Mavel: Ultimate Alliance video game

[Velorath]

Activision recently released some screenshots and a bit of info on their upcoming Marvel game:

Over 140 Marvel characters come together in Activision, Inc’s. (Nasdaq: ATVI) Marvel™: Ultimate Alliance, an all-new action/RPG that features the largest roster of comic book characters ever seen in a video game. Players assume the roles of more than 20 Marvel Super Heroes including Spider-Man, Wolverine, Blade and Captain America, and through their actions determine the fate of both planet Earth and the Marvel universe – revealed in one of multiple epilogues.

“Marvel: Ultimate Alliance delivers a new twist on action/RPGs where players’ actions and choices ultimately determine what happens to the Marvel universe,” states Will Kassoy, Vice President of Global Brand Management for Activision. “This coupled with the game’s enormous character roster will deliver an action-packed experience that comic book fans have been waiting for.”

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance features a deep, rich gameplay experience by offering total team customization, where players create their own team name, icon and vehicle, as well as establish their team reputation as they play throughout the story. Gamers also have the option to level up each character individually to their liking, or all team members at the same time to keep their heroes balanced. With the game’s new combat system, players battle against the world’s most notorious Marvel Super Villains in the air, underwater, and on the ground, using grappling, blocking and dodging moves, by charging up their Super Hero powers before unleashing them, and using environmental objects as one and two-handed weapons.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance features a unique storyline where the missions players accept, the objectives they complete, and their interactions with other characters throughout the game directly impact how the story plays out. The game also features a robust multiplayer component where fans can band together with friends as their favorite Marvel Super Heroes, and fight evil in both on and offline cooperative story modes. There’s also a Competitive Mode where the game tracks various in-game stats so players can see how well they stack up against one another – affecting the amount of experience points earned and how equipment is distributed.

Created by Raven Software and C.B. Cebulski, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance will be the first Super Hero game out for all next-gen gaming systems, and will also be available on current-gen, handheld and PC platforms. The game is currently rated RP (Rating Pending) by the ESRB and is planned to ship this fall.

I like the X-men Legends games for what they are and Raven has done a few other good titles as well.  It also helps that Ghost Rider is in the screen shots.  X-men Legends + more Marvel Universe characters + online gameplay = a good chance that I will love this game.

[Margalis]

Someone really needs to make a comic-book based SRPG game like Super Robot Wars, Fire Emblem, Capcom vs. SNK and stuff like that.

You could level up your guys, maybe give them some different equipment and such, unlock secret characters. Have one campaign where you play as the good guys and another as the bad guys or something. Choose guys for each level based on the objectives, terrain, etc.


Any brand that has a large diverse cast of characters would make a great SRPG game. Transformers is another one that springs to mind. It seems weird to me that someone hasn't already made a game like that because it is a perfect fit.

[Johny Cee]

Someone really needs to make a comic-book based SRPG game like Super Robot Wars, Fire Emblem, Capcom vs. SNK and stuff like that.

You could level up your guys, maybe give them some different equipment and such, unlock secret characters. Have one campaign where you play as the good guys and another as the bad guys or something. Choose guys for each level based on the objectives, terrain, etc.


Any brand that has a large diverse cast of characters would make a great SRPG game. Transformers is another one that springs to mind. It seems weird to me that someone hasn't already made a game like that because it is a perfect fit.

Have you tried the Xmen Legends games Marg?  They're 3d scrollers,  action-adventure,  some RPG elements (gear,  that isn't a huge factor), large cast of characters you can play, and they level.  There's even combat moves,  though if you're lazy you can just play Jean Gray and Wolverine and tear through everything..... 

My best approximation is to the PS Castlevania game that was the last great sidescroller on a consule.  Much less item dependent then that, though.

Both should be in the $15-20 range now too.

[Margalis]

Well I've heard of them, but i was thinking more a turn-based thing. I'm not a big fan of games where you control multiple guys in real time.

[Llava]

Plus, at least on Gamecube, it really wasn't a very fun game.

Putting a loading screen between the character/inventory screen and the actual gameplay: awesome.

