Marvel Ultimate Alliance - Review
High: Fun Multiplayer, great controlling the characters of my youth.
Low: Repetition! Repitition! Repitition!
Marvel UA starts out with the best cinematic sequence yet on the Wii, and yes that is including Twilight Princess. The cinematic gets you excited about playing what is supposed to be the finest Marvel video game ever made. Your initial team of 4 of the best heroes Marvel has to offer leads you to believe that you are in for the time of your life.
Things change after that.
Graphically MUA is decent. While it doesn't have any of the glitchy line trouble that Red Steel has, it really feels like a Gamecube game. In fact, it looks identical to X-men Legends 2. The screenshots you've seen out there simply don't happen; the characters are nowhere as lifelike or large as they were in the videos. A lot of the previews we saw were from cut scenes, and this wasn't always explicitly described, so I was disappointed in this. The characters are all shown well, but nothing jaw dropping. Nothing here is going to make you ooo and ahh.
There are several times when the graphical disability of this game will become a factor in gameplay, which is a BIG no-no. A lot of the background and floor clutter looks the same in the early levels, making important things like doors and clickable items difficult, or darn-near impossible, to find. Combine this with a poor camera angle, which we will touch on later, and you've got a recipe for many headaches and "exhausted" characters.
The storyline here is a great one, even if inconsistent with every Marvel title ever printed. (Bruce Banner isn't the Hulk yet?). Dr. Doom has formed a new Masters of Evil, attacking the S.H.E.I.L.D. helicarrier with a ton of badguys and some popular villains from the Marvel Universe. Since Doom has the largest group of baddies, Tony Stark get's power-envy and in turn creates the largest taskforce of heroes ever, which you then play, four at a time, for the rest of the game. The storyline soon shifts to Atlantis, and then to some other locations I don't want to give away as spoilers. I will say though that there are some elements of recent Marvel movies that are cool to see, and will give X-Men fans a chuckle. The most outstanding part of the story is there sheer number of characters you will recognize, from Professor X, to MODOK, and even The Watcher, who introduces a neat gameplay mechanism where decisions effect the future.
The game play however, is just as simple and mindless as the graphics. The puzzles, if you can even call them that, are mapped out for you, and arrows and X's tell you where you need to be. There is nothing to figure out but killing the group of baddies that are currently in front of you. The first boss battle, against Fin Fang Foom, could've been really fun, but instead was annoying and very awkward because of his highly predicable path that reminded me of the monsters from the NES game "Legend of Zelda, and partly about the controls, which we will get to soon. Mostly you are just walking around and beating bad guys, except in Atlantis, where you are swimming around beating them instead, and even that's weird. The game could be considered nothing more than an advanced button masher, badguy after badguy, each in a different outfit, offer waves and waves of bodies to beat up. Also every now and then the heroes could combine for an attack, but there was no clear indication as how to do these attacks sometimes they just happened. There should be clear explanations as to create these effects. I'd love to see Colossus pick Wolvie up for a throw, and if this does exist in this game, I never got to see it. Which is a shame, because there is no other reason to invite the big metal guy to the group.
The role-playing aspect of this game is nearly identical to the X-Men Legends series, and that isn't saying much. You collect coins and use those coins to develop powers, which is ridiculous if you think about it but it IS a video game after all. It's a real chore to pause the game, go into each characters screen and choose where to spend points. Despite having an enormous cast, this forces you to choose the same members over and over again, despite the fun ability to create your own team. There are still characters I have yet to try, and probably won't ever. (Spider-Woman, really?) Certain team members will combine to give a boost in ratings, but that is the extent of the creativity the game allows. You will most likely have a favorite childhood hero, and you'll spend all the points you can to boost his or her ratings. You'll also want to unlock your favorite alternate costumes for your characters, which can have different bonuses added to them. Sort of neat to give Iron man different armors that can do different things, but my favorite alternate costume is Symbiote Spider-Man.
This game was meant to be played multiplayer, with up to 4 at a time each controlling their own hero. As amazingly fun as that sounds, it's really nothing you can't get out of a few minutes of Gauntlet Legends last gen. You'll surely have fun with a buddy or two, but it can get ridiculously easy if you have 3 or 4 players using the hero's powers the right way instead of relying on the games A.I.
However, the part that really sinks this game is the control scheme. The control scheme they WANT you to use involves shaking the controller towards every single enemy that comes toward you, and trust me, that's a lot. The good part about the controls is that you do have access to every super power you've accumulated so far, by holding down B you can scroll through them, but it is still difficult to get to the right one. The means you end up using only a few of them, and it's very repetitive, much like the rest of the game. To be fair, this game DOES give you an alternative to the repetitive shaking and twisting of the controller, and that's button mashing. Not inventive for sure, but I surely opted for hours of button mashing rather than "wand waving".
As a fan of anything Marvel, yep anything, I found this game to be somewhat enjoyable, even if it was just to see how cool it is to throw Cap's shield around, or burn some bad guys as the Human Torch, but if there is a sequel here, it needs to be improved.
All in all, if you are a Marvel fan, check this one out, but don't rush out and buy it unless you spent your early years in Spider-Man Underoos. Even then, there are (supposedly) better versions of this game on PS3 and 360 “ but seriously, who has one of those systems?
Final Thoughts:
A decent game that is probably going to give an average player a few hours of fun, but not going to hook anyone for the long run. Since it's the only, that I can think of, simultaneous multiplayer game on the Wii, it will make a great party game for button mashers who don't have, or don't want to play, one of the more "kiddy games" like Rayman or Super Monkey Ball. Everyone else should avoid this game like Superman avoids Kryponite err, oops, wrong Universe.
