My favourite comic book based video game...and no, it's not Arkham Asylum.

My favourite comic book based video game...and no, it's not Arkham Asylum.

I take a brief moment to describe why I think Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is the greatest of all comic book based video games and deserves more recognition.

Editorial Opinion
By Kaedus - Feb 10, 2011 05:02 AM EST
Filed Under: Video Games

Whenever I hear someone ask "What's your favourite comic book related game?" I always hear ARKHAM ASYLUM. Occaisionally Spider-man 2 will crop up, however I have never heard anyone say Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. I just don't get why not.

Coming off the back of the 2 X-Men: Legends games (which in themselves were awesome), Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is an RPG which allows you to create a team of 4 Marvel heroes from a very impressive selection to take on the Masters of Evil.



OK, so lets break it down...

1. Characters



One of the things that made this game so epic were the characters used, both playable and non-playable. Here, they have collected a giant range of the best Marvel characters, from the famous to the more obscure.

The game allows you to set up your Marvel dream team, allowing you to combine the likes of Captain America, Silver Surfer, Blade, Thor, Doctor Strange, and sop many others. What Marvel geek does not dream of doing that?

As well as the dream team, the number of supporting charcetrs is incredible, from Clea to Valkyrie to Black Widow...Senator Kelly even finds time to make an appearance.

The villain cast is immense! Firstly, Doctor Doom (in all his menacing glory and not at all like his FF movie counterpart) is the main bad guy, assembling all of Marvel's greatest villains around him to form the Masters of Evil. His inner circle comprising of Loki, Baron Mordo, Ultron, and the Enchantress. This is a game which has collected the likes of the Mandarin, Fin Fang Foom, Shocker, Mephisto, Destroyer, Galactus and the Super Skrull all into one epic story!



2. Locations



Latveria
Asgard
SHIELD Helicarrier
Atlantis
Valley of Spirits
Mephisto's Realm
Murderworld
Niffleheim
Valhalla
Attilan

All in one game.....epic!


3. Marvel Lore



By talking to the supporting characters and by playing the main quests, you can pick up on so much Marvel history...it's all in there. There are even in-game quizzes which aren't for the lighthearted Marvel fan. This game goes into so much depth about the Marvel world it's incredible. It was so great when playing through it to see everything I loved brought together.

4. Story



OK, so for those of you reading you haven't played this already may be thinking that all of this content in one game seems too clustered...but no, it works. The story is engaging and true to the characters...Doom wants to be all powerful, Loki wants to take Asgard, Galactus just wants to eat planets. I won't reveal spoilers but the story works so well and it's everything a Marvel fan would love to play through.


5. Extras



This game is long. The story is epic and engaging and there are many side quests along the way. Throughout you can collect challenges and concept art, and the chance to unlock many alternate costumes for your characters.


6. Gameplay



I loved the gameplay. The powers were all really well done and I liked how you could choose which ones to upgrade. I also loved all the big special powers for each hero. The gameplay was similar to that of Champions of Norrath (another of my all time favourite games). It was really fun to play and mixed with the Marvel back story made the gaming experience perfect.


I recently replayed through it with one of my friends and it was just as fantastic as the first few times. I feel that it doesn't truly get the recognition it deserves, and I know that it was very well rated on release but it seems to have disappeared now.

The sequel was really good, playing through the Civil War story was awesome, but compared to the first one it was such a disappointment. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance may not be as well defined or as challenging as Arkham Asylum but the content and gameplay are incredible. It is definitely my favourite comic book game, and one of my all time favourites as well.

Now I know that most people on this site have probably played this, what are your thoughts? For everyone who hasn't, I strongly urge you to go out and buy it now.

One last thing, my favourite dream team:

Thor
Moon Knight
Silver Surfer
Doctor Strange

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Kaedus
Kaedus - 2/10/2011, 5:56 AM
For the record, I love Arkham Asylum and can't wait for Arkham City :)
captainbeta
captainbeta - 2/10/2011, 6:08 AM
I agree completely. My personal dream team is Thor, Ironman, Captain America and Wolverine. It is such an enjoyable game that my whole family loves to play it.
Oxion
Oxion - 2/10/2011, 6:15 AM
Yea, thats the thing about Marvel character video games, not so epic by themselves which is why Batman is better. I mean think about it, they can make a million Spiderman games but there is a limit to how much they can change, u still do the same stuff just a different story. Some of the gameplay in other games gets so repetitious it gets boring and then the graphics are just plain bad sometimes. It took a hoard of Marvel characters just to make one good game and you play with a team of 4 people, not individual players. All Batman needs is ONE player, ONE character and a hell of a story and a kick ass fightin style, sorry dude but Batman is way better. Plus, that top view shit is annoying.
IamClarkKent1
IamClarkKent1 - 2/10/2011, 6:31 AM
Completely agree. My only issue with the game is, at least for me, Wolverine gets a little too powerful. It's helpful though whenever I'm in a tight spot, I could always depend on Wolverine to clean up. But I would usually leave him out of the lineup in future plays to keep it challenging.
Great game, though.
GrimeKid
GrimeKid - 2/10/2011, 6:32 AM
I agree, this game was brilliant. It had a great story, great characters, great gameplay & the cutscenes were superb.

My personnal favourite character was Deadpool cos his fighting style was crazy, he had sub-machine guns AND katana's, plus he was just hilarious.
chris915
chris915 - 2/10/2011, 6:51 AM
Dude are you serious? I mean i LOVED this game and i played it hours on end (i didnt use the cheats btw lol) I also loved the sequel.

But bro, Arkham Asylum was such an amazing game. From the gameplay, to the difficulty level (mentally and thru the gameplay), the story with the joker and the venom drug. Everything from the story to the extra missions was nothing short of phenomenal. I mean c'mon, this game actually went in-depth with Bruce Wayne and his reasons for being batman.

