It is almost difficult to remember a time before the success of the current MARVEL big screen film universe and its influence on recent video games. They have influenced so much of the gaming we see from the now discontinued Disney Infinity Avengers set and the recent LEGO MARVEL Avengers which adapted the Avenger films into one game. The characters from the films are instantly recognizable now for their looks and performances. Jump back almost ten years to 2006 and the main inspiration was the comic books themselves and so launched one of my favourite and all round well regarded comic book video games was release. MARVEL Ultimate Alliance and its sequel have surprisingly been released for Playstation 4 and Xbox One, a release that no one knew was coming and snuck up on a lot of people. I was curious to see how these games would stand up today but also to see how so much has changed when you come to think of MARVEL’s most famous heroes and villains!
MARVEL Ultimate Alliance is a team based RPG fighting game which features 22 playable characters made up of both heroes and villains from the MARVEL universe which in 2006 was a staggering amount for any MARVEL fan to feast on in a game. Ultimate Alliance allows players to form their own four person team who must combine their skills and powers to fight the major evil force of ‘The Masters of Evil’. The more you use a certain character, the more powerful they become with new attacks and special moves unlock as they level up and these can be further enhanced by spending XP to enhance them. Each character can be switched to at any time using the D-Pad and can be changed out throughout the campaign allowing players to change the make up of the team when needed.
What was immediate back in its original release was how faithfully each character was translated into the screen with their particular powers highlighted in their fighting styles. From Spider-Man having great agility and web slinging, Wolverine and his brawler style attacks with his claws, Captain America using his iconic shield as a weapon to huge characters like Hulk and The Thing being huge powerful characters able to lift heavy items and using large power attacks, they all have their own unique styles which allowed for amazing combinations of characters and team ups throughout the game. The RPG elements really took this above just a simple fighting game and the campaign and story still feel as though they are lifted right off the pages of the comic books.
This was the game every MARVEL fan hoped for but for me, its sequel really took it to another level.
MARVEL Ultimate Alliance 2 took the same gameplay from the first game but refined it brilliantly to increase the playable roster to 24 characters but what really sold this game was the story it used for its campaign, that of the MARVEL Civil War. Now if your knowledge of this is only based on the recent Captain America: Civil War film then this game will help you appreciate the original comic book saga as you play through the key moments of perhaps one of the most famous and iconic story-lines in MARVEL comic books.
The gameplay remains unchanged with the same RPG aspects returning along with the four character team up system allowing you to form your own team throughout the game, with some characters locked until progress or challenges are made. As you level characters up and complete their own challenges new alternative costumes can be unlocked allowing for more customisation and some great fan moments if you know the characters well.
It also has nice attention to detail in the dialogue between characters during levels which change depending on the combination of different characters but it is the collectibles that really extra enhance the experience. Audio files and reports can be collected which broaden out the side story to the events happening in the main story and all can be access via the hub sections in-between levels which depending on how much of a MARVEL fan you are can be appreciated or ignored, but their inclusion speaks for the attention to detail the game has. As a MARVEL fan to experience the Civil War story line in game form was amazing and having the opportunity to experience both Ultimate Alliance games again, following the success but also the changes made in the big screen MARVEL films was great. But this is where my main niggles with this re-release come in and it bugs me.
The fact that both games are still highly playable now is truly a testament to just how great these games really were originally and not just from a nostalgia factor. The gameplay is still spot on and great fun to enjoy today in 2016 with the RPG elements along with the attention to detail on each character’s fighting techniques still highlights of both. But what is very much obvious in both and clear from the lack of use of the term, is that neither of these games can be considered remastered versions of the originals. The cut scene videos are the original ones and as such look very dated compared to current titles. The games themselves have been ported across to current consoles well and look nice and shiny but whilst playing both and reliving what I enjoyed about them so much to still hold them in high regard today, it never felt more than just playing backwards compatible versions of them.
I main issue is not the lack of remastering to both games, quite frankly both games and especially Ultimate Alliance 2 very much stand up as much today as they did on their original release almost a decade ago, but it is the price tag given to them that scuppers the release in my opinion. Both games are available for £29.99 each or you can buy them together for £45. That is an extremely steep price for titles that on Xbox could easily have been made backwards compatible and you would have the same experience with them. The price is something that will put many people off when if a more considered and reasonable price policy had been used, fans of the original games and new fans would have grabbed these up but they are far too expensive for what really comes across as simply ported across versions.
If you are a MARVEL fan then I fully recommend picking up Ultimate Alliance 2 if you had to choose between the two but only because it is the more relevant of the two in terms of the current MARVEL film universe. That is not to say the original is not worth playing because it is, but if the pricing is off putting to you, then the sequel delivers the best option if the bundle is not for you right now. Both games offer so much content for any MARVEL fan and really serve to show just how much the MARVEL landscape has changed since their original release in 2006 and 2008.
It is just a shame that the pricing is so harsh, and if these had been bundled together for the same price being asked for just one, it would be a no brainer.
