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Lives up to its title!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 51 / 58
Date: October 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am having an absolute blast with this game. It combines old-school arcade beat-em-up madness with RPGish character advancement, a fantastic story, and let us not forget a roster of some 140 classic Marvel comics characters, 24 or so playable. Then, of course, there is the much-hyped option of creating and naming your own superhero dream team. You start out with four heroes of your choice and the more you team these characters up on missions, the more experience and prestige your team gains. This leads you to upgrade your mighty force with great stat bonuses and an expanded roster. Cool, cool stuff if you're a fan of comics or superheroes in general. If you're a wise gamer, you can send any of several Avengers line-ups, the X-men, or the Fantastic Four along with a few other "secret" combos into battle together and receive special team bonuses as a reward. There are also some awesome sequences where your team all use their "extreme" powers at once. Picture this: Blade throws several vials of his serum into the air, shooting them so they explode into a deadly mist that damages the enemies, Spiderman then swings across the screen blasting every foe with webbing and ensnaring them as they are still recoiling from Blade's assault, Deadpool leaps into the air, flipping sideways in slow motion as he sprays the villains (now ensnared in webbing) with twin SMG's just as the Human Torch starts raining fire and Brimstone over the whole screen. That, my friends, is some hardcore superhero a**-kicking.
The story will take you throughout the Marvel Universe to other galaxies, under the sea, to the realm of the gods fo Asgard, and even to the depths of Mephisto's hellish underworld as you battle the Masters of Evil, an ambitious coalition of supervillains headed by Dr. Doom himself. The extra missions you complete (or don't) during the course of your journeys will all affect the game's ending; so though you may have saved the universe, depending on what side missions you did or didn't complete you are shown the future that has been created by your actions or lack thereof. My first time through, for example, I did much good and brought peace between some former enemies of humanity and helped defeat many future threats, but the combination of events that came about because of some details I neglected during gameplay doomed some of my favorite heroes of all in the end. I've never seen a story mode handled quite like this and it's very rewarding and really adds to the replay value of the game. All right, on to the characters. It would have been nice to play as the Namor, the Vision, or [insert your favorite obscure Marvel hero here], but the playable roster is an impressive combination of legendary mainstays like Spiderman, Wolverine, and Iron Man and hardcore fan-pleasers like Dr. Strange, Moon Knight, and the aforementioned merc with the mouth, Deadpool. Heck, even the cosmic power of the Silver Surfer is yours to command so who's to complain? Furthermore, you now have the option of downloading even more characters from xbox live including Venom, Magneto, and the Hulk as well as 5 others. There are tons of legendary Marvel villains and heroes that are MIA (no Punisher? Doh!), and some minor fanboy complaints about the upgradeable uniforms (why is Spidey's symbiote costume less powerful than his original cloth one?), but that just means that there is still room for this awesome franchise to get even better next time around.
Fans of the "X-men Legends" games will find the gameplay more than a little familiar (see: nearly identical) and will find some favorite characters from those games playable as well, but with some new tricks. You gotta love Colossus picking up enemies and using them to club their comrades; that's just good times all around. There are also interactive segments, mini-games if you will, that are pretty fun and look cool as hell. Running over psychotic clowns in a bumper car springs immediately to mind; and several of the larger boss battles and other situations have button sequences that need to be pushed as they appear to perform context-sensitive moves that look cool as hell. Then there's those games of old-school "Pitfall", and "Arkanoid" you play in Murderworld... Plenty to do in this game. You'll also earn several unlockable (and upgradeable!) alternate costumes for each hero and solo (or "comic") training missions for the playable heroes in the game if you can hunt down their discs. These missions are a godsend and allow you to learn each individual hero's abilities outside of the chaotic team battles and engage in some memorable duels with classic villains (Elektra vs Bullseye: round 2? You know you want it!). I only wish that each character's missions were a little more customized; they all consist of one of the same four or five levels with different bosses at the end.
Some of the cutscenes in the game look unbelievable (there is a Nightcrawler sequence that rivals the one in the 2nd X-Men film) while others are rather unpolished. The voice acting is spotty at best, but several of the character's voices closely resemble their animated counterparts and it's fun to hear your heroes banter during battle (Deadpool, unsuprisingly, even has wisecracking as one of his special powers) and the graphics during gameplay are a massive improvement over "X-Men Legends", so there's really very little to complain about.
Online multiplayer also looks to be a big draw this time out. I haven't tried it out yet, but from what I've heard there is 4-player cooperative where everyone shares and shares alike, and competitive where your baddie-stomping statistics are tracked for bragging rights and to the winners go the spoils. You can even play the comic missions with one player as the fearless hero and the rest of the players controlling the hordes of enemies. The fun just keeps on coming.
This is one of those games where, even after you've beaten it, you simply can't wait to start it over and play through it in a different way. Personally, I'm relishing every action-packed second and whether you're an average gamer who loves to mash buttons and kick tail, a hardcore comic geek looking for an epic adventure featuring your favorite heroes, an RPG fan who enjoys lots of customization, or just a person looking for a game you pick up and play with your friends at home or online this is that game. Buy it, own it, love it.

A Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 24 / 26
Date: October 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Finally, an adventure game for the 360 that allows CO-OP play with your buddies or family and lasts longer than 3 hours. It is nice to play these games with my son versus on-line with strangers. The game is very content rich with a lot to do. I have actually been playing since I got it and I am still not done. Yes, we like to do everything there is and this game has a lot. It really is nice being able to play with so many characters from the Marvel Universe. Seeing Ghost Rider was a plus for me.

As another said, the controls are exactly like the X-Men games. Sort of nice not needing to learn anything new. Load times are actually pretty good and overall graphics during gameplay are good as well.

If I had any complaints they would be the ease of play at times. Many boss fights are too easy. Just stay off screen at the doorway to the room, and they just stay back and do nothing. Just stand there and shoot until dead. Not all are like this, but many are. Also, the cut scenes always have the original four heros in them and they talk like they are in the adventure. Even when you pick four others. Spidey gets on my nerves!

For the overall lack of great games for the 360, this is a must have.

The comic fan's dream come true

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: December 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Over the years, video games based on comic book heroes haven't fared well. Name one good Batman video game, I dare you. Spider-man has had the biggest success rate in recent years, and the Hulk had a pretty good entry last year, but beyond that you're stretching things a bit. When X-Men: Legends came out a few years back, it was the start of a positive trend. Now everything has been set perfect by Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

Taking a roster of over 20 different playable heroes, MUA allows the comic book fan to create dream teams never considered before. A-List heroes like Spider-Man, Captain America, the entire Fantastic Four, and Iron Man are joined by B-Listers like Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, Doctor Strange, and even Blade. Imagine a team with Wolverine, Blade, Ghost Rider, and Deadpool...who could stop you? There are even those mega-powerful heroes like Thor, Silver Surfer, and Captain Marvel you can throw in. Oddly missing from the line-up is the Hulk, but I'm sure they had to save someone for the sequel.

The storyline is simple: Doctor Doom has amassed an army of super-villains in an attempt to gain the power of Odin. Nick Fury of SHEILD gathers his own group of super folks to fight the threat. That's where you come in. Create your team from the roster available to you and go one the missions he sends you on. Along the way, you see cameos from characters you'd never have believed you'd ever see in a video game.

Imagine a video game with twenty "Non-Playable Characters" (characters showing up in cut scenes or computer-controlled). Now scratch that, and imagine a game with 120 of them! Heavy-hitters like Galactus even make an appearance! In one mission, you actually have to save a planet he's destroying. I can't even begin to list the villains and heroes you'll see. Suffice it to say, you probably won't recognize them all, but if you're into comic books your mouth will drop at some of them. The cut scenes in this game are good, but some are just plain amazing. One in particular with Nightcrawler in Doom's Castle actually proves he just might be the best fighter of all the X-Men. It's a scene you'll be watching again and again.

To top it all off, the heroes you control have different costumes to choose from. Choose wisely, because these aren't just cosmetic changes. Each costume changes the primary powers of that hero, so while Spider-man may look cool in his normal "red-and-blues", putting him in the black symbiote costume (the one showing up in all the trailers for the new movie) will change the way that character fights. The costume choices here are amazing too, as some of the most obscure costumes you could imagine show up center stage here. Remember Blade's very first green costume when he showed up in comics in the 70's? How about Storm's mohawk years? Captain America's World War 2 costume, Daredevil's red and yellow suit, and even the original "cowboy version" of Ghost Rider are playable here.

