Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

[Hucklebubba]

I just had to be one of the first kids on the block to have a copy of this.

It's distinctly reminiscent of the X-Men Legends games, in the sense that it's almost exactly the same game. But hey, if you're going to rehash, those games aren't a bad place to get your hash from.

High points include the presence of (I think) the Wolverine voice guy from the old X-Men cartoon reprising his role for this game, and the fact that I think I've been waiting my whole life for a game with Deadpool as a playable character. Quote upon leveling-up: "Now I'm better at doing whatever it is that Wolverine does!"

Gameplay-wise, expect everything you saw in the Legends games, plus a couple of small but significant additions. For instance, your character can block and dodge--rather basic and helpful abilities that I don't recall seeing in at least the first Legends game (haven't played the second one). Grappling has also been developed past the absolute non-element it was before.

There's also now an option to have stat-allocation handled automatically, which is great for me. I don't need to micro-manage every aspect of my characters' development, I just want them to get stronger.

[Hucklebubba]

Another Deadpool quote, this time in response to low health:

"Dude, I need health! And a pony!"

I should probably try one of the other characters at some point. That actually brings me to my only real complaint regarding this game. Yes, the character roster is impressively big, but it's also largely populated with characters I don't quite give a crap about.

Take my current party composition for example: Spider-Man, Iron-Man, Deadpool, and Wolverine. Here Marvel has gone to the trouble of providing a selection of 20-plus characters, many of which are either semi-obscure or at least somewhat less-seen, and yet I feel compelled to use two of their most over-exposed first-stringers, and give most of the other characters the Shoulder Shrug of Doom. Deadpool remains the only "rare" character I'm all that enthusiastic about.

Captain America, Black Panther, and Thor all garner a hardy "meh" from me, Silver Surfer has only novelty appeal as a hidden character, I could go through the rest of my life without seeing any member of the Fantastic Four ever again (nothing to do with the movie; I've just never particularly liked them), and I'm vaguely ashamed to admit that I don't even know who Ms. Marvel and Luke Cage are.

This is, of course, totally a matter of preference, and I'm probably just a big ol' poophead.

[TheLuckyOne]

hucklebubba said:

and I'm vaguely ashamed to admit that I don't even know who Ms. Marvel and Luke Cage are.

Sweet Christmas! How can a brotha not recognize the original Hero for Hire himself, Luke "Power Man" Cage? The cat who was to 70s comics what Shaft was to blaxploitation films? That's cold, brotha man!

Can you dig it?

(As for Deadpool, I only like him when Gail Simone or Joe Kelly are writing him. I know Simone did his dialogue for that fanmade computer game "X-Assault" -- and it was hilarious -- but I doubt she was involved with this one. More's the pity.)

-D

[PoolMan]

Plus, Luke Cage is the comic book character that actor Nicholas Cage (nee Copolla) renamed himself after.

[kylerexpop]

this game is ABSOLUTELY CRAZY.

i had to "cheat" and use the code to unlock all the characters and costumes from the beginning. call me whatever you want, but being a fickle gamer who will play this non-stop for a month and then take a year-long breather when i'm all about scrabble or something (true!), i NEED to able to put together a team of ghost rider, daredevil, classic thor, and classic captain america (with occasional assists from war machine, ms. marvel, and spider-woman) right from the start!

although it's a completely awesome game whether you cheat or not. i knew it was a ton o' fun and an excellent take on the marvel universe, but once i hit the first BIG boss battle on the helicarrier i was like OH MY DEAR LORD this is awesome!!!K!LJ!L:J!:L!JL!

i don't know why i'm STILL up, but technically, even though it says 'november 1' everywhere, I say HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

[eatmyshorts]

xbox 360 blows, therefore I don't have this game. is it the same on every console?

[Hucklebubba]

Couldn't say for sure. I'd expect the 360 version to have added graphical sexiness, and the PC version to have the usual benefits of higher resolution and not working right.

Which reminds me of another issue I've come across with this game; namely, that some of the visuals are a tad iffy. I'm wondering if the large character roster necessitated some corner-cutting, or if the game is maybe optimized for a TV that's less old than mine.