Review - Marvel Ultimate Alliance

Developer/Publisher: Raven Software / Activision

Release Date: October 24 2006

ESRB Rating: Teen for Mild Language, Violence

Available On: Xbox 360 (version reviewed), Playstation 3, PC, Wii, Playstation 2, Xbox, Playstation Portable

Genre: Action RPG

Number of Players: 1-4 (local), 1-4 (online)
Strong Points: Strong co-op; large hero roster; 15-20 hour main story; unlockables and extra content; engaging combat; unique locales

Weak Points: Repetitive; technical bugs; camera issues; skill and hero imbalances; brain dead puzzles

Technical Score: C+

Artistic Score: B

Final Score (not an average): B-

Moral Warnings: Mild violence; hell-themed level with demons and pentagrams, includes devil-esque bosses; revealing costumes; supernatural characters and levels; minor curse words


Marvel Ultimate Alliance begins with a bang as Nick Fury sends out a distress call to any and all available heroes. It just so happens Wolverine, Spider-Man, Thor and Captain America were in the neighborhood. You arrive on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier which is seemingly under attack by a group of villains known as the Masters Of Evil, led by Dr. Doom himself. After fending off the assault, Nick Fury asks you to track down Doom and his remaining cohorts, find out what he's up too, and stop him for good. This eventually leads you to Atlantis, Asgard and beyond. Along your journey, you'll speak to many characters from the Marvel universe, some well known, and others that are just there for the die-hard fans. And for the true comic book geeks, there's plenty of story and dialogue to sink your teeth into.

For those who are new to the Action-RPG genre, the premise is simple: Fight your way through a level packed with various enemies, level up, get new abilities, collect gear, credits, and have fun while doing it. Before each level, you choose four heroes from a roster of over twenty five (more can be unlocked during gameplay). As you complete objectives and beat the electronic pulp out of robots and other baddies, your characters level up. You get a skill point per level to add into your powers (more powers are unlocked as you reach certain levels) and credits dropped from enemies can go into either leveling up your costume bonuses (defense, max energy, health regeneration, etc.) or to even buying more skill points for that extra edge. As long as you have one point into a skill, you can mix and match the superpower attacks you want for free. For example, you can decrease 4 points from one skill and spread the points out to other skills, but still require one point in the skill at all times. Are your ranged attacks not working out too well? Put the points into a melee skill and watch the enemies soar into the next room with a single blow. There's plenty of options from the skills and costumes to fit your playstyle, whether it's a long-ranged beamer or a spandex-clad melee master. And while the system isn't all that deep for customization, it's nice to have the extra options. For those who would want to get to the smashing instead of fumbling over whether the +10% damage or +2 defense gear is worth it, the game includes options for automatic skill and gear distribution for you.


Combat is comprised of melee attacks mixed with a nice dose of power use. You have a weak and smash attack that can be chained for different combos, a grab move that allows you to whittle away enemies by tapping the weak attack once you have them in your grasp and then use your smash attack to launch them away or bring other special effects (like stuns, knockback, knockdowns) into play. Blocking and dodging is also available, but not really required unless playing in Hard mode. Health and energy are replenished through defeating baddies and breaking objects. Death is handled by requiring you to wait five minutes before the hero is revived at the nearest save point. Powers can be used by holding the right-trigger and then pressing any of the four face buttons on the controller. There's roughly eight abilities to choose from for each character: several varied attacks, area, ranged, melee, etc.; two boosts, team powers that bolster allies and weaken enemies; and an Xtreme attack, a power that unleashes the full might of your hero. You can switch powers out on the fly during gameplay by holding the right-trigger and pressing the d-pad, which is useful when you have multiple skills to choose from, but limited slots to put them in. To keep the combat fresh, some powers ask you to rapid-tap to fire multiple shots, like Spider-Man's Web Bullets; press and hold like Captain America's Shield Throw power, which admittedly is very fun to use; or even twirl the analog stick for Thor's engulfing twister. Even with the large amount of skills and characters to pick and choose from, several heroes, such as Blade and Elektra, are just not that much fun to play. There are skill imbalances as well, with some very weak attacks taking large amounts of energy, and on the other side of the coin are highly damaging skills that can easily be spammed for low cost. While there is still a strong selection of adequate heroes, more balancing across the board would have been a welcomed addition.

Levels are filled to the brim with crates, barrels, and enemies to smash through. And it's this chaotic mayhem that makes the game plenty of fun. But one thing that hinders the fun would be the puzzles. Many times you are required to solve a puzzle to open new paths or to free other characters to progress in the game. The puzzles are very lackluster and require no thought. Besides the puzzles, there are small rewards here and there for exploring. Stat powerups, comic book art, and more can be found when breaking through a secret wall. Each level is sprinkled with both minor and major boss battles. For instance in the Murderworld level, you’ll face off against Shocker and Rhino and for the finale you’ll attempt to take down a towering robot that can easily put some hurt on your team. The main boss battles are usually accompanied by quick time events that require you either to press the displayed button to dodge huge hand swipes or requires rapid tapping a button to impale a spear into a foe for instance. Fail these mini-games, and you get a nice chunk of health taken away. These events help break up the usual fighting while adding a sense of urgency, but aren't that much of a challenge.


