Product Description

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance lets you create a four-member strike force of Marvel Super Heroes. If you had to assemble a team of the best heroes, who would you pick? Choose wisely, because this is an alliance for the ages -- the team you create will face incredible evils, from the most exotic locations on Earth to the neighboring solar systems. Partner, battle and interact with more than 140 characters from the entire Marvel Universe, in a multi-mission quest with an innovative combat system. Command the largest roster of Super Heroes ever, as you determine the fate of a universe. Compete or cooperate online - coverge in battle against legendary villains, and Switch between cooperative and competitive mode to partner or challenge 3 other players

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1382 in Video Games
• Brand: ACTIVISION
• Model: 15782981
• Released on: 2006-11-17
• ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds

Features

• Experience the full scale of the Marvel universe with a combined cast of more than 140 popular comic book characters -- choose from 20 playable Marvel Super Heroes, unlocking more as you progress
• Universal team Upgrade system - Balance your heroes' powers, or customize each member to maximize their effectiveness
• Outfit your heroes with a vast selection of power-boosting equipment, create a team name, team icon and team vehicle, and establish your team's reputation as the story progresses
• Change the course of the game - The missions you accept, the objectives completed, and how you interact with other characters throughout the game will have a direct impact on the storyline
• No-holds-barred combat - Fight while you're airborne, submerged underwater, even out in space! Multiple combat tactics and accessories available - grappling, charge attacks and a destructible environment, where lampposts and chairs become dangerous weapons

Customer Reviews

Great Fun for All Ages - and Super Co-Op Mode!
Marvel Ultimate Alliance lets you play with a team of your favorite superheroes. Choose from Wolverine, Spider-Man, Thing, Storm, and many others!

You can sort of consider this a Diablo style game with a much more upbeat style. You are one of four characters on the screen at any time, and can quickly flip through them. You go through the rooms hacking, slashing, slashing, and then hacking some more. Along the way you grab colored orbs and glowing coins to help you level up your own character and unlock goodies.

It's disappointing that at the beginning your four starting characters are Spider-Man, Thor, Wolverine, and Captain America. As much as I like those guys, couldn't ONE of them have been female? Still, it's only maybe 10 minutes later that you get to the "team switching" spot and can begin to design your own team. They're not stingy with the characters. Right from this point you can immediately begin to use spider-woman, deadpool, iceman, colossus, elektra, human torch, iron man, thing, luke cage, invisible woman, storm, mr. fantastic, ms marvel, and moon knight. There's also other unlockable characters that you can get as you go.

Each character can be levelled up to gain new abilities and outfits. You can choose characters that "traditionally" (in comic book stories) work together, and they will actually know to do combos in gameplay.

The characters personalities really shine through in the cut scenes. Wolverine is stand-offish and a bit arrogant. Spiderman cracks jokes the entire time. Captain America feels he's in charge. I realize that it would be IMPOSSIBLE for them to have redone the cut scenes for every single combination of characters that you could have done! So again, I wish they had a woman in the set :) Maybe kick out Spidey and his incessant comments ...

The graphics are rather good, from the flickering flame to the shadows and reflections. This isn't a game of subtleties, though. No textured fabrics or flower petals here. Everything is shiney and plasticky.

On the sound side, it's a comic book adventure. You have incredibly cliched dialogue given by over-the-top voices, and lots of booming going on. It's to be expected.

The storyline is also a traditional comic book story but heck, we all grew up with them! You're saving the world. Depending on how well you play, you achieve that mission to different degrees. They did a great job getting you to replay it over and over again in order to unlock the best ending you can.

I really give the game great kudos for their multiplayer and online options. If you're playing at home, you can easily co-op in four people, one for each character, and go to town. There aren't many games where four people can easily have great fun playing together. For online, the same is true - you can really have a lot of fun conquering levels as a wide range of characters, interacting with players all over the world.

This isn't a heavy thinking game, and it doesn't involve complex concepts. Instead, it's a game that adults can easily play with kids, and that can give you a few hours of fun relief from the real world. Well recommended!

Fun game, especially for comic/hero fans !!
Hey, I admit, this may not be the game if you are looking to highlight the grand capabilities of your PS3. But if you wanna have some good, old fashioned rock'em, sock'em with Spider Man, Captain America, Thor, and lots of other classic Marvel heroes, then this is the game for you. If you have played either of the X-Men legends games you get the idea of what this games' set up is like. It is mission based as the heroes battle Doctor Doom and a legion of other villians.

Don't get me wrong, the graphics are an upgrade from the X-Men Legends graphics, but don't harness the full capaability of the PS3, which I doubt we will see harnessed by any game until sometime next year.

The story of the game is long and will provide hours of fun and entertainment. To be honest, I feel that some of the other reviewers here have been a bit harsh. Stop expecting too much, too soon from your PS3. Better and better game will come, just as they did with PS2, you just have to be patient and in the meantime, have some fun. Ultimate Alliance will provide you with that fun.

One hit wonder
Marvel Ultimate Alliance is a great game, but only when you have some people to play with you. The cooperative mode can be fun, but I definitely prefer the arcade mode because each player is given a score afterward and this will give you bragging rights if you score higher than your friends.

However, whether or not you have friends to play with you or not, this game is ultimately a button mashing experience while looking at your favorite Marvel character do fancy moves. For ages, game developers have not put too much effort into most of the superhero games because they are franchises that sell themselves, and this game was a perfect example of it.

If you have friends that are willing to play with you, give this game a try, it will be fun at times and tedious sometimes as well.
If you don't mind playing alone, you can give this a try too... but for the most part when I was playing alone I was left with an empty experience of button mashing.

I'd say this game is rentworthy, but not worth buying unless you're a Marvel fanatic.

This is the type of game you beat once and you can't go through again, it's really a one hit wonder. You play it once, and you never touch it again... even with hard mode on the game felt the same all over.