Before we saw the Avengers on screen, a gathering of Marvel heroes outside of comics was a pretty rare proposition. Character licenses went to so many different studios that seeing multiple heroes team up was virtually impossible. You’d see Spider-Man but never with his best friend, the Human Torch. Video games seemed to fair a bit better at juggling large casts, since X-Men Legends I and II were good games, especially if you were an X-Men fan, but there was a lot of the Marvel universe that was left unexplored. They started hinting at it in X-Men Legends II with the inclusion of Iron Man as an unlockable character, but nobody gave a shit about Iron Man, so his inclusion felt more like a compromise than a milestone. Thankfully, virtually impossible and digitally impossible are two different things, because that all changed when X-Men Legends II got its followup title, Marvel Ultimate Alliance.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance is not a particularly good game, but it’s a game I was obsessed with in high school, and a lot of what made it addictive back then holds up now. It’s a third person action RPG brawler that lets you play as some of Marvel’s most iconic characters. Like X-Men Legends before it, you pick a team of four characters and engage on a universe spanning adventure. The story is campy but it’s a genuinely classic Marvel story that feels in the vein of 1985’s Secret Wars in the best of ways. This isn’t an adapted Marvel Universe, this is a straight up Marvel Universe that you can get to play in and that alone was kind of revolutionary.
This game is really respectful to Marvel history and acts as a kind of ‘greatest hits’ for the Marvel U, getting pretty archetypical representations of characters and artifacts, and honestly if you pay attention to the game you can carry yourself pretty deep into a conversation with someone who’s reading the books on a regular basis. You’d definitely know more than anyone who was just watching the movies at the time.
If you remove Batman Begins, Sin City, V for Vendetta, and Sky High, this was the best comic movie of 2005
Believe it or not, there was a time when characters like Ghost Rider, The Thing, and Elektra were more popular than Thor, Black Panther, and Captain America, but it’s true. Even mediocre movies made them more known in the average household than classic characters that are now beloved the world over. That’s part of why this game was so cool - there were so many characters you could play as. And I’m gonna list them all now because honestly, I don’t see a game in the future coming close to this roster;
Black Panther, Blade, Captain America, Daredevil, Deadpool, Doctor Strange, Elektra, Ghost Rider, Human Torch, Iceman, Invisible Woman, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Mr. Fantastic, Ms. Marvel Nick Fury, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Storm, Thing, Thor, Wolverine, Moon Knight, Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Colossus, Hawkeye, and the Hulk.
It feels like a miracle this game was made at all
Eventually there was even a villains pack that let you play as Dr. Doom, Magneto, Sabretooth, and Venom, which didn’t make the most sense, but was cool as hell regardless.
Let me explain why that lineup is such a big deal, because it’s easily the best part of the game.
This game came out in 2006, 2 years before the Iron Man movie, 5 years before Thor and Captain America, 10 years before the Luke Cage on Netflix and Deadpool in theaters, 2 years after the last Blade movie… people still don’t know who the hell Moon Knight is, but he’d just gotten a new series that year -so, yeah, this roster is incredible. While the story feels classic, the character design captured the time and place so well, blending so many different visual elements together seamlessly. Cap and Thor were their Ultimate versions, the X-Men were a mix of their film, their Astonishing, and their Ultimate versions. Other characters were taken from their most prominent era; the Fantastic Four were their film versions, Blade was film, Ms. Marvel, Dr. Strange, Spider-Woman, Hawkeye, and Moon Knight were their normal comic book versions and I’m getting lost in the weeds at this point, because these are just the default skins.
You can unlock multiple costumes for each character and assemble any version of any team you’d like. One of the Thor skins is Beta Ray Bill, and one of the Iron Man skins is War Machine - so technically there are even more characters you can play as when you take their costumes into account. Each costume comes with its own set of perks that you can use to power your character. Some let you do more damage, some let you recharge your powers faster, earn more experience, and a variety of other unlocks.
