Marvel Ultimate Alliance
by Activision Inc.
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Video Game Reviews of Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Customer Review: Who's got your back?
Summary: 4 Stars
Marvel Ultimate Alliance - Circa 2006
GOOD:
- Over 30 playable Marvel super Hero characters
- Four Player Co-op either all on one system or over Xbox Live (internet). When playing the game as a single player the computer plays as the other three characters and using the directional button you can switch at anytime between any of the characters on your team.
- All the playable characters have four different costumes to choose from (except for Moon Knight who has three), these costumes also give bonuses for things like fighting power and life power.
- Lots of powers and abilities for each super hero that you can upgrade, also it should be noted all the super heroes have their signature moves from Spiderman's web swing to Wolverine's Berserk Barrage.
- Travel to lots of different Marvel Universe locations form Namor's Atlantis to Mephisto's Realm.
BAD:
- Game might get repetitive for some since all you really do is beat up on villains and run around from room to room (dungeon crawler).
- The Voice Acting in this game is not so great and sometimes is out right bad.
IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- A top-over Action RPG, which plays very much like Diablo but more so like X-Men Legends.
- To really enjoy this game you kind of have to be a fan of and know a bit about the Marvel Universe.
- Original Story that takes place in the Marvel Universe.
- Four player Co-op can be played in regular mode (which plays like the main game for single player) or "Arcade" mode where you compete for life/power ups.
- Collect coins to spend on leveling up moves and powers, kill enemies to level up your characters (and unlock newer moves).
GAME ITS MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (Xbox, PS2, Game Cube)
- Justice League Heroes (360, PS2)
- Diablo 2 (PC)
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- This game is also available for Microsoft Xbox (the 1st Xbox) and Sony's PS3 as well as PS2 and Nintendo's Wii as well as the PC, only the 360 and PS3 versions have Hi-res graphics.
- The Next-Gen versions of this game come with Colossus and Moon Knight as exclusive characters
- you can download Heroes and Villains Expansion pack, which will add eight new playable characters to the game. You get Hulk, Nightcrawler, Hawkeye, Cyclops, Venom, Sabretooth, Magneto and Doctor Doom. Each of the new characters comes with new powers/moves, costumes, and dialogue. Also added are 10 new Achievements to unlock. This Downloadable Content sells for about 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00 USD), Note this Download is only for Xbox 360.
Customer Review: GREAT
Summary: 4 Stars
I can't stop playing! Even though it is repetitive, each level manages to reinvent the game just enough to keep me playing. Great for when you just want to shoot things up.Customer Review: Really good game, definitely a must have!
Summary: 4 Stars
In the beginning it wasn't so great, but as you play it more and get through the other levels it gets way fun. I would recommend it for anyone, it's just a fun game to play by yourself or with friends. I haven't played online yet, but i bet it would be a lot of fun.Customer Review: Good Game
Summary: 4 Stars
I like it, but the only thing is it would have been better to have a good camera angle that enhanced the visuals. Good game though, but also not many online options.Customer Review: Marvel fanboys will weep with joy
Summary: 5 Stars
I played X-men: Legends for the Playstation 2 and, although I liked the idea of playing with four players at once, the actual game play left a lot to be desired. There were a couple of problems, not the least of which was that four characters on the screen were difficult to keep track of or even see. When the camera was hovering a thousand feet up, attractive graphics became irrelevant--everybody looked like ants. Also, you couldn't play the cool characters right away but had to earn them, which made the game frustrating.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance (MUA) fixes all those problems. You start out playing the characters you WANT to play: Spider-Man, Wolverine, Doctor Strange, Deadpool, the works. The cooler characters you have to earn, but they're worth earning: Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Blade, Daredevil, Black Panther and even Nick Fury. My team of choice was Doctor Strange, Blade, Ghost Rider, and Deadpool. Pick your team of four heroes and you're off!
Your team is assembled to beat bad guys at the behest of SHIELD Agent Nick Fury, he of the eye patch and white gloves. Then you proceed to battle an array of villains led by Doctor Doom, from Mephisto to Loki, Galactus to esoteric bad guys like Dragonman. Just about everyone in the Marvel universe is in this game.
The game play is standard: shoot things, slash things, and blow things up. In turn, various minions will do their best to knock you out, leaving the hero unconscious for a period of time until he recovers. There were a few times I ran through the game with just one hero left, like when Ghost Rider took on an entire legion of Skrull warriors and Galactus droids, tossing them off cliffs with his chains. Man, that was fun...but I digress.
Although most of the time you can't zoom in on the characters, you get a much better perspective of them when you handle the upgrades. The upgrade system is intricate, detailing everything from the powers the heroes use to the gadgets they pick up to the outfits they wear. This is especially good, because folks accustomed to the movie version of Blade will be horrified to see what his original costumes looked like in the comic (hint: think green). That said, the costumes actually matter, and you slowly unlock costumes throughout the game that will appeal to fans that know the characters from the comics (Doctor Strange's alternate costumes are friggin' weird).
MUA gets a lot of things right. The powers are evocative of the comic, from Ghost Rider's vengeance stare to Doctor Strange's magical bolts, to Blade's shotgun, katana, and pistol. The hero voices perfectly match their characters. Blade SOUNDS like Wesley Snipes. Doctor Strange sounds like the way I've always imagined him. Ghost Rider is suitably gravelly. And Deadpool...well I've never imagined Deadpool speaking but it fits.
The boards are interesting and interactive. Most fun is Arcade, sort of a Joker for the Marvel universe, complete with funhouse and old-style games like Pong and Pitfall that you have to play (I imagine kids are scratching their heads...). The boss fights show off the detail of the characters, as they involve button-mashing sequences as opposed to straightforward combat. This makes for a cinematic climax to every end battle.
There are some things that are still a little silly. While it's great that you can bash and smash nearly everything, from walls to sculptures to machinery, sometimes that simply doesn't make sense. Our heroes begin on a SHIELD helicarrier that's about to crash, and they gain coinage by...smashing everything on the ship. Isn't that exactly the opposite of what they're supposed to be doing?
But that's a minor quibble. The game has oodles of replayability, as you search for collectible action figures (I found all of the Daredevil ones, but not the Black Panther), find special mission discs that let you play out scenes from each heroes past, and even develop your team's powers. GO TEAM VENTURE!
I haven't played multiplayer, but you can play against an opponent or with up to four of your buddies. That just sounds like a lot of fun. Even the computer-controlled characters are not complete morons, which is a refreshing change for this sort of game.
Everything that makes the Marvel comics universe great is here in obsessive levels of detail. I enjoyed the game so much that I played it to completion and then some. I can only hope that the next game will allow you to carry over your saved characters. It's enough to make a Marvel fanboy weep with joy.