Play Impressions: Marvel Ultimate Alliance

I’ve never been the Super Hero fan that everyone else in my generation seems to be. Corniness is all well and good for the Science Fiction and Horror genres, but I wish they would make some effort to keep it out of the modern hero’s journey. Characters like Beowulf or Gandalf used to be able to take themselves seriously. Now, thanks to Marvel, they can’t. Fortunately, my super quandaries give me a unique perspective on Ultimate Alliance. It’s my first super hero game.

My wife Michelle and I can’t agree on much when it comes to gaming. She’ll take the Sims 2, while I’m constructing elaborate space fortifications in MoonBase Commander. She’ll take any random obscure Japanese RPG with a shiny samurai on the cover, while I won’t even soil my CD tray with an RPG scoring less than 90 on metacritic. However, I knew of her fondness for Marvel and N64 Gauntlet, so I jumped on the opportunity to review a title which is essentially a combination of the two and as surely as a Goron rolls downhill, it was enough to persuade her to pick up the Wii Nunchuk combo and give it a try.

Despite surface appearances, Ultimate Alliance isn’t just another Gauntlet clone. It features oodles of storyline, an incredible 24 playable characters, and a gesture based combat system unique to the Wii. After the twenty-seven developer and publisher splash screens, and some very high production value CG establishing shots, my wife and I were dumped into a battle to save the helicarrier (whatever that is). If I learned anything from these harrowing opening moments, it’s that Marvel’s universe is huge. If you’ve read it in a comic book, it probably has a cameo appearance in this game. Unfortunately, if you haven’t read a comic book in your life, you’ll be confused.

It didn’t take us long to grasp the rudimentary aspects of the gesture system, especially with the help of an optional training screen. I found the most satisfying control to be the nunchuk knocking motion used for door opening, grabbing enemies and tossing barrels around. Other gestures include lifting, dropping, wiggling or sliding the remote from side to side. I’m unhappy to report that these aspects of the control system don’t feel very tight. For example, I lift up the remote to do an uppercut attack. Ok, now do I just leave my hand up there? No, what goes up must come down and also must instigate an unintended dive into the scenery. Oops. The side to side gestures also don’t feel quite right to me, because they don’t activate a corresponding right to left, or left to right attack. This isn’t the fault of the gesture system or the responsiveness of the Wiimote, but more the shoehorning of an existing game onto the gestures. Another difficulty we had is the way that titling the nunchuk rotates the camera. In multiplayer mode, someone will always be titling without realizing it, leading to some very dizzying gameplay. Finally, the developers don’t even trust their own control scheme, offering alternate button press options for several of the main attacks. Don’t get me wrong, the control scheme is functional, just not in the visceral way that Wii Sports and Downhill Jam are.

The graphical presentation of Marvel Ultimate Alliance on the Wii is also a mixed bag. The environments and lighting engine look great; however, the character models are back in the Stone Age, conflicting strongly with the great looking prerendered cutscenes. Skybox textures are also groan inducing in places. However, despite not corresponding to my Wiimotions, the attack animations are all well done and special moves are plentiful and upgradeable. Frame rates are also rock solid.

The existence of so many competent four player launch games on the Wii is an excellent counter to Microsoft’s weakness in this department and Marvel Ultimate Alliance is no exception. Drop in four player cooperative play is solid, and is already providing my wife and me with some gaming bonding. We’ve loved crawling the surface of the helicarrier, and plunging into the depths of Atlantis for a little nanobot assisted swim. The story is pure Super, meaning we’ve already saved the world at least five times in as many hours.

Overall, Ultimate Alliance is an excellent Gauntlet stand in, even though the red wizard is not about to die. It offers depth and breadth for the nerdiest super hero aficionados, while scooping on the corn by the truck load. Expect to find Michelle and me wiggling and sliding our remotes for hours to come, for our first console adventure together since Baldur’s Gate on the Xbox.