[Lord Craxton]

I started X-Men Legends 2 recently, got up to the second act before giving up out of boredom. It's basically Diablo with Marvel characters. The party AI is okay (plays better then me, in fact), but the gameplay is just bash, bash, bash. Or, with some characters, blast, blast, blast. My attention was drawn away from it by Arcanum. Which is very odd. I remember Arcanum as sucking the first time I played it, yet I can't put it down, and I'm already thinking of making another character and/or playing the mods.

Anyway, my point is, they'll need to do better than X-Men Legends if they want to capture my interest. Whoever wrote this press release obviously knows what people look for in an RPG, but at the same time they seem to be promising too much. 140 characters? All playable? All well-defined characters? Doubtful.

[Velorath]

Anyway, my point is, they'll need to do better than X-Men Legends if they want to capture my interest. Whoever wrote this press release obviously knows what people look for in an RPG, but at the same time they seem to be promising too much. 140 characters? All playable? All well-defined characters? Doubtful.

Read the first paragraph again.  There's 140 Marvel characters in the game, but as far as playable ones go they just say "over 20".

[stray]

I liked X Men Legends 1 (still haven't played 2) for the button mashing fest that it was, but class/power-wise, it was pretty shallow and repetitive. And that was just with some X-Men characters. Some things just felt like variations on the same theme (Jean Grey/Prof. X, Magma/Iceman, etc.). Makes me wonder how varied the powers in Ultimate Alliance will be.

Also (and maybe it's because I've deprived myself of gaming for the past 6 months), I'm having a blast with Ultimate Spider-Man right now. I should have gotten it when it came out (then again, I just saved about 25 bucks).

Too bad Treyarch isn't making Ultimate Alliance (whether they've made rpg's or not). They deserve praise for the webslinging alone, but they seem to be full of cool ideas. Even their cutscenes are cool. Hell, I'm actually starting to like Venom for a change.

[Llava]

I just saved about 25 bucks

Was Geico in any way involved?

[stray]

So...

I decided to catch up on the Ultimate universe (Torrented a whole bunch of them. About halfway through now).

Hmm...Maybe I've been out of Marvel comics for too long, but has S.H.I.E.L.D. always been like this (i.e. pretty much the "bad guys")? Even the Avengers (or rather, the "Ultimates") couldn't be called "good". They all seem to be goverment lackeys who answer to Bush and Cheney. They come off especially lame in Ultimate X-Men.

And wtf did they do to Kraven? A reality TV show host? Not only that, but they set up the confrontation with Spider-Man for like 5 issues, making you think it's going to be good.....But in the end, he ends up getting clocked in one shot.

[edit] What's another Marvel series that ties in all of these characters together.....But better?

[Velorath]

I don't really get into the Ultimates stuff too much.  The idea of a Marvel Universe with different versions of the same characters seems pointless to me (mostly because it's supposed to draw in new readers who don't want to deal with 40+ years of continuity but I don't think that's who is buying it).

[stray]

new readers who don't want to deal with 40+ years of continuity but I don't think that's who is buying it.

That is who is downloading it at least.... 


Anyways, I guess Spider-Man's snarkiness is a little more up to date...I think he's called the Green Goblin a "tool" a dozen times now (I'd put a "rolling eyes" emote here, but I'm getting tired of seeing the damn thing. Plus, I just used a "wink" above. One emote is enough).

Some of the origin stories are a little more plausible though. Relatively, I mean. At least not everyone is a victim of "gamma rays" this time around.

[Velorath]

That is who is downloading it at least.... 


Anyways, I guess Spider-Man's snarkiness is a little more up to date...I think he's called the Green Goblin a "tool" a dozen times now (I'd put a "rolling eyes" emote here, but I'm getting tired of seeing the damn thing. Plus, I just used a "wink" above. One emote is enough).

Some of the origin stories are a little more plausible though. Relatively, I mean. At least not everyone is a victim of "gamma rays" this time around.

Well the idea with Ulitmate Spider-man anyway is to keep him young this time.  Marvel EiC Joe Quesada has gone on record a number of times saying one of the biggest mistakes Marvel every made was having Peter Parker get married, as it made him older (and thus kids couldn't identify with him as much), and in some ways limited the stories that could be told with him.  For that matter, that line of thinking was also the reason for the clone saga originally as it was supposed to make the clone the real Peter and the Peter married to Mary Jane was supposed to move off to Washington, have a kid, and not really be heard from much again.

