Marvel Ultimate Alliance Review - Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo

I'm sure that you guys are tired of me bitching about terrible games so I thought I would give you a break. This also gets me away from playing the terrible games with some awesome Marvel characters that most us nerds have grown up with. The Marvel games have come a long way since the original x-men (1989) game on the NES (yes, I have played that too). Its view is still top down but, game play, story line, and graphics have come a long way.

This is a party game for sure. It’s good that you can play this online as well. The only problem is that if you really want to have fun with Marvel Ultimate Alliance you do want to try and unlock as many characters as possible although you do start off with a bunch of characters that you would almost always never say no to. But, they do give you enough characters from Marvel to choose from so you can customize your own team. On to the game!

Spiderman, Wolverine, Thor, and Captain America

When you start Marvel Ultimate Alliance you go right to a cut scene just like any other game that wants to get you hooked. Thor, Spiderman, Wolverine, and Captain America show up and CA starts issuing orders. Wolverine tells him to stuff it and starts owning his attackers in his own psychotic way. Thor spends too much time talking for my taste but easily owns whatever he touches. Spiderman keeps his smart-aleck comments going the entire time with awesome acrobatics. CA keeps his wits about him while he is outnumbered but, turns the tide quickly with his skills. The cut scene ends with wolverine laughing while he flies his hi-jacked craft into another bunch of enemies. While they all consider him psycho, Wolverine thinks they are all being pansies. Yeah give me you're healing factor and indestructible bone structure and I'll start doing the same. Show off!

Now for story line and game play they dumb down a lot of what the heroes can and can not do as well as what the enemies can do to the heroes. I mean really, Thor could probably take out Bullseye with his pinky. Enemies that should not be able to hurt certain heroes (Hulk and Thor come to mind here) or not be touched at all (Spiderman)

You start off as a 4 man team consisting of Spiderman, Wolverine, Captain America, and Thor. To me it is not a bad set up and if you want to play this team go for it, I will be changing characters as soon as possible though. This is a top down game so most of the fights you will be viewing from above. I keep wolverine (cause lets face it, he is a bad ass) and Spiderman (one of my favorites).

I add Deadpool for the one-liners and boost that he gives the team. Also a good backup to wolverine for my play style since they both have healing factors and it helps me stay alive a little longer when needed. I also add a strong man and boost his focus. Since I did not spend the $8 up front and buy the heroes and villains pack right away I went with the Thing. I ended up purchasing it later which I should have done in the first place since I like the Hulk way more and it gives up Cyclops and Nightcrawler (2 of my favorite x men) so I don’t have to play Storm (yes Hale Berry ruined her for me and anyone of you cum gobblers that think X-Men 3: The Last Stand is a good movie go jump off a cliff) to complete an X-Man team.

You also have the ability to find out existing hidden teams in the game. New FF4, Assassins, X-Men, Avengers, New Avengers, Fantastic 4 and other teams are there when you put together the right bunch of characters. As you can probably tell just by the names you can get away with wolverine in almost all of the teams. Too bad his movie sucked too. Yeah that’s right I said it, what are you going to do about it?

You can also create your own team and even have a back up roster. So the first thing you do, when you get a chance to, is to set up that team roster. That way you get passive bonuses to your team such as increased XP, Striking, and health increases. If you want you can round out your crew pretty nicely (flyer, energy user, tank, and bruiser) or just stack your team how you want to. I did the do what I want route.

The missions are all the same thing. Go to the end of the level and kick the crap out of the end guy there. Usually you have 3 or 4 minor bad guys in-between. For those that follow the Marvel universe you see a LOT of selection throughout Marvel Ultimate Alliance of where they picked their bad guys from. There are a ton of enemies from Spiderman’s crew: the Scorpion, The Shocker, The Rhino, and Mysterio but, no major ones like Doc Oc, Green Goblin, or Venom (Carnage would have been GREAT in the story line). Same thing with the X-Men maybe an enemy or two from their story lines (gladiator and Deathbird) but not squat for enemies in there: Magneto, Apocalypse, Omega Red, Mojo, or Mr. Sinister. All of these would have been great additions to the story line.

