Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

"A good follow up to X-Men Legends II"

I am, for obvious reasons, a fan of at least the X-men. I can't say I know much else about the Marvel universe unless it's been in a movie. That being said I can say this game is a total fan service affair. I may not have recognized most of the enemies in this game but it didn't detract from the experience. However, when compared to the two Legends titles, does Marvel:UA hold up or is it just a weak link? Read on!

Dr. Doom is causing problems, other problems arise and a group of Marvel heroes meet up at Stark Towers and team up to take down Dr. Doom. The plot is simple but I really like that if you miss different things in the game then the ending is a little different, or so it would seem anyway. The plot itself is fun and I like how the ending leaves room for another entry in the series but also leaves things well enough alone that it doesn't need a sequel.

Graphic wise this game is a stunner. The CGI looks amazing and it really captures the characters well. The in game graphics are good. Environments seem to be more detailed than before and the animations are much betters. A lot more things are destructible now as well.

Sound wise I enjoyed the game. Maybe the music isn't up to snuff with the previous games in the series but it works well enough. Voice acting is very good. Sound effects are an improvement from the last game but granted you must realize I played Legends 2 on the PSP so...

The control in this game is one worry I had since I'm using to playing on the PS2 and PSP. Thankfully it was a fairly smooth transition. Still no clue how to do finishing moves but whatever. It's easy to do special attacks, jump, attack, and all of that other jazz. I never had a major problem.

If you've played the other games nothing much has changed except the game seems to use the home base of Legends over Legends 2. I find it to work a lot better. Basically you go from mission to mission. There are 5 acts and most have 4 or so missions, excluding the last act. The missions change locations so nothing really feels the same so the game stays minty fresh as you play along.

While the character roster is a little lacking for my tastes, it is well balanced and I found myself playing as a few different characters instead of just Wolverine. The character primarily perform the same but they do have their own ups and downs so it's always good to have a well balanced team.

You still gain experience from enemies but now when you upgrade an attack you can downgrade it and add that point to another skill. It cheapened the game but nothing sucks more than using the point on the wrong skill. Also, you get coins in the game. You need to use these to up your costume and to get new skills. I like this idea as it really makes you rethink a few things and makes up for being able to take away points from your skills.

Besides that I guess there isn't much to say. It's a beat'em up with RPG elements. The AI isn't too swift but it packs a good punch on the higher difficulties. As for attacking you have a normal and a heavy attack, plus the specials. You can also jump and throw so it's easy to pull off combos and I like the team attack feature as it made the last boss kind of easy for me.

The game is fairly long, as was the second game and this game offers online play that I could actually access! Sadly I have no clue how it all works. I joined a game but I don't think anyone was playing with me because I think they just left the match.... That's very depressing. Anyone, maybe one day I go and retry the online but it wasn't as smooth of an operation as I would have liked. Lots of loading and waiting for the other players to finally pick characters, not like it's all that hard to do.

Would I recommend this game? Very much so. It's fun to play and I'm sure if I had had a good online experience I would be playing it online but alas I didn't. Even the game itself is long and these are enough secrets, which unlock more achievements that makes this game worth owning, rather than renting.

Story - 7/10
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 8/10
Control - 9/10
Game Play - 8/10
Replay Value - 7/10

Final Score - 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/07