High: Fun Multiplayer, great controlling the characters of my youth.
Low: Repetition! Repitition! Repitition!
Marvel UA starts out with the best cinematic sequence yet on the Wii, and yes that is including Twilight Princess. The cinematic gets you excited about playing what is supposed to be the finest Marvel video game ever made. Your initial team of 4 of the best heroes Marvel has to offer leads you to believe that you are in for the time of your life.
Things change after that.
Graphically MUA is decent. While it doesn't have any of the glitchy line trouble that Red Steel has, it really feels like a Gamecube game. In fact, it looks identical to X-men Legends 2. The screenshots you've seen out there simply don't happen; the characters are nowhere as lifelike or large as they were in the videos. A lot of the previews we saw were from cut scenes, and this wasn't always explicitly described, so I was disappointed in this. The characters are all shown well, but nothing jaw dropping. Nothing here is going to make you ooo and ahh.
There are several times when the graphical disability of this game will become a factor in gameplay, which is a BIG no-no. A lot of the background and floor clutter looks the same in the early levels, making important things like doors and clickable items difficult, or darn-near impossible, to find. Combine this with a poor camera angle, which we will touch on later, and you've got a recipe for many headaches and "exhausted" characters.
The storyline here is a great one, even if inconsistent with every Marvel title ever printed. (Bruce Banner isn't the Hulk yet?). Dr. Doom has formed a new Masters of Evil, attacking the S.H.E.I.L.D. helicarrier with a ton of badguys and some popular villains from the Marvel Universe. Since Doom has the largest group of baddies, Tony Stark get's power-envy and in turn creates the largest taskforce of heroes ever, which you then play, four at a time, for the rest of the game. The storyline soon shifts to Atlantis, and then to some other locations I don't want to give away as spoilers. I will say though that there are some elements of recent Marvel movies that are cool to see, and will give X-Men fans a chuckle. The most outstanding part of the story is there sheer number of characters you will recognize, from Professor X, to MODOK, and even The Watcher, who introduces a neat gameplay mechanism where decisions effect the future.
The game play however, is just as simple and mindless as the graphics. The puzzles, if you can even call them that, are mapped out for you, and arrows and X's tell you where you need to be. There is nothing to figure out but killing the group of baddies that are currently in front of you. The first boss battle, against Fin Fang Foom, could've been really fun, but instead was annoying and very awkward because of his highly predicable path that reminded me of the monsters from the NES game "Legend of Zelda, and partly about the controls, which we will get to soon. Mostly you are just walking around and beating bad guys, except in Atlantis, where you are swimming around beating them instead, and even that's weird. The game could be considered nothing more than an advanced button masher, badguy after badguy, each in a different outfit, offer waves and waves of bodies to beat up. Also every now and then the heroes could combine for an attack, but there was no clear indication as how to do these attacks sometimes they just happened. There should be clear explanations as to create these effects. I'd love to see Colossus pick Wolvie up for a throw, and if this does exist in this game, I never got to see it. Which is a shame, because there is no other reason to invite the big metal guy to the group.
The role-playing aspect of this game is nearly identical to the X-Men Legends series, and that isn't saying much. You collect coins and use those coins to develop powers, which is ridiculous if you think about it but it IS a video game after all. It's a real chore to pause the game, go into each characters screen and choose where to spend points. Despite having an enormous cast, this forces you to choose the same members over and over again, despite the fun ability to create your own team. There are still characters I have yet to try, and probably won't ever. (Spider-Woman, really?) Certain team members will combine to give a boost in ratings, but that is the extent of the creativity the game allows. You will most likely have a favorite childhood hero, and you'll spend all the points you can to boost his or her ratings. You'll also want to unlock your favorite alternate costumes for your characters, which can have different bonuses added to them. Sort of neat to give Iron man different armors that can do different things, but my favorite alternate costume is Symbiote Spider-Man.
This game was meant to be played multiplayer, with up to 4 at a time each controlling their own hero. As amazingly fun as that sounds, it's really nothing you can't get out of a few minutes of Gauntlet Legends last gen. You'll surely have fun with a buddy or two, but it can get ridiculously easy if you have 3 or 4 players using the hero's powers the right way instead of relying on the games A.I.
However, the part that really sinks this game is the control scheme. The control scheme they WANT you to use involves shaking the controller towards every single enemy that comes toward you, and trust me, that's a lot. The good part about the controls is that you do have access to every super power you've accumulated so far, by holding down B you can scroll through them, but it is still difficult to get to the right one. The means you end up using only a few of them, and it's very repetitive, much like the rest of the game. To be fair, this game DOES give you an alternative to the repetitive shaking and twisting of the controller, and that's button mashing. Not inventive for sure, but I surely opted for hours of button mashing rather than "wand waving".
As a fan of anything Marvel, yep anything, I found this game to be somewhat enjoyable, even if it was just to see how cool it is to throw Cap's shield around, or burn some bad guys as the Human Torch, but if there is a sequel here, it needs to be improved.
All in all, if you are a Marvel fan, check this one out, but don't rush out and buy it unless you spent your early years in Spider-Man Underoos. Even then, there are (supposedly) better versions of this game on PS3 and 360 “ but seriously, who has one of those systems?
Final Thoughts:
A decent game that is probably going to give an average player a few hours of fun, but not going to hook anyone for the long run. Since it's the only, that I can think of, simultaneous multiplayer game on the Wii, it will make a great party game for button mashers who don't have, or don't want to play, one of the more "kiddy games" like Rayman or Super Monkey Ball. Everyone else should avoid this game like Superman avoids Kryponite err, oops, wrong Universe.
Scores:
Overall: 56
Overall: 56
