I’m sure like most people when growing up you wanted to be a superhero, going around stopping the bad guys and getting the girl, Well “Marvel: Ultimate Alliance” is letting us all become that superhero but it takes this idea one step further by allowing you to create your own team.

So the story is…

“For decades, Earth’s Super Heroes have opposed evil in their own cities, and on their own terms. But now, Dr. Doom and a newly reformed Masters of Evil have plans for world domination, and the heroes must band together to defeat them.”

So with the basic story told I can now go into a little bit more information about this game, as with the avengers you can have a mixture of superheroes from different comics all together to face a bigger danger than they could handle on there own, now add the fact that Marvel has one of the biggest catalogue of Superhero’s & villain’s to date means that you have a combined cast of over 140 characters.

At first you will have 20 characters to start your team off including:

(In my team I had: Iron Man, Blade, Captain America & Daredevil as they are the best of the best in my opinion!)

After that you will be able to unlock more as you progress through the game like: Black Panther, Blade, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider, Nick Fury and the Silver Surfer. You also have the “universal team upgrade system” which means you can customize each member of your team like changing their costume into a different version (i.e. Captain America &; WWII Captain America or Iron Man &; War Machine). The are other extra features like being able to play classic “Comic Book Missions” as side quests that you will find along the way.

At some points of the game you will have to choose a certain route or make a chose to sacrifice a team member for the greater good (Needs of the few, of something like that!) which was a good idea as I didn’t feel like I was just following a set route level by level. And as I found out once finishing the game each chose I made in the game changes the games ending a little, so to find out all the endings you would have to play the game a few times.

What do I think then?
For me the game was enjoyable and the storyline was much better than most for this type of game, but I did feel that as it was on the Wii Activision felt the need to make the most out of the Wiimote and nunchuck by making the combat system completely rely on it, so after the first 40 bad guys you have just dispatched and the next wave is coming you find yourself just waving you arms around and not really trying to do any certain moves.

I think all in all that the controls could have been thought out a little better but by no way are they the worse I’ve had to use on the Wii. A good point to the game is the different locations you get to visit like Shield HQ and Asgard although the rooms look a bit samey and later on in the game I did feel like I was going round in circles or that I had already been in x room already.

Another good thing is the amount of effort that have been put into the game like your base of operations i.e. Stark Tower or Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum mansion and the other little things like “comic art” laying around each level for you to collect.

The A.I of this game is sometimes a little unpredictable as one moment you can go up against 5 bad guys and not have a scratch on you, but then moments later just 1 henchman will come along and kill you in seconds. And I believe that as usual the Wii has got left out as both the PS3 & 360 have had updatable content to there versions of the game like the new “Marvel: Ultimate Alliance GOLD EDITION” out on the 360 where you can now play as: The Incredible Hulk, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Hawkeye on the side of good and Venom, Magneto, Dr. Doom and Sabretooth on the side of evil (but on the side of good?).

Below is a good little video with an interview from Chris Palmisano, Associate Producer for the game.

So to sum up I would have to say that this is one of the best “Comic” games to be made so far and would buy a sequel if one was to be made! I have completed the game twice now so they must be doing something right to get me playing again but I believe its the fact you can collect things along the way and upgrade you character with new moves and accessories (No not like handbags more like: Armour of Galactus, Spider Bite or Deadpool’s Mitts.) or Action Figures of your favourite hero!