Review: Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Comic book fans are a diehard bunch, often devoting themselves to particular heroes and villains with a passion others reserve for religion. Therefore, we wish good luck to anyone looking to pry any comic collector they know away from this game long enough to complete a sentence.
Justice Gets an Upgrade
PROTIP: Make use of the Team AI menu. "Aggressive" will have them heading off-screen to start a rumble. If concerned with health, set "defend" or "follow". Otherwise, "normal" will tell them to attack but not to stray too far.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance comes from the same group responsible for X-Men Legends and its sequel, and it's obvious that Raven now has the formula down to a science. First, pick four super friends from the side of justice, and join them on their mostly linear adventures. Perfect powers, gather collectible gear, and vanquish arch enemies. Dispatch enough evil filth, and each hero unlocks alternate costumes with upgradeable powers. These aren't just glorified skins, either: Wolverine looks completely different in his classic form than he does in jeans and a singlet. Though the core experience may be familiar, it is far from stale.
Quite the opposite, in fact: this is a marvelously (ahem) enjoyable exercise in comic book action. There are over 140 different characters, but only twenty of them are playable, and some require unlocking. Most of the remainder occupy the frequent and enjoyable minor boss battles that punctuate each level, from Rhino to Shocker. The major boss battles are head and shoulders above anything you've seen in the past as well.
Finding a way to bring down beasts that are invulnerable to ordinary attackslike the dragon Fin Fang Foom, or the legendary sea monster Krakenis tons of fun, making the age old quest to balance challenge against frustration look easy. Along the way, every costumed nutcase can add to his or her arsenal of passive powers and bone-breaking attacks while upgrading the strength of each.
Cleaning Your Claws
PROTIP: If your partners are handling the grunts, focus on carving the miniboss a new one. Or, if they're crowded around the boss, mop up the nuisance soldiers before joining in the main event.
The controls are simple enough, dividing the four face buttons between jumping, environment manipulation, and two flavors of bashing to be strung together for combinations. Most of your time is spent knocking the teeth out of goons that rush first and think later, but what they lack in smarts they make up for in variety. The roster of villains changes with such frequency that you never get a chance to get sick of them. Stronger ones boast talents like healing and immunity to certain attacks, while others carry shields that force your active crew of four to work as a team.
Indeed, teamwork is a major part of play, sticking its beak into everything from character selection to upgrades. Pick a historic quartet, like the Fantastic Four, or create your own squad, then decide on a symbol, name, and team vehicle, and during play you can change tactics on the fly by issuing simple orders like "follow me" and "defend" with the left trigger's Team AI menu.
PROTIP: Some characters can fly. Use this ability indoors if you find yourself down to your last little sliver of health, and rather than fight to the death, take off and find yourself a weak opponent to kill for health orbs.
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