As a final bonus, you can create and name your own team, populating it with whatever heroes you'd like. As you fight with your group of four, you gain reputation points which eventually allow you to add more members to your team. And you can even play with four people at a time, so everyone on the team can be a real person and do some massive damage to the enemy armies.

So which cosole is the best to play this on? PS2 players get the short end of the stick with only 20 playable heroes. Next-gen consoles like the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions get two bonus heroes (Moon Knight and Colossus). In the handheld circuit, the PSP version gets four extra heroes (Hawkeye, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, and Ronin). The only downside to the PSP version is that there are times when so much is going on you can't really tell which hero you're controlling. The PS3 version wins as far as detail in display. You can actually see the threads in Spider-man's costume! I've played the game on all consoles, and have to rate the next-gen version the best.

The beauty of this game is its high replay value. Because you can swap team members up and each has such distinctive power sets, the game can be played in an almost infinite number of ways.

Easily my favorite video game of the year, MUA is a title no true comic fan should be without. With such an incredibly strong start, it's hard to imagine how they'll improve on it with the sequel, but I can't wait to find out!

Who's got your back?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: March 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Marvel Ultimate Alliance - Circa 2006

GOOD:
- Over 30 playable Marvel super Hero characters
- Four Player Co-op either all on one system or over Xbox Live (internet). When playing the game as a single player the computer plays as the other three characters and using the directional button you can switch at anytime between any of the characters on your team.
- All the playable characters have four different costumes to choose from (except for Moon Knight who has three), these costumes also give bonuses for things like fighting power and life power.
- Lots of powers and abilities for each super hero that you can upgrade, also it should be noted all the super heroes have their signature moves from Spiderman's web swing to Wolverine's Berserk Barrage.
- Travel to lots of different Marvel Universe locations form Namor's Atlantis to Mephisto's Realm.

BAD:
- Game might get repetitive for some since all you really do is beat up on villains and run around from room to room (dungeon crawler).
- The Voice Acting in this game is not so great and sometimes is out right bad.

IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- A top-over Action RPG, which plays very much like Diablo but more so like X-Men Legends.
- To really enjoy this game you kind of have to be a fan of and know a bit about the Marvel Universe.
- Original Story that takes place in the Marvel Universe.
- Four player Co-op can be played in regular mode (which plays like the main game for single player) or "Arcade" mode where you compete for life/power ups.
- Collect coins to spend on leveling up moves and powers, kill enemies to level up your characters (and unlock newer moves).

GAME ITS MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (Xbox, PS2, Game Cube)
- Justice League Heroes (360, PS2)
- Diablo 2 (PC)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- This game is also available for Microsoft Xbox (the 1st Xbox) and Sony's PS3 as well as PS2 and Nintendo's Wii as well as the PC, only the 360 and PS3 versions have Hi-res graphics.
- The Next-Gen versions of this game come with Colossus and Moon Knight as exclusive characters
- you can download Heroes and Villains Expansion pack, which will add eight new playable characters to the game. You get Hulk, Nightcrawler, Hawkeye, Cyclops, Venom, Sabretooth, Magneto and Doctor Doom. Each of the new characters comes with new powers/moves, costumes, and dialogue. Also added are 10 new Achievements to unlock. This Downloadable Content sells for about 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00 USD), Note this Download is only for Xbox 360.

PPM = Pitch Perfect Marvel

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: October 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

In being an action RPG (role playing game with real-time fighting), Marvel Ultimate Alliance feeds off an intensely rich comic books background with characters you have never seen together in the same storyline before. For someone who grew up reading comics in the line of X-Men and The Silver Surfer, this game is a dream realized with intensity, action, and accuracy. In having made it safely through the first full act of the game, I can say that the learning curve can take some getting used to if you haven't been around a true arcade-style game in a while. With quick menu's offering power changes, special moves, and instant character switches in mid battle, once you get past understanding the controls, this game has great replay value in both single player and co-op. With the ability to name your own team, choose a logo, choose a team of two to four players from the Marvel universe, and be able to freely travel between missions learning about each character you come across in Stark's office building, Marvel Ultimate Alliance is engaging on several important levels. As you continue throughout the game you will be able to also unlock additional playable characters, take many varied side missions GTA style, change character costumes, build a team reputation, and unlock comic book covers, cut scenes, and concept art. If a game gets points just for being content rich, this game deserves a perfect score. The only downside (which is not distracting) is that the graphics could be cleaner. Other than that minor negative, I say Activision has done the Marvel universe proud.

