Playstation 2 - Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
Activision
Developer
Raven Software
Country of origin
US
Release date
2006
Genre
RPG

MARVEL Ultimate Alliance

By David Rasmussen
1st Mar 07

February is here and the first MARVEL games of 2007 are fresh on the shelves.
Ghost Rider the Game is here, and if you think it’ll be a stinky movie to game adaptation (allegedly) that you should avoid then… well… oh, you know that already so why talk about it. Sure, sure, it might be that rare gem like Spider-Man’s movie adaptation games that actually was hot and all, but this may not be one of those games. So, then, how about a game that reminds you MARVEL can do good games… when they’re not out doing (bleep).

MARVEL Ultimate Alliance is in the venue of X-Men Legends… in fact, MARVEL Ultimate Alliance for the most part is the same as X-Men Legends. The same overhead beat-em-up action, the same wide smathering of characters you can play as, and the same action that is fun to play, it’s all X-Men Legends type action with a wider array of the MARVEL Universe set into it. Fantastic Four, X-Men, Avengers, and characters like Ghost Rider, Blade, Deadpool and so forth are all here (with a wide variance of costumes including classic, variants and Ultimate versions of all your favorites). Add to that a wide arrange of unlockable including “Danger Room” style missions (one for each hero/heroine), comic covers and artwork, as well as hidden “action figures” that unlock better things (but I never found them all so I don’t know what they unlock) and you got a nice game here.

Yes, MARVEL Ultimate Alliance is NOT the same as X-Men Legends where it counts, mainly in the customization function, but for the most part it’s still the same game you know and love… except where it counts. Now while you could extensively customize your characters stats and so forth in X-Men Legends you’ll find that there’s only one reason to manually tweak these stats (which is a shallow wading pool of barely interactive stats where you once had a full court press of stats to modify in X-Men Legends), and that’s only to activite your EXTREME powers (the computer somehow doesn’t always treat this as a priority once it becomes available despite the fact it is one of your most useful abilities in the game, so you‘ll have to activate it yourself by taking points from other powers and moving them over to this (2 are needed to trigger it) once it becomes available).

One thing about this game that is a step above X-Men Legends is the ability to form your own team, which allows you to earn points which can be used to modify the traits of your special team making them much more effective. One thing, however, is that you shouldn’t use this until you have all the members of your specific “team” because once you make a team you’ll have to spend “points” in order to swap members so make sure right off the bat when you form your team you have all your members to start with. However, and this is an interesting plus, once you play so far into the game and unlock enough characters you’ll be able to start the game again and these unlocked characters will already be available. Now, mind you, I played the game all the way to the final battle with Doom at the end of the game before restarting the game so maybe that had something to do with it, but when I restarted the game all the characters I unlocked was available for immediate useage. This is good because I quickly formed my team and once the option to make a personalized team came about I did just that. As you play you’ll be able to open “spots” in your team and have up to eight people to swap between on your personal team. Choice is subject to personal taste, but I prefer using Blade, Deadpool, Ghost Rider (the guy being played by Nicolas Cage this month) and Ms. Marvel. But then again that’s my choice.

As for voice acting? Well…. Meh. Unlike X-Men Legends that had Patrick Stewart as the big voice of voices in the game this game… not so big. We do have Phil LaMarr (Samurai Jack) as the Black Panther in this game but… well… that’s it. It doesn’t get better than that folks, though maybe that’s because his is the only name I recognized. The rest… well… went over my head.
Otherwise liking or hating this game depends on your feelings for X-Men Legends. If you loved X-Men Legends you’ll love MARVEL Ultimate Alliance (which I heard is even fun on the PSP and Nintendo DS), but if you hated X-Men Legends then… well… you’ll not become a fan of MARVEL Ultimate Alliance (which is just the same game mechanics similar to X-Men Legends but with less detail of stat adjustments).

Story? Oh, didn’t mention that. Written by C.B. Cebulski (who you might remember from the MARVEL Mangaverse), Doom is putting the smackdown on S.H.I.E.L.D.s’ helicarrier with his brand spankin’ new Masters of Evil, and your team is called in to save the day. However you end up losing the Helicarrier, and it looks like the Masters of Evil have big plans for the world that you have to step up to bat for and stop. From Stark Towers to Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Santorum, Asgard to the moon you’ll be facing the Masters at all corners of the world and beyond, struggling to stop Doom’s ultimate plan to date.
Nice story, which makes the game fun… but why, oh why, did Mr. Cebulski have to write himself into the story? He doesn’t appear in the game in “person”, of course, but still the self important name dropping (and he makes himeslf sound so cool too)… what’s with that?!?

Ultimately, at the end of the day, as if to make up for forcing us to bear a tasteless movie tie in game like X-Men the Official Game we got this far superior MARVEL game to chew on before the next movie to game disaster (Ghost Rider the Game… allegedly). So if you had to play something this year to remind you of Mighty MARVEL’s movies this year -- wait for Spider-Man 3 since the last two Spider-Man games from the movies were fun to play. Otherwise this should keep you occupied until the next playable MARVEL game comes… eh? MARVEL the Trading Card Game’s coming later this month?!? Ogh… (holds game tight)… I better pick up the PSP version soon because I am so going to need something to play during the long dry spell before the next playable MARVEL game. Double bleah.

-- David Rasmussen 1st Mar 07

Playstation 2 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Images