Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
The Marvel heroes team up for another dungeon crawler
Tags: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Categories: PS3 Previews, Previews, Wii Previews, Xbox 360 Previews
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Sep 13th, 2009
Marvel Ultimate Alliance was the follow up to the great RPG Brawlers X-Men Legends and its sequel Rise of Apocalypse. Instead of dredging the bottom of Marvel’s mutant barrel, Marvel Ultimate Alliance expanded the games universe to include the entire line up of Marvel favorites, and some not so favorites. It made for a fun game, but it brought with it a lot of X-Men: Legends’ poorer traits.
Getting some time with the game before its launch, I got to see that you don’t have to stop the action to upgrade your character. This allows your friends to play on with an AI controlling your character, and this works with local co-op. Another improvement is the multiplayer fusion moves, where two of the characters combine powers. These vary between which characters you combine, and it does far more than look pretty. This adds a whole new level of strategy to the game, and although most dungeon crawlers don’t require you to think, it is nice to see someone give you the chance.
Marvel readers will be famililar with the Secret Wars/Civil War story line which forms the basis for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Using the big summer crossover event as a buttress to the game is a great idea because that allows for a huge list of characters. The heavy hitters are all here: Wolverine, Iron Man, Spider Man, Hulk, and Captain America. That doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Of course they have done some exclusivity, Juggernaut is only available if you pre order the game from a certain store, and then Psylocke, Blade, and Cyclops are only available on the Wii Version of the game.
The Wii version attempts for the most part to keep up with the 360/PS3, it has the same FMV sequences as the other version, and it has the expanded character lineup. There is also a hacking mini game that’s added to take advantage of the Wii Remote’s pointer function. The players will have to guide an icon through a track by avoiding obstacles using the pointer. It isn’t an in depth feature, but it is unique.
Regardless of the platform Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is going to be a fun game. The 360 and PS3 versions offer a lot more on the visual and online side of things, but the Wii has extra characters and a mini game. This is a treat for gamer and comic book geeks alike, and the game to play this year for those of us who happen to be both.
[ Post the first comment | View related posts ]
Tags: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Sep 13th, 2009 and is filed under PS3 Previews, Previews, Wii Previews, Xbox 360 Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
