Wolverine, Spider-Man, & Captain America: The Untold Story

By Thomas Machuca

Platinum num-chuck donkey fondue! Now that I have your attention, I’d like to tell you about the new Playstation 2 game Marvel Ultimate Alliance (MUA).

Sorry about the cheap ploy folks, but it had to be done as I feel that everyone who has an interest in videogames, comics, and/or entomology should be made aware of this game. 

You may have heard of similar games created by Raven Software, like X-Men Legends and its sequel, The Rise of Apocalypse (if you haven’t - leave now and I’ll spare you the humiliation). 

Well, this is Raven's new masterpiece, a game that combines the best elements of a 3D bash-em-up and an RPG with lots of cool stats and character upgrading. And another wicked feature is that unlike X-Men Legends (XML), you won't just be controlling X-Men, you will be controlling characters from the entire Marvel Universe.

Very cool.

And the plot? Very good. MUA’s story is a truly interesting one with excellent twists and turns. It begins with Dr. Doom and a newly reformed Masters of Evil clan – the greatest collection of Super Villains ever assembled!! - laying siege upon the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier. 

S.H.I.E.L.D director Nick Storm sends a distress signal to all nearby Super Heroes in the area. The mighty Thor teleports in with Wolverine, Spider-Man and Captain America to help in the fight. You then continue your dangerous journey across exotic terrain, around the world, out of the universe and back again, and even into well-known comic book locations like Atlantis, Asgard, and the Skrull home world in an attempt to defy the world's most notorious Super Villains.

Yep, it's action aplenty here, and there's heaps of characters to play as too. Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Thor – expecting more? You'll get more! 

There are a total of 23 playable Marvel characters, 20 of which are readily available from the get go, and they represent a good cross-section of high-profile heroes and comic book characters and some of the more obscure fan favorites. If you were wandering how you unlock the other few characters, as you progress through the game you’ll run into other heroes such as Dr. Strange, Blade, Ghost Rider and the Silver Surfer, who will in turn join your justly cause. There might be an imbalance in some of the characters, but in a line-up that big, who’s complaining?

The core of the game remains the same from XML: it's a four-player, top-down brawler where you progress across a linear path pummeling an endless army of enemies until you finally find your way to the boss battle. There's a lot of hand-to-hand combo attacks, but the game also includes special attacks, some of which are ranged. It’s simple, yet highly addictive.

Each enemy you crush under your mutated fist/claw gives you a bit more experience, and when you've allocated enough experience, you'll level up, and you can increase your chosen character's strength and energy (magic) reserves and improve attack damage and special attacks and stuff.

Some bosses require more than a energised fist in the face however, and you can not simply pummel your way to a win. Instead, there's a slight puzzle element involved. You must find a trigger to an attack, and following this you must then press a button combo that deals a little sequence that in turn deals damage, somewhat like the game God of War. It’s great at first and adds variety, but towards the end of the game it can get tiring and sometimes you just wanna smash stuff, not boot-scoot with your fingers...

Another nice change to MUA is that there are no longer health and energy potions like in XML. Instead, enemies and objects drop health and energy orbs, and if your character's health/energy meter is full when you collect an orb, the effect is given to another needy member of your team… how thoughtful.

The flow of combat has been greatly improved here as well, which makes it even more playable than XML. With dynamic combat capabilities, you can now fight while airborne, on the ground, and even underwater! A host of combat tactics include grappling, charge attacks and there's even a destructible environment, where everyday objects can become dangerous weapons. That foot soldier looking at you funny? Throw a bus stop at him!

From the get-go, every character can perform a handful of straight-up melee combos and with every foe that you crush and every team combo that's pulled off, a character's momentum will increase, eventually allowing you to perform momentum attacks, which act as finishing moves, dealing out heavy damage.

There are also weapons that you can utilise to improve your offensive capability, which are usually found lying around the levels, or you can even wrestle them from the hands of your enemies. Sadly though, they haven't been balanced into the combat very, and they are vastly overpowered and you can take down foes far more easily than powers.

Ahhh, powers… What is a Super Hero without powers? Perhaps like a nubile Hollywood socialite without hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of placcy surgery, or maybe a gorilla without a banana. So, each hero has eight or more special powers in their arsenal, all of which relate to the character and are mostly already well-known abilities to those who read comics. Wolverine can do a number of powerful slashing attacks with his adamantium claws, as an example.

Customising your team is another major part of MUA. You can use a 'universal' team upgrade system or customise each individual member for maximum effectiveness when it comes time to level up your character. By creating your team you get a vast selection of power-boosting equipment, a unique team name and team icon, and an established team reputation as the story progresses. It’s all pretty cool.

Something that's not so cool are the puzzles. If you're a fan of challenging puzzles, be prepared to be disappointed as the level design and puzzle elements have not seen any improvement; they are pathetic.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance (MUA) should take you about 15 to 20 hours to play through the first time through, which is a fairly long single-player campaign, but thanks to the depth of customisation and number of characters, there is plenty of incentive to give this a second play through, especially as the unlockable 'hard' mode allows you to import your buffed-up team that you already beat the game with.

Now on to one of the aspects of video games that I enjoy most – the multiplayer aspect. Sure you can play it by yourself and have a wonderful time, but multiplayer is the way to go with this game. It makes a good game great. 

It's as easy as plug-and-play, where anyone can jump in and out at anytime during the game. You play through the standard story mode which is very addictive, so naturally you are playing co-operatively. However, you can choose to play in Arcade Mode where you also compete against each other for points (merely bragging rights at the end of each level), so there is a fighting game aspect to MUA, which is good to see.

Additionally, all the features of offline multiplayer are also available online, except that only one player can load their saved game. The good news is that everyone can save their online progress and then continue it offline, so it's not too restrictive. Disappointingly, you can only have one player per Playstation and also some people may experience lag at times.

The graphics in this game are also very stylish, and gone are X-Men Legends' (XML) cartoonish character models that lacked detail. This time round Raven has beefed up the polygon count with fully-realised 3D renditions of some of Marvel's greatest heroes and villains. 

Though only 23 are playable, there is a cast of over 140 colourful characters from the Marvel universe to ogle at, and pretty much all of them look great on a large screen TV. The environments look good and the special effects are nice, but the one gripe about the game on the PS2 is the unflattering framerate and sometimes choppy animations. I might be able to forgive these issues because Blur Studios provided a half-dozen drop-dead gorgeous, fully rendered cut-scenes that will get any comic fan salivating all over their controller.

When it comes to the audio, this game is very good, creating a thick atmosphere with which to submerge oneself. The score is epic and remarkably varied. Every location has several different soundtracks that provide each with its own uniqueness. And each character comes with a handful of one-liners that are cool at first, but which become as stale as a two-day old loaf of bread after a few hours. Also with the voice acting, it doesn't really fare so well.

When everything in this game combines - the fast-paced action gameplay, the RPG elements, the cool superheroes, the sweet graphics and the measured soundtrack - something very attractive results. Andthat wraps up this review: rent it first, then buy it. Or buy it first then... No, that doesn't work.

I shall leave you with a few words… dog, hairdryer, pavement, and atlas. Now that I think of it, I should also say that I recommend this game to avid Marvel fans and to those who liked the previous titles, such as X-Men Legends. This one is bigger, better, and altogether more fun, and definitely worth a moment of your time.

Game: Marvel Ultimate Alliance
System: PS2
Players: 1-4
Online: Yes
Developer: Raven Software/MUA
Distributor: Activision

Rating: 80%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)