The graphical detail in Ultimate Alliance looks very polished. Levels are detailed and environments vary from a mobile military platform to the waves of Atlantis to an alien city. Heroes look good when in battle, but can look down right ugly when under close inspection. The graphics do a good job of showing off each of the heroes' super powers, from Iron Man’s energy beams to Spider-Man's web action. If you snagged the 360-only DLC, Nightcrawler’s teleport smoke and Magneto’s magnetic waves look particularly top notch. It seems during heavy combat, though, that the powers can look down right ugly or not even play, most likely to keep the frame rate stable. Character animation is fluid and matches each hero's personality from the agile Spider-Man to the lumbering Thing. One outstanding part of the visuals would definitely be several of the CGI movies. It’s just too bad that there aren’t more of them.

One nagging issue to consider would be the camera. The camera will get blocked sometimes by the objects in the levels like doorways and will cover up the combat. The camera will sometimes make tall objects (like pillars) transparent, but this isn't always the case. It also makes many boss battles frustrating since you have to use both analog sticks to move your character and the camera, then use face buttons to attack. Shadows in the game can also get finicky when there are too many light sources around the characters.

As for the music, it has an epic feel with enough tracks for each level to not get repetitive. The voice acting is neither grand nor weak, but some performances, especially the villains, sound phoned in. Lines do repeat quite a bit, so hearing Spider-Man joke about “wanting to fight someone that doesn’t smell like old cheese” does get grating after the umpteenth time.


On the moral side, Ultimate Alliance has mild violence, but plenty of it. I say mild because it’s mainly punches and kicks, but there is a lot of super-power use that involves burning, freezing, throwing, blasting, etc.. Certain grab moves do look fatal, like Wolverine’s wherein he stabs a foe through the chest with his claws and then throws him away. It’s all bloodless, of course, and many of the enemies you face are either robots, supernatural, or alien in nature. Outside the combat, there’s minor language from some of the cameo characters (“damn”, “hell”, and the like). Some costume options are tight fitting or revealing for some women heroes, mainly Elektra. One main blemish would be the supernatural level called Mephisto’s Realm. A comic-book hell of sorts, the realm is an area with Pentagram puzzles, involves “Demonic Leapers” and “Demonic Souls," has screaming in the background audio and requires you to defeat two devilish bosses and a possessed hero. However, it’s relatively short compared with other game areas. As for other supernatural content, Ghost Rider and Blade are playable as is Dr. Strange who uses various mystical attacks. And I should mention that there is the whole mythology involving the Asgard levels, with mention of gods (Odin, Loki, etc.) and the magic involved there at Asgard and at Dr. Strange’s Sanctum that holds magical artifacts. There are several points in the story where you can choose to save someone from death or to let them die, too. As a whole though, only the hell level didn’t sit comfortably with me, but there wasn’t a lot else I found problematic, myself.

The game features up to four player co-op, both local and online (which didn't seem to have any lag during two hours of gaming). Playing with friends on your couch or over the internet gives you two modes to choose from: Cooperative and Arcade. The first allows you to play the game like you would in singleplayer, health and energy orbs are shared. Arcade, on the other hand, has you fighting your buddies over the orbs and the scoreboard. Who ever gets the final blow on an enemy gets more points, same for bosses. Points are tallied at the end of the level, and bragging rights go to the victor. Besides the main quest, there is also a trivia game for the comic-book gurus to dig through. Correct answers grants experience for the team. There are also collectible action figures that unlock characters that you can find during the game. Simulator discs also reveal some more detail about your heroes and relives some of the more memorable battles. Completing the discs with a high enough score grants stats bonuses and unlocks a custom for use. Additional endings will also occur depending on what side objectives you do, or don't do. Saving a computer mainframe for example will have an effect on the whole mutant population. Not saving it could even be worse for non-mutants.

Like superheroes, this game has its faults. While I would have liked to see more balance in the skills and a little more bug fixing, this game will still be a blast when you got a buddy saving the world with you. The story is long and ultimately satisfying, clocking in at about 20+ hours, even more on Hard Mode. The plethora of unlockables, trivia games, collectible items, secret characters and multiple mini-endings will warrant at least a second playthrough. If you’re a fan of button mashing, looking for a fun co-op game, or just want to see your favorite hero beat up hordes of wrong-doers in tights from the 70's (and I know there are many of you), here’s your chance.

-Jonathan Andrews (jonathan@revolve21.com)