I’ve been reading comics for over 20 years and I have no idea who that dude on the right is
The problem is the gameplay is pretty generic. It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but its utterly forgettable. This game is basically Diablo with Marvel characters except nothing feels good the way it does in Diablo. Not knocking an enemy out, not looting a chest, not beating a boss - all of the combat in this game lacks impact. Certain characters fair better with their special powers than others and those are usually who I gravitated towards when I was assembling a team. Throwing Captain America’s shield feels good, slashing with Wolverine’s claws feels good, and shooting Iron Man’s repulsors feels good but beyond that you’ll struggle to find a fun fourth to fill out your team. And that kinda stinks because assembling classic teams gets you certain bonus advantages. Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and Hawkeye? Congrats, you got the Avengers. Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, and Storm? You’ve got the X-Men. Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and the Thing? Well, I can’t remember what that team was called but they get you something too. The good news is that these teams only provide minimal stat bonuses so you’re not pressured to do it, just encouraged, nudged really. It needs to be stressed though; you never feel like these characters in iconic Marvel locations. You simply feel like you’re guiding these characters on a tour of famous Marvel locations
Every level looks like a diorama, but at least it’s hard to get lost
And the tour of the Marvel Universe you’re taking these teams on is a really charming one. From the gates of hell to fight Mephisto and Blackheart to the Halls of Asgard fighting the Annihilator armor and Surtur - there aren’t a lot of stones left unturned. This is basically a crash course in the Marvel U where you’re exposed to a ton of villains, heroes, items, and all their backstories, which are exceptionally faithful to what I’d call a “classical interpretation” of them. That’s a big reason why I think the game holds up so well. Outside of a few costumes (that again, are optional/customizable) this game’s story is pretty timeless. It’s just a shame the combat wasn’t given more attention.
Yeah, this game touches every corner of the Marvel Universe
Filling out these unique areas you visit are a ton of generic henchmen for you to fight, punctuated every 15 minutes or so with a mini boss fight against a b-tier character. After 3-4 of those, you’ll be fighting a much larger (literally) boss and engaging in a few quick time actions because this game comes from a time when those hadn’t become overbearing yet. Making the fights easier is the progression system, and it’s one of the better parts of the game. You’re constantly unlocking new powers for your characters to use and the designers were smart enough to leave in every character leveling up at the same time whether you’ve played as them or not. That means that even if you’ve never played as Ghost Rider, you can throw him in during the games final act and still make him relevant. Each character has anywhere between 10 and 12 attacks that you can map to three face buttons, and an ultimate attack that deals insane amounts of damage. Of the attacks you can assign, they vary but they’re all pretty standard. From area of effect attacks that help with crowd control, ranged/physical attacks, offense/defense buffs, and direct attacks, each movie is true to its respective character. The more enemies you defeat, the more experience you get and you can invest back into your characters. It’s a good system because each point you invest makes your characters noticeably more powerful, eventually one-shotting enemies like Captain America and Spider-Man actually would. It’s not the best carrot for the stick, the costume leveling is way more satisfying, but it’s carrot enough regardless to keep you moving forward.
There are sparse collectibles throughout each level and they can be anything from concept art to bonus levels, and even hidden characters you can unlock. There’s a map you can have on screen that fills in each area as you venture through it, so exploring every environment to the fullest isn’t a particularly taxing endeavor, and you should get all the characters after a first play through. Subsequent playthroughs can be done through a NewGame+ mode which will help you power up your characters to the level cap as well as reveal all costumes, which are generally unlocked after arriving at increasingly annoying milestones of enemies defeated. It’s a pain in the ass to get these, but the game is mindless and fun enough that it’s not an impossible task.
Except when you purposely tie your hands behind certain teams
Marvel Ultimate Alliance is my sweatpants and mashed potatoes of gaming; it’s where I’m my most comfortable. I can play this game when I’m happy, sad, sick, drunk, bored, anxious, and any other possible condition that a person can find themselves in. It’s not the pinnacle of the genre, but it’s still a competently made game that satisfies a lot of what I like about both video games and comic books, and especially what I like about comic book video games. It’s much more fun with friends since the ally (and enemy) AI leave a lot to be desired, but should be played regardless if you’re at all into the Marvel Universe, because this game is made for fans of the Marvel Universe more so than fans of dungeon crawling action RPG’s.. It’s the perfect game to play through while listening to podcasts or bingewatching a series on Netflix.
It’s available on current generation consoles but is generally overpriced. I can’t recommend you spend more than $15 on either the original game or its sequel, which is also available. Replaying it has gotten me excited to see how the recently announced Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order will fare when it releases later this year as a Nintendo Switch exclusive.
Yeah, I’m gonna play the crap out of this