Marvel Ultimate Alliance (Wii)

...never heard of Marvel. Marvel Comics founded way back in 1939 has been providing tales of Super heroism in a wide range of forms and format ever since.

It isn't a surprise then that Marvel have tapped into the massive audience of Video Entertainment. There are as many Marvel games as there are Characters! Actually, that isn't true at all, as the list of Mavel Hero's is bordering on Ludicrous. There are however, a vast range of games ...
...not a huge fan of Marvel of comics stick with me through this intro bit, I promise after that you don't need to know your Adamantium from your elbow!

On an otherwise ordinary day, Dr Doom the sworn enemy of the Fantastic Four gathers together The Masters of Evil, a who's who of Marvel Supervillains and attacks S.H.I.E.L.D's airborne base of operations (Counter Terrorism agency who specialise in Super Villains and Heroes). The SOS goes ... more

####Gadzooks it's Marvel!

I'd be astounded and a little disturbed if anyone in 2007 had never heard of Marvel. Marvel Comics founded way back in 1939 has been providing tales of Super heroism in a wide range of forms and format ever since.

It isn't a surprise then that Marvel have tapped into the massive audience of Video Entertainment. There are as many Marvel games as there are Characters! Actually, that isn't true at all, as the list of Mavel Hero's is bordering on Ludicrous. There are however, a vast range of games featuring Marvel Characters that range from Action to Puzzle and anything in-between.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is the 3rd title from publisher Raven, following in the footsteps of X-Men Legends (2004) and X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), Ultimate Alliance is an Action Role Playing Game (RPG). Launched in 2006 on All Formats (PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, GBA) and then on Wii in 2007 at Launch of the Console. I will be focusing on the Wii version and will try my best to review it on its own merit and not try to compare it to the other formats; otherwise, we'll be here all day and not really achieve much!

####What! Super Villains up to no good again!!!

If you're not a huge fan of Marvel of comics stick with me through this intro bit, I promise after that you don't need to know your Adamantium from your elbow!

On an otherwise ordinary day, Dr Doom the sworn enemy of the Fantastic Four gathers together The Masters of Evil, a who's who of Marvel Supervillains and attacks S.H.I.E.L.D's airborne base of operations (Counter Terrorism agency who specialise in Super Villains and Heroes). The SOS goes out and Marvel favourites Spider Man, Captain America, Thor and Wolverine show up to lend a hand. The four Heroes then join a team lead by S.H.I.E.L.D to figure out what the Masters of Evil are up to and to make sure they don't manage to achieve it!

####Go Go Gadget Helicoprter!

As this is a Wii game the controls are very different from the other formats, or at least that is what you would expect me to say!

The game is controlled using the Wii-mote and Nunchuck. There are quite a range of different combinations of moves available depending on what your Character is doing, but it is not my intention to reprint the instruction manual word for word, so I'll focus on the basics.

Nunchuck - The analogue stick provides the movement, while the Z button is used for actions such as opening doors, reading and wielding weapons. The C button deals with jumping and flying.

Wii-mote - The A Button is a bog standard attack. Lifting the Wii-mote upwards performs a Pop-Up attack that knocks your enemy skywards. Dropping the Wii-mote performs a Stun attack and moving to the left or right throws a Trip move.

As this is a game with Superheroes, you'd expect some special powers thrown in too. Holding the B button while moving the Wii-mote in different specified directions performs the special moves available for each character.

The Wii's unique motion sensor technology is the main focus of the advertisements for this game and in theory it is a good idea. Being able to unleash a Super attack with the flick of a wrist instead of a complex combination of button presses, sounds ideal. In practice though, it is a very different story.

At the beginning of the game you configure the Wii-mote to the game by following the on screen instructions and moving the Wii-mote in a sequence of movements. The problem is that the game configures the Wii-mote in a perfect horizontal position. The main issue with this is that when you start playing the game you don't hold the Wii-mote in a perfect Horizontal position, meaning that the game doesn't register all of your commands correctly. As much as I tried it was uncomfortable to hold the Wii-mote at a perfect Horizontal angle.

I'm not sure if this is due to the game being an early release and so the Publisher not having much time to work with the interface, or just plain laziness and porting the PS2 version and throwing in the movement controls to sell a few more copies. Either way, the controls for Ultimate Alliance on the Wii just don't work well, in fact they don't work at all.