Bottom-line this game is spectacular, but Arkham is hands-down the best superhero game and one of the best video games ever.
hotkarl8083
hotkarl8083 - 2/10/2011, 7:10 AM
This belongs in either editorials or reviews.
MoodyMax
MoodyMax - 2/10/2011, 7:18 AM
Seriously...why do people feel the need to put this shit on here? Why should we care what you think? Put this in reviews or editorials..
ROBBEATZZZ
ROBBEATZZZ - 2/10/2011, 7:46 AM
MAN THIS ALONG WITH X MEN LEGENDS SERIES ARE MY FAV..BUT MAU WAS JUST DIFF AND ALL YOU CAN WANT AS A FAN..BUNCH OF YOUR FAV CHARACTERS IN ONE UNIVERSE...GREAT STORY..IT KEPT YOU ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT YOU NEVER KNEW WAHAT WAS NEXT..THIS GAME NEVER GETS OLD...THIS MADE ME WISH FOR A LIVE ACTION MOVIE CROSSOVER..NOW LOOK WHATS TAKING PLACE WITH MARVEL STUDIOS!
ROBBEATZZZ
ROBBEATZZZ - 2/10/2011, 10:25 AM
CIVIL WAR MAU SUCKED ON PS2!..STILL THINK THE 1ST WAS SLIGHTLY BETTER THOUGH
stano0
stano0 - 2/10/2011, 10:31 AM
Look both games were good. but the game (between the 2 titles) I played the most was Marvel Alliance. The story pulled me into the game. I liked the top view i seemed to fit the game.
SmokinIndo
SmokinIndo - 2/10/2011, 10:44 AM
@NextHero08

"Yea, thats the thing about Marvel character video games, not so epic by themselves which is why Batman is better"

Is that a joke? Because that shit is HILARIOUS!

Dude, ALL of the good superhero games produced since the Atari have been based off of MARVEL characters. Meanwhile, virtually all of the DC games, let alone games based on one character, have been complete shit! Let's look at Marvel for a second. Pretty much EVERY Spider-Man game has received good reviews, although none come even close to the awesomeness of Spider-Man 2. Meanwhile, the Punisher, X-men Origins: Wolverine, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, and X-Men Legends have ALL been superb games. And guess what? They're ALL based on one MARVEL character. (The X-Men counts as one character.) That's not even counting the other games like Marvel Ultimate Alliance and the Marvel vs. Capcom games which have all been excellent.


I mean think about it, they can make a million Spiderman games but there is a limit to how much they can change


I don't know where you're getting that horse shit from. Spider-Man 2 has a formula that's been proven to be golden. Why would you change it? After Arkham Asylum, you think anyone's gonna try and change what's been done with Batman? If the developer said "Let's make the next Batman game a side-scrolling platformer", do you think that game would be a success? That would be utter suicide. You're using retarded logic.

Although it was a good game, Arkham Asylum was immensely overhyped. The acclaim that game received rode mostly on the acclaim of The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger's Joker. There was nothing unique about the fighting style. It was the same thing that was used in Assassin's Creed. If you want awesome, unique fighting, play any one of the Spider-Man games or Ultimate Destruction. Now that's badass fighting! Where Batman: AA was successful was in the story and the writing. But Marvel Ultimate Alliance had awesome story and writing as well, along with great fighting, a HUGE roster of characters to play as, lots of powers to choose from, TONS of content, and so much more. Pretty much everything that the author wrote is reasons why the first MUA kicks Batman: Arkham Asylum's ass.

@Shocker

The second Marvel Ultimate Alliance was utter shit. Everything great about the first one went out the window with it's sequel.

-Less powers to choose from.
-Less characters
-bad writing
-no special dialogue
-no content
-repetitive story and gameplay
-shit bosses that were just fillers
-lazy design team (most of the powers and fusions were recycled from other characters' powers and fusions.)
-and to top it all off it was a HORRIBLE adaptation of Civil War.
ThunderCougarFalconBird
ThunderCougarFalconBird - 2/10/2011, 11:42 AM
I do agree with you on all you said. But there is one thing that stops this game being great. When you strip away the characters, Easter eggs, Marvel lore and story all you have is a button mashing walk through. Seriously, you can go through the game hitting one button, eating a sandwich and arguing with your other half. You don't even need to know your playing it to complete it! All the aspects you pointed out do make this really really good game and your more than entitled to love, I can see why you would. But for me it has that one flaw, and it's a big one stopping the game from being great.

Nice article though bud!

Stay Classy!
Kaedus
Kaedus - 2/10/2011, 1:08 PM
@NextHero08 and chris915...good opinions, like I said I absolutely love Akham Asylum. But for me personally, as a comic fan, especially an absolute Marvel geek, this had everything for me.

@Grimekid...that's the one point I forgot which I really wanted to put in...the cutscenes. They were epic! Loki assaulting Asgard, Nightcrawler going on a rampage, and all-powerful Doom at the end were the best. You could have used those graphics to make an awesome animated movie.

@Ron...I agree with what you're saying, a hell of a lot of games out there are button mashers. For me though I take the game as a whole and not judge it's particular qualities. It's the mix of everything which just made it an epic gaming experience, it had absolutely everything a true fan would want.

@indoraptor12...I agree with your comments about MUA2. I was also really disappointed that the second one didn't follow up on Galactus' threat at the end of the first. Hopefully that's planned for a third one. They need to return to the format of the first but try not to replicate it. It would be cool if you could do two stories...one as the heroes and one as the villains.
Supes17
Supes17 - 2/13/2011, 6:29 PM
ARKHAM CITY>ARKHAM ASYLUM> MArvel Ult-....
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