Marvel Ultimate Alliance for Wii Review
If you ever thought you could put together a better team of Marvel superheroes than the Fantastic Four or the X-Men, Marvel Ultimate Alliance will give you the perfect opportunity to prove it. Initially developed for the xBox and the PS2, the latest port of this action filled RPG for is for the Nintendo Wii. Fortunately, unlike many of the Wii’s initial releases, Ultimate Alliance makes good use of this new platform to enhance the playing experience.
For starters, the game’s designers have adapted the game controls to take advantage of the Wii’s remote and nunchuck. Although the game controls were originally designed for a standard game-pad, the Wii version allows you to physically involve yourself in game play by shaking, thrusting, swiping and lowering the controls to execute various moves and attacks throughout the game. Although these controls take a while to get comfortable with, they certainly give the battles in the game an extra edge.
Speaking of the battles, once you’ve created and named your team of four superheroes – chosen out of a large roster of 20 popular characters – you’ll find combat to be both varied and challenging. From melees to ranged fighting, the enemies, although not always the most menacing, are a pleasure to destroy. The accompanying explosions add to the fun. Along with the main missions there are plenty of extra side-quests to add to the challenge. As you level up, you’ll face some very unique bosses and be rewarded with unlock codes that allow you to access new powers and costumes..
Another plus, depending on your point of view, is that there is no real inventory to deal with. Aside from health and power orbs and shields credits which earn you costume upgrades, conquered bosses also provide one item each. Other than that, you don’t have to worry about keeping track of inventory as in so many other RPG type games.
As you’re playing, the characters reveal some great dialogue. Pay attention, because unlike older games of this sort where the characters just repeat the same catch phrases over and over, the characters in Marvel Ultimate Alliance actually have a full repetoire of witty and relevant quips they let out with during the game. It worth watching someone else play, just to listen to these as the story progresses.
Although there is no online option with this game, the multiplayer arcade mode and co-op mode make this a great excuse to bring some fellow Marvel Universe fans together at your house. You’ll soon find it becomes very addictive trying to create the perfect team to use during the game, one which takes advantage of each character’s unique skills and abilities to enhance the team as a whole as you make your way through the levels.
The only possible downside to this release is that the graphics aren’t quite as good as its xBox and PS2 versions. That’s hardly a surprise though, since the Wii wasn’t developed to be as graphically robust. Most will find the game play more than makes up for the slightly less enhanced graphics and frame rate.
Overall, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is probably one of the best RPG games so far for the Wii. Besides the unique and fast-paced game play with a familiar set of characters, the game’s utilisation of the new Wii controllers should set a new standard for future RPG ports for this console.