Don’t get me wrong, the story line is great. Dr. Doom has set up this super villain team called the Masters of Evil. Loki, Ultron, Baron Mordo, and Enchantress make up the brains of the operation while they hire out to the saps like Bullseye, The Shocker, Arcade and even misdirect you to Mandarin. I just think they could have had some better Saps if not some more decent enemies to knock around and would have given more of an excuse to get the X-Men in the fight (not like there was not reason enough but still . . .).

So going through the story we find Col. Nick Furry is calling out an

S.O.S. to any and all superheroes since the Shields flagship is under attack and if it falls it will destroy an entire city. After reaching the Bridge he sends your crew off to keep the ship up and running and to keep any nukes from taking off. There is plenty of action for your crew and you quickly find that the button set up is easy to get use to and flows well with the game play. After saving the ship you are then invited to use Tony Starks (Iron Man) tower and spider man continues the smart-aleck remarks. You also get to meet non playable characters like Vision, Hank Pymm, and black widow. As with most games like this you have side quest that you can take care of. I would suggest that you do as many as you can so you can see the bonuses at the end of the game. A few suggestions for that would be: Save Jen Grey, and Save Illiandra. You will thank me when you do.

Much of the same thing keeps on going. Furry sends you out on a new mission every time you get back until you die. You even get to try and collect things like Black Panther and Dare Devil figurines to help unlock the characters to play. You can also unlock characters such as Blade or Dr. Strange by completing levels, mini games, or side quest. I was able to unlock Blade in the Arcade level.

I also find out something else really cool. If I put Blade and Electra in my team I can now boost my Smile credits by 60%. I quickly loose Hulk and Spiderman (although I would rather them be in the group) and put in the new two. So not only do I have them in my team roster but, now I am gaining credits like MAD!

By the time I get them in the team I am in Mephesto's realm. Since then I have been boosting wolverines strike ever time I see a plus strike. Wolverine has also never missed action unless

I accidentally kill him. SO by the time I get blade and Electra in they are well under 10 levels of wolverine. I am having trouble with one of the puzzles and by the time I figure it out I have killed both Deadpool and Wolverine so I am stuck with Blade. Turns out he is a bad ass! Not just a little either. With him being 12 levels behind wolverine he was only 5 points lower on the strike than wolverine. FINALLY, I can go with someone else than wolverine in my team. Blade kicks some major ass. Too bad Electra actually hits like a girl instead of the bad ass she should be. She can’t take a hit either so she often dies if too many enemies are around.

There is at least one button sequence per act in the game. It helps so you don’t get tired of doing the same thing over and over but, it can be a huge pain in the ass since it does change how the game play is. It is no longer top down so the controls feel funny and you often screw up where you need to go.

****SPOILER ALERT*****SPOILER ALERT******STOP READING IF YOU DONT WANT TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END*****

Even after you die, Furry is still giving orders. Uatuu has saved you at the last second and now you have to go save Earth while hi-jacking a couple of items. One being from Illandra and one from Galactus. After you swipe these Items you go back and now try and face Doom once more.

Here is the only time the story gets stupid. You have just been saved from death and you KNOW that you need these two items to defeat doom. So instead of sending your ENTIRE team to go collect the items you just send the

4 that you have been playing the entire time. It makes for great game play taking on Galactus but, come on! Spiderman, Moon knight, Dare Devil, Wolverine, and anyone else you can think of to put on this list (minus Thor, Hulk, and Dr. Strange) are going to get their asses HANDED to them.

Not only that but the members you left behind attack Doom and they not only get knocked around but, they also get turned to Dooms side. So now not only do you have to fight doom but, you have to fight your former team mates as well. Thanks douche bags!

In the end you do Hand Doom his ass and right when he is about to give his revenge speech Odin comes into the fray and fries is ass. Marvel Ultimate Alliance is now over but, you get to keep Furry on as a playable character if you want to play it again. That is one of the best things about this game is that you can start completely over with the same levels and stats that you had completing the game. I think you can even do this while leveling up so if you get stuck at a level just start the game over with your team.

There are still a lot of characters that I have not played and I am still going back through Marvel Ultimate Alliance every now and then when I want to kick some ass. The good thing is that Marvel is planning on coming out with a second one based off of the civil war series. Here are some super heroes that you might see in the next one:

OVERVIEW

A really good game for any Marvel enthusiast and a must have in any gamers collection. Good game play, great story line, and tons of re-play if not on-line play.