During the first mission of the game, I got so frustrated at trying to pull off Pop-up and Stun attacks that I resorted to frantically waving the Wii-mote about hoping to register some form of attack. This was good exercise, but unfortunately made no difference to what Spider Man was doing on the screen. By the end of the first mission I had resorted to frantically hitting the A button and performing the odd special attack by waving the Wii-mote about. I soon realised that I could pull of any special attack I wanted by pressing B and A together and so the waving of the Wii-mote practically became non-existent as I progressed further into the game.

This is the first Wii game that I have played where I have been genuinely disappointed by the controls. At once point I was ready to stop playing the game altogether as it was so unresponsive.

####Marvel at the Ultimate Alliance!?!

The game boasts more than 20 playable Heroes and 140 Characters from the Marvel Universe in some form or another. Each of the playable Characters has a set of Special attacks and can learn more as they progress. Although, this again is a bit of a bug bear with the controls. Yes, each Hero has a set of unique attacks, but they are all the same to control. There is no difference in making Spider Man sling a web as there is Captain America throw his shield, it all becomes a little tedious and there is no skill involved.

You select a team of four Heroes from the list available (you can unlock more later by collecting items or as part of the plot), and work your way through each dungeon like level. Overall, the list of playable characters on the Wii version is pretty decent. Some of the more famous Marvel Heroes from recent movies are available, including Ghost Rider, Spider Man, The Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Blade and Iron man (film due 2008). There are some other Heroes that are more cult such as Deadpool, Moon Knight and Luke Cage. Disappointingly though is the exclusion of Favourites like The Hulk and the majority of the X-men!

You can swap between which of the four members of your team that you control using the D-pad on the Wii-mote as you work your way though fights and puzzles set across a range of Marvel's most famous settings.

The plot is quite well thought out and quite entertaining and manages to keep you going through mission after mission of repetitive fighting, which due to the poor controls boils down to button bashing. Although the location changes you, get the feeling that it's generally the same level with a new lick of paint each time, with the odd exception when you get a welcome change of pace. There are 5 Acts to the game which take your from Atlantis to the Court of Asgard. Each new Act unfolds more of the story and you see what the Masters of Evil are up to.

As you progress through the game you can collect Training missions that can be accessed between the main missions and let you take the place of one of the Heroes or Villains within a Comic Book style plot, which is usually separate to the main game. As well as this, you can unlock concept art, comic book covers and cinematics. This however, is only of interest to Marvel fans, so doesn't really add anything to the game play or for the neutral gamers.

Although there are 20 Characters to choose from I found myself sticking with my favourites as the fighting styles, skills and special powers weren't different enough to make any real difference. Once nice touch though come at the very end. The choices you made during the game are reviewed and you see how your actions or inactions have effected the universe. If only the game were good enough that you cared enough, you could go back and finish it again to change the future you've just seen!

####Conclusion

I was looking forward to playing the game and I almost bought it at launch. Although I finished the game and at times I enjoyed the story, the game itself was laborious. The premise of 20 Superheroes to control sounds good and at times it looks good, but it just lacks depth. The game is carried by the Marvel licence and if you strip away the characters the RPG is pretty dire and not in the same league as other RPG's like Final Fantasy or Fire Emblem.

The simple fact of the matter is that unless you have an interest in the Mavel Universe this game offers nothing in terms of entertainment of quality game play. The fact that I continued playing to the end was more to do with the fact that I am a geek and wanted to see the story unfold that my interest in playing the game.

The Wii is all about innovative ways to play games. On the most Wii game lose the HD quality graphics, but gain on game play and are fun to play. Ultimate Alliance is nothing more than a port of a PS2 game with hap hazard motion controls thrown in to distract you from the repetition. So in essence Wii players lose graphics and gain… well actually gain nothing other than a few motion sensitive cut scenes and a poorly constructed control system that is enough to drive most people from ever playing the game for more than 5 minutes. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone other than Marvel fans, and even then I'd recommend you try before you buy!

I feel let down. A great game on paper, is a tedious and repetitive game carried only by the Marvel Characters. I will of course be looking forward to the next Marvel title, but fingers crossed they put some thought into the game play and controls for the Wii platform!  

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