Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Review - Wii

7

Gameplay: 6
Graphics: 4
Audio: 4
Multiplayer: 7
Innovation: 5

Introduction

The plot for Ultimate Alliance is mostly derivative, just on a much, much larger scale than normal. Dr. Doom, a villainous name if ever there was one, has gathered to him a cartel of the most evil of henchmen. Obviously, this isn't going to sit well with those valient heroes who have battled within an inch of their lives to keep the bad guys down. Dr. Doom has it in his head to collect various technologies from around the world, all while deploying dummy attacks against ou heroes to distract them, to nefarious ends that would surely doom mankind. Enter SHIELD.

Led by Nick Fury at the request of the United Nations, SHIELD is one of those absurd comic book acronyms where you know the chicken came before the egg. They wanted a cool word for an acronym and looked up a thesaurus to make the words fit. Aside from the cringe worthy and delightfully nauseating comic book clichés, the real joy in MUA's story is seeing all these characters running about, good and evil, battling and working with another to the other's ill end.

Not to be disparaging towards the writing of comic books, which can and has been extraordinary over the years, most of the plot done within MUA is derivative at best. To be sure, each character has their trademark. Wolverine calls people "bub" incessently and Spiderman is full of quips, yet the game is little more than a stage for them to show off, rather than any means for real growth. It's a showcase of classic characters doing what they do best. Plot would only get in the way of that.

Gameplay

Marvel Ultimate Alliance does some things well, although the controls do feel a little tacked on. Shoehorning existing, button heavy franchises onto the Wii is going to feel iffy at the best of times, and MUA is no exception. Attacking can be done by pressing the A button or by swinging the remote. Special moves are done by pressing the B button and using a specific remote gesture, such as thrusting forward or flicking downward. If the idea of movement goes against the laid back nature of a button masher (remote thrasher?), you can alternatively cycle through special powers with C and Z while holding B and activating the power by pressing B.

Did you follow that?

Movement is handled via the nunchuck, rotating the camera is done by tilting it left or right respectively. You can also set your team to follow, pick fights or just cover you using the 2 button. Of your team of four, you can switch between any of them at will, simply by pressing the corresponding direction on the dpad.

The Wii remote adds little to the Marvel experience, since it is, (continued next page)