Insomniac Addresses Wolverine 'Fart Gas' Controversy, Says Scent Trail Isn't Always Active

A debate over what some are calling 'fart gas' has arisen around the PlayStation 5 exclusive Marvel's Wolverine, with fans asking Insomniac Games to add an option to completely disable Logan's scent trail.

The scent trail, which helps Logan track targets under certain conditions, was first shown earlier this summer. The discussion reignited this week after Marvel's Wolverine reviews went live, with The Washington Post journalist Gene Park dubbing it 'fart gas' due to how it appears behind characters Logan follows.

Park tweeted: 'Jean Grey's fart gas trail is NOT part of the navigation assist option. i turned it on and there's another green line that tells you where to go. mission waypoint (yellow marker) is on as well and THAT can be turned off.2nd pic i turn off the options and the gas stays. it seems…'

Confusion spread online about whether the feature could be turned off via accessibility settings. Insomniac's official list of accessibility options for Wolverine includes a 'Chase Assist,' which lets you toggle reduced movement speed for targets during chase sequences, but it does not turn off the trail. Other navigation toggles also fail to disable the scent trail.

This led some to believe the scent trail is always on, prompting calls for Insomniac to add a toggle. However, Insomniac's director of community and marketing, James Stevenson, took to social media to clarify.

'The scent trail isn't always on,' he explained. 'It represents Logan's canon mutant super senses and elite tracking ability. It only is there when he's tracking a specific scent / sound (a person, whisky, or another clue scent) - story/mission moments or when he catches whiff of a collectible.'

Despite this, some still want to remove the 'fart gas' entirely, arguing that the scent trail holds the player's hand too much. Drawing parallels to the debate over Final Fantasy's yellow paint guides, critics say these lines eliminate any skill required for chase sequences or exploration.

This raises questions about the difficulty of adapting Wolverine for a video game. Given his canon mutant powers, Logan probably wouldn't spend much time wandering through levels looking for his target — or his next drink — but that doesn't make for particularly exciting gameplay.

Some have suggested that Logan's scent power could be triggered manually with a press of R3 on the DualSense, giving players the option to avoid it if they feel strongly. Based on Stevenson's post, Insomniac didn't feel that would make sense for Logan.

Stevenson later clarified that when finding a hidden collectible, players must first get close enough to pick up the sound or scent, so there's still a degree of exploration involved.

IGN's Marvel's Wolverine review returned a 6/10. We said: 'Marvel's Wolverine's slick and satisfying combat wears thin well before its conclusion, so much so that even its strong character work can't quite save it from being anything more than okay.'