 90 to 78 Right After Launch

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The story

Marvel’s Wolverine’s Metascore on the Western review-aggregation site has dropped from around 90 right after launch down to 78, sparking discussion on 5channel’s hardware/industry (“Geha”) board. Posters pointed out that this makes it the lowest-rated game yet from developer Insomniac Games, whose past titles (the Spider-Man series) scored in the mid-to-high 80s to 90. Meanwhile, users shared that major outlets like IGN and GameSpot were consistently landing around 60. The discussion centered less on the score swing itself than on distrust of the review criteria, with some questioning Metascore’s reliability altogether and others noting that reviews commonly complained the game was “linear” and “lacking in content.”

What people said

6AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:04
Isn't it 80?
50AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:18
Re: #6
If it's 80, that's a solid game.
Back in the PS3 era some no-name developer made a Wolverine game too, and that one only got like a 70 on Metascore.
82AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:45
Re: #6
An 80 without NBP is a good game.
Buy it without hesitation.
9AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:04
Just checked and it's 78 now…

"Wolverine Metascore 80 lol"
tps://krsw.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/ghard/1789052515/
10AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:05
A 90 right out of the gate for their first entry? That's insane.
11AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:05
Not sure if the score actually crashed that hard, but please don't put lies in the thread title.
63AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:24
Re: #11
They're past caring about appearances at this point!
12AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:05
An initial 78 is rough.
That's one foot in shovelware territory — a mediocre game.
16AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:06
Whether it's actually fun is something I'll decide by playing it myself.
17AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:06
It dropped fast.
Guess it doesn't have that easy-to-grasp gameplay Spider-Man had.
20AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:07
Metascore's not reliable anymore whether it's high or low at this point.
21AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:07
Watched some gameplay footage and it looked really fun.
22AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:08
Metascore's the same site that gave that laughably hollow Breath of the Wild a 96.
25AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:08
There's already a thread up claiming Metascore 80, and they're padding it out with fake positive replies on purpose. Such a pathetic effort.
Let's leave it up for the lulz.
28AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:09
"Best-in-class action" (78)

Isn't that kinda low?,
29AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:09
It'll probably settle back into the 80s eventually anyway.
31AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:10
Checked just now and it's 78?
So the 90 was just from that early perfect-score review skewing it?
32AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:10
More surprised that Valheim actually got its full release before Wolverine did.
33AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:11
They're probably cutting back on payola to gaming media too.
Spending less money on games these days.
34AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:11
Apparently Gaming Bolt — known for being super harsh — gave it a perfect score.

Marvel’s Wolverine Review – “I’m the Best There Is at What I Do, Bub”
https://gamingbolt.com/marvels-wolverine-review-im-the-best-there-is-at-what-i-do-bub
70AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:32
Re: #34
Isn't that the site that gave that other game a perfect 100?
81AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:44
Re: #70
FF16 was actually fun though.
35AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:11
Was expecting around 85, so is this actually a masterpiece?
36AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:12
Theory: games with a Metascore of 90 are usually actually bad.
37AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:12
Re: #34
That just reads as "someone got paid off," lol.
40AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:13
Re: #34
To think the money saved by cutting Kojima loose is being spent on stuff like this… kind of makes you tear up.
42AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:14
One look at the gameplay footage and it was obvious something was off.
45AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:17
It says 77 for me — is the site I'm looking at bugged?
53AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:19
Re: #45
No, it's OP's head that's bugged.
49AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:18
Looking at the reviews scoring around 80, words like "linear" and "on-rails" keep coming up.
Also getting a "wait, that's it?" vibe like the game's short on content.
59AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:21
Re: #49
From what I can tell it just feels like a beat-'em-up brawler made 3D.
87AnonymousSep 11, 2026 00:51
Congrats, it's Insomniac's lowest-rated game ever.

Spider-Man — 87
Miles Morales — 85
Spider-Man Remastered — 87
Spider-Man 2 — 90
Wolverine — 77



The big outlets are absolutely trashing it, lol

60 — IGN
60 — VGC
60 — GameSpot
60 — GamesRadar+
60 — Eurogamer
60 — Guardian
96AnonymousSep 11, 2026 01:00
Re: #87
Lol, don't you know Eurogamer hasn't given numeric scores for over a decade now?
97AnonymousSep 11, 2026 01:01
Metascore's been completely unreliable in recent years.
100AnonymousSep 11, 2026 01:03
Re: #97
Trust in corporate reviews hit zero back around The Last of Us Part II.

Background and Key Points of the Discussion

Metascore isn’t a simple average of all reviews — it’s a weighted calculation based on each outlet’s standing, so right after launch the number can swing a lot from just a handful of reviews. In this case, the average was initially pushed up to around 90 by early positive reviews, then dropped to 78 once major outlets like IGN and GameSpot added scores around 60. Opinions in the thread were split: some argued skeptically that “the score depends on how much ad money a publisher spends with a given outlet,” while others felt “the score itself is fair — the linear content just didn’t land well.” Note that the comparison chart of past titles also included some outdated information — for instance, treating Eurogamer as still giving numeric scores when it actually stopped doing so years ago — so it shouldn’t be taken entirely at face value.

*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Hardware/Industry, “Geha”) thread “Wolverine Metascore 90 lol — ‘A Tour de Force with Top-Tier Action’”.

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