4cr Review – Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Wii)

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance takes the familiar Gauntlet-esque gameplay of the X-Men Legends series and upgrades the scope to cover the entire Marvel universe. You can play through a campaign stretching from SHIELD’s Helicarrier to the very heart of the interstellar Skrull Empire. Does the gameplay hold up? Is this a title worth playing through for fans of the comic books? Will comic novices still enjoy it?

Read on and find out.

I’ll start by getting an obvious point out of the way. Comic book fans will get the most out of Ultimate Alliance. In fact, there is an abundance of extras intended for Marvel Zombies. The coolest thing that you can unlock is a series of “comic book” missions that focus on a single character. There are also several galleries of concept artwork and cover art that can be opened up. As a life-long Marvel Zombie, I dug the endless references to past events and the conversations between characters. Comic-book novices need not fear, you can easily progress through the game without much trouble. Still, there will be a few moments where you might feel like you’re missing something. This game uses its license, and uses it fairly well. A few characters are a little out of character, but it isn’t a game breaking detail.

The gameplay is built on a solid core. If you’ve played Gauntlet or the X-Men Legends games, you know exactly what you’re delving into here. You and three computer-controlled allies are dropped into a level and you proceed with smashing endless droves of enemy combatants. Needless to say, you’ll enjoy the game much more if you have a few friends over. The single and multiplayer games are the exact same. You can add additional players at any time and it won’t disrupt the game. You continue from the exact same spot, with players replacing the computer allies on your team. Playing with your pals is a blast, and it makes me wish that more games included co-op modes.

However, the controls are hit-or-miss; mostly a miss. This is one game where I’d actually recommend the Xbox 360 version over the Wii equivalent. They mapped several of the moves to specific motions. Normally I wouldn’t have a huge issue with this, but sometimes they just don’t work quite as well as you would want them too. Even worse than that ““ the camera angle is controlled by the tilt of the nunchuk. That just might be the worst control decision that I’ve ever seen. I can’t even remember how many times that the camera would suddenly go spinning out of control because somebody had their hand at an angle. This should serve as a clear lesson to developers ““ tacky motion controls do not make a game better. Please take the time to make sure that your control scheme works.

Graphics-wise, Ultimate Alliance looks pretty good. It won’t take your breath away, but you won’t gag either. There is a decent amount of detail in each level and the superheroes all look like their comic-book counterparts. The in-level cutscenes leave a bit to be desired. The character models look horrible when zoomed in, so some of the cinema scenes will leave you shaking your head. On the other hand, the prerendered cutscenes are absolutely gorgeous. I would kill for an entire movie or game that looks like those five or six animated shorts.

The music is fantastic. I generally don’t expect much from game music unless a famous composer is attached. Ultimate Alliance left me pleasantly surprised. This is an action game, so the music is designed to get your blood pumping. It does its job, it helps you get into the game. The voice acting, however, is pretty bad. The writing is partially to blame as some of the lines are just awful. My friends and I would giggle like idiots at a few of the choice lines uttered during gameplay.

If you’re looking for a good Gauntlet-style action game, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance will definitely satisfy your craving. It’s a solid, if not particularly innovative, game that is a blast at parties. It’s great when you just want to relax and wail on something. However, the control issues do knock it down a point or two. You might be better off getting it on a different system, as the Wii version’s only advantage is a couple of unique characters that aren’t in the last-gen versions. My advice to Activision? Fix the control issues and I’ll be right there in line to buy Ultimate Alliance 2.

Score: 7/10

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