// KOTAKU — GAMING
Wolverine Developer Drops Hints That It Could Soon Fix The Game’s Bad Smell
Today’s the day Marvel’s Wolverine officially launches, a full five days after all the reviews dropped and concern was raised by the mediocre reception. Among the concerns that the (otherwise fine) game feels dated, overly linear and fails to take any risks, came complaints about the way Wolverine holds the player’s hand too much, especially when it comes to scent trails. Developers Insomniac have now dropped a hint (thanks Push Square) suggesting the latter could soon be improved.
A common complaint across many reviews is that Marvel’s Wolverine, already a defiantly closed-world and linear game, then goes even further by overly guiding the player through Logan’s sniff-based abilities. Large, ridiculously overt trails of blue particles appear showing you the route to objects you’re supposed to be seeking, removing even the notion of exploration from the game. This then led to an online debate among the many hundreds of reviewers as to whether this might be an accessibility feature that could be switched off, with the eventual conclusion that, nope, we’re stuck with it.
i don’t think you can turn off the Wolverine fart gas. this is after today’s update. i’m at the same spot where Skillup follows Jean Grey’s fart gas and you can see her fart gas in the background of the menu where those options are turned off, but Jean’s fart gas particles stay https://t.co/seHs52VNBY pic.twitter.com/WRdx0bjqkK
Wolverine’s Pepé le Pew-like stink lines thus caused all manner of consternation, feeding into many people’s worst fears that the game would be far too over-simplified, and really underlining just how different this Insomniac game is from the Spider-Men that preceded it. But we now have a vague hint that this specific issue, among others, could soon be addressed.
James Stevenson, Insomniac’s director of marketing, posted to his X account to let people know “We have been 100% listening over the last few days and the team has been cooking hard today in response to some of the feedback.” It’s a setup. Here’s the punchline:
“…in case you were wondering what that smell out of our kitchen was,” and then follows this with a winky face.
We have been 100% listening over the last few days and the team has been cooking hard today in response to some of the feedback – in case you were wondering what that smell out of our kitchen was 😉 https://t.co/6gP7baydE5
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) September 15, 2026
If this isn’t a reference to the smelly gas lines, then it’s a poor choice of words! But it suggests hope that some of the concerns raised across the hundreds of reviews have been heard and could consequently improve the game soon after it goes on sale. It does kinda suck using the world’s gaming press as a beta test, and you know it means Insomniac have had a really sucky week as they try to scramble to create a far more complicated patch.
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