very good title, a bigger next-gen x-men legends....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: November 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

the pluses:
-tons of superheroes to use. probably 20 or so to choose from.
-incredible graphics (the naysayers are either crazy/blind, or don't have hdtvs).
-focuses more on the marvel superheroes and not the x-men, which is great since if you've played legends 1 or 2 you might be tired of the x-men
-good length, and a cool diversity of enemies and places to visit
-a great romp through the marvel universe. any game that has galactus in it is cool (but he's too weak, he's the planet devourer come on now). i also wish i could have used the silver surfer during the game rather than just getting him after i finished all the comic missions.

the minuses:
-you spend probably 85% of the time breaking boxes or picking up coins which fall from the boxes. in the future the developers should have the coins auto-picked-up like the health and energy powerups.
-the game is easy, including the last boss.
-a surprising number of bugs (still very small, but for a console title there really shouldn't be any). you may get stunned in a level and never recover. or an energy-sucking enemy may permanently (for that level) strip you of your powers, even after defeated.
-there are not any great comic flashback missions like there were in x-men legends. these just feel kind of thrown together, except for a couple exceptions.

overall a great game, and the best superhero video game ever made.

A short blast

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: November 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game is too easy. Playing on normal difficulty, I never once lost my team in battle. I blew through each boss first time using no strategy. The mini games used to beat some bosses require no reflexes - only that you can tell red, from green, from blue, from yellow, and Y, from X, from B, from A (in case you were either dyslectic, or colour blind). The mini game button sequences go at a snail's pace. I did not lose one team member in the final showdown against Dr.Doom. You want some sort of challenge from a game - the relief, ecstasy, and sense of achievement, say, from beating Ninja Gaiden, GRAW, or Manhunt. I employed no strategy ever against any foe - just got near them and leant on the special attacks of Ironman, and combined them with my other teammates. I never once employed the dodge/defend button. And the puzzles are redundant, the "solutions" incredibly childish. I know to put the square block into the square hole. That's the ordinary. The good is the presentation, characterisation, and story. The cutscenes are well worth opening, and give impetus to pushing on through the game. I am not a hardcore gamer. I'm a casual gamer who enjoys finding out the "story" of a game. I don't think I was lucky. I think this game might well have compromised for mass consumption, for sometime gamers, who usually only play bits and pieces - and give them the sense of achievement for completing a game for once. The lack of challenge seriously detracts from the game, and makes the core action hollow and repetitive. Buy this one for the kids.

Marvel fanboys will weep with joy

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I played X-men: Legends for the Playstation 2 and, although I liked the idea of playing with four players at once, the actual game play left a lot to be desired. There were a couple of problems, not the least of which was that four characters on the screen were difficult to keep track of or even see. When the camera was hovering a thousand feet up, attractive graphics became irrelevant--everybody looked like ants. Also, you couldn't play the cool characters right away but had to earn them, which made the game frustrating.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance (MUA) fixes all those problems. You start out playing the characters you WANT to play: Spider-Man, Wolverine, Doctor Strange, Deadpool, the works. The cooler characters you have to earn, but they're worth earning: Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Blade, Daredevil, Black Panther and even Nick Fury. My team of choice was Doctor Strange, Blade, Ghost Rider, and Deadpool. Pick your team of four heroes and you're off!

Your team is assembled to beat bad guys at the behest of SHIELD Agent Nick Fury, he of the eye patch and white gloves. Then you proceed to battle an array of villains led by Doctor Doom, from Mephisto to Loki, Galactus to esoteric bad guys like Dragonman. Just about everyone in the Marvel universe is in this game.