[Margalis]

Getting married WAS a huge mistake. The stories became saddled with Mary Jane bullshit. Oh no, Mary Jane has a stalker. Oh no, Mary Jane has been kidnapped. Oh no, there are problems on the home front! It just became a drag. It's painful to read Amazing Spider-Man in the 300s, every time Mary Jane appears you just want to shoot yourself.

As far as Ultimates go, it's an interesting problem. One of the things they do in Ultimates is change stuff around for old readers to notice the difference - but of course that has no effect whatsoever on new readers. Comic continuity is a bear to deal with, after a while characters develop so much backstory it just becomes very inconsistent and way too self-referential.

A lot of that backstory is really good though. And Ultimates are just going to run into the same problem. I wonder if anyone has considered the idea of remakes - just tell the exact same stories that were told before with some updated artwork, some continuity fixes, ditch some of the stupid stories, etc.

What are they going to do when Ultimates have been around for 15 years? Ultimate Ultimates?

[Velorath]

Getting married WAS a huge mistake. The stories became saddled with Mary Jane bullshit. Oh no, Mary Jane has a stalker. Oh no, Mary Jane has been kidnapped. Oh no, there are problems on the home front! It just became a drag. It's painful to read Amazing Spider-Man in the 300s, every time Mary Jane appears you just want to shoot yourself.

As far as Ultimates go, it's an interesting problem. One of the things they do in Ultimates is change stuff around for old readers to notice the difference - but of course that has no effect whatsoever on new readers. Comic continuity is a bear to deal with, after a while characters develop so much backstory it just becomes very inconsistent and way too self-referential.

A lot of that backstory is really good though. And Ultimates are just going to run into the same problem. I wonder if anyone has considered the idea of remakes - just tell the exact same stories that were told before with some updated artwork, some continuity fixes, ditch some of the stupid stories, etc.

What are they going to do when Ultimates have been around for 15 years? Ultimate Ultimates?

I seem to recall them doing some remakes in the past in their Adventures line of books for younger readers, but they weren't really big sellers.  On the other hand you can get B&W reprints of the original stuff with the Essentials collections which ranger from about $11-15 collection 24 or so issues.  The outdated writing won't appeal to a lot of people but it's a pretty good deal.  Then there are books like the recent "Avengers:  Earth's Mightiest Heroes" mini which was a retelling of the early days of the Avengers with a lot of details added in to make it read a lot better than the original stories.

But really, continuity is only a problem if writers make it a problem.  When I got into comics in the 80's there's was already 20 years of continuity in the MU (more if you look at characters like Cap and Namor).  You don't need to know every bit of a character's history in order to enjoy the story.  Of course that was also back in the days when they put in editor's notes giving you the series and issue numbers of past stories being referenced, and a lot of the fun was in tracking down the stuff that sounded interesting.

[HaemishM]

I've tried reading Ultimate Spider-Man. I made it about 40 issues in and just couldn't take it anymore. Part of the problem may be that I've never really liked Spider-Man as a character. I like the movies, but it's not a character I can read about for a long period of time. The changes they made are sometimes good, and sometimes just grate on my nerves. Kraven as a reality show host was one of those grating things, as is Ben and May's hippiness. It isn't that they don't make sense, it's that they feel included to be hip and trendy instead of good ideas. 

Quesada is wrong about Spidey's marriage. I think it adds something to the story, it just means writers can't regurgitate the same old shit and actually have to think about what they are writing.

But since comics are treated as brands most of the time instead of stories with finite endings, change is bad unless sales are slumping.

I haven't read any of the other Ultimate stuff yet, though I plan on it. As for Shield, lately Shield has become the "big bad government agency with all these rogue operatives" type of plot device. They've turned Nick Fury into a complete cock in all the Marvel books. The whole Nick Fury as Sam Jackson thing rubs me all kinds of wrong ways.

[stray]

The whole Nick Fury as Sam Jackson thing rubs me all kinds of wrong ways.

Anyways, I will say that the one cool thing about rewriting the Avengers, FF, and Shield this way is that it better illustrates the problems the X-Men and Spider-Man have when it comes to their "hero" status and public relations (or lack of them). Those ideas were always in the old comics, of course, but it can be pretty interesting when all of these characters are bunched up in one issue. I just wish there was a more mature take on it.