The game play is standard: shoot things, slash things, and blow things up. In turn, various minions will do their best to knock you out, leaving the hero unconscious for a period of time until he recovers. There were a few times I ran through the game with just one hero left, like when Ghost Rider took on an entire legion of Skrull warriors and Galactus droids, tossing them off cliffs with his chains. Man, that was fun...but I digress.

Although most of the time you can't zoom in on the characters, you get a much better perspective of them when you handle the upgrades. The upgrade system is intricate, detailing everything from the powers the heroes use to the gadgets they pick up to the outfits they wear. This is especially good, because folks accustomed to the movie version of Blade will be horrified to see what his original costumes looked like in the comic (hint: think green). That said, the costumes actually matter, and you slowly unlock costumes throughout the game that will appeal to fans that know the characters from the comics (Doctor Strange's alternate costumes are friggin' weird).

MUA gets a lot of things right. The powers are evocative of the comic, from Ghost Rider's vengeance stare to Doctor Strange's magical bolts, to Blade's shotgun, katana, and pistol. The hero voices perfectly match their characters. Blade SOUNDS like Wesley Snipes. Doctor Strange sounds like the way I've always imagined him. Ghost Rider is suitably gravelly. And Deadpool...well I've never imagined Deadpool speaking but it fits.

The boards are interesting and interactive. Most fun is Arcade, sort of a Joker for the Marvel universe, complete with funhouse and old-style games like Pong and Pitfall that you have to play (I imagine kids are scratching their heads...). The boss fights show off the detail of the characters, as they involve button-mashing sequences as opposed to straightforward combat. This makes for a cinematic climax to every end battle.

There are some things that are still a little silly. While it's great that you can bash and smash nearly everything, from walls to sculptures to machinery, sometimes that simply doesn't make sense. Our heroes begin on a SHIELD helicarrier that's about to crash, and they gain coinage by...smashing everything on the ship. Isn't that exactly the opposite of what they're supposed to be doing?

But that's a minor quibble. The game has oodles of replayability, as you search for collectible action figures (I found all of the Daredevil ones, but not the Black Panther), find special mission discs that let you play out scenes from each heroes past, and even develop your team's powers. GO TEAM VENTURE!

I haven't played multiplayer, but you can play against an opponent or with up to four of your buddies. That just sounds like a lot of fun. Even the computer-controlled characters are not complete morons, which is a refreshing change for this sort of game.

Everything that makes the Marvel comics universe great is here in obsessive levels of detail. I enjoyed the game so much that I played it to completion and then some. I can only hope that the next game will allow you to carry over your saved characters. It's enough to make a Marvel fanboy weep with joy.

An exciting rpg with action!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I must say this is my favorite game on the X-box 360 at the moment! Granted, I don't have many and once I've had my fill of this game I'll probbaly go back to Oblivion but still, this is quite a good game. Some of the bosses are easy. (The mini bosses anyway. The real bosses usually take some time to figure out how to beat. Mandarin took forever. My stupid computer controlled heroes kept killing the bomb bugs) but still in games like this the fun is in collecting all the various bonus itmes like the daredevil and black panther figurines. And finding all the costumes for every character.

This is also a fun game to play with other people but most of my play time has been solo which makes it harder since as I alluded to previoulsy your fellow fighters don't always make correct decisions when they are in the hands of the computer. Still, it is a fun game solo or with other people. The good thing about playing solo is you have more time to decide on what to spend your skill points and money on.with agroup it's like eh I'll just get whatever, hurry up let's keep moving.

Anyway, this is an awesome game for those that want to revisit there comic book days of yesteryear(or for those who never left them) and for those who want a good beat em up game with co op it's also good. It's win-win.

Excellent Marvel Franchise Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

There is often a stigma associated with franchise games (e.g. derived from comics, TV shows, movies) that they will suck. Chronicles of Riddick, some of the Star Trek games, etc. are some examples. Now Marvel Ultimate Alliance can be added to the list of the good if not great ones. The ability to play has a huge number superheros, build a team, switch between them, learn and use there super powers will give hours of enjoyment and re-playability. The story line is pretty linear but has depth and even a little mystery. The graphics could have been better (but are still good) and the camera movement is the only slightly frustrating aspect of the game. This game is definitely in my top 5 Xbox 360 games.

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