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In between a smattering of superb releases designed for its unique and hyper-interactive control scheme, Nintendo's Wii has otherwise been a dumping ground for cheap ports of existing games with a control-oriented twist to at least provide the appearance of originality. For every Zelda and Raving Rabbids, there's a Madden and Far Cry that appear to be nothing more than cash-ins seeking to take advantage of the ravenous audience of the wildly popular Nintendo console.
Luckily, while it's by no means a title designed only for the Wii, Activision's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance isn't some cheap-and-dirty port. Rather, it's an expansive and impressive bit of fare that'll have Marvel fanatics salivating with the sheer number of available characters and depth. Perhaps the biggest video game fan service ever made, Alliance is a must-own for those who consider Stan Lee's arsenal of superheroes to be the definitive spandex set.
If you've spent any time reading Marvel comics in, oh, the last twenty years or so, chances are that you'll be blown away by some of the stylish arenas where the action takes place.
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There are 20 separate heroes that show up as playable characters, each with their own set of abilities to exploit. An almost-as-large stable of Marvel enemies familiar and obscure counters them, naturally. In fact, between the staggering amount of good guys and bad as well as the surprisingly lengthy and deep campaign mode, Alliance proves its worth from the opening salvos right through to the end.
After an impressive opening cutscene, you start off in control of a jaw-dropping foursome of Spiderman, Thor, Wolverine, and Captain America (with plenty more to come after a few battles). Right off the bat, the four-man gameplay made famous in Alliance's forebear X-Men Legends is evident. At any given time, you can move from one character to another, while the remaining three battle right along side of you. Beat up enough enemy minions, and both individuals and teams will level up. This process will open up all sorts of additional powers that you get to choose from and customize as your levels continue to ascend. In addition, copping cash and equipment from fallen foes and smashed boxes nets you some more ways to beef up the abilities of your teams. Each one of your heroes has eight super abilities to play with, and by the time you get to the later areas of the game, you'll need ‘em.
If all of this sounds like a lot of work that's not necessarily your style – especially considering that as you advance, new heroes become available that need to be taken care of – you'll be happy to know that the game will take care of almost all of this if you want it to. What's more is that any decisions you do make about how to distribute skills amongst your stable of superheroes are not permanent. Feel like switching around some skill points from Silver Surfer to Iron Man? No problemo. This definitely helps the decision-making process, at least if you're anything like me, since I started to develop some unlikely favorite guys and wanted to rectify some earlier allocations.
The tale of the game centers around Dr. Doom, who has assembled a legion of evildoers. Exactly what his plan is isn't unveiled for quite some time, and it'll take a concerted effort on your part to battle through plenty of exotic locales to unravel the nefarious plot. If you've spent any time reading Marvel comics in, oh, the last twenty years or so, chances are that you'll be blown away by some of the stylish arenas where the action takes place. Although you won't mistake the graphical treatment of Alliance with that of the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, the comic-art stylings are evident and appreciated.
And then there's the controls. While Alliance has made its way onto every imaginable platform, the Wii's Remote and Nunchuk introduce a completely different way to handle your superheroes. Attacks are handled by flicking the Remote left and right, up and down to pull off the basics; advanced moves will employ combinations of buttons and moves. In addition, the Nunchuk controls the camera with a nifty tilt action. These controls work OK, but there are plenty of times when I zigged when I wanted to zag, and wasn't quite sure where I was in my motion. I can't blame these problems on the controls per se, since you'll often be trying to pull off multiple moves while under attack from all measure of enemies.
I can't help but thinking that I really, really would have preferred to not have to constantly tilt, jab, thrust, and otherwise gyrate for hours and hours in order to plow through all of Alliance's levels and bosses. I may (or may not) be in the minority here, but unlike some of the other Wii titles, the forced Wiimote controls actually lessened my enjoyment of the game. More than once, I was wishing I could provoke Wolverine, Spidey, and the rest of the gang to perform their awesome attacks without waving my arms around. In a beat-em-up game, all you do is fight, and it becomes exhausting (and, perhaps more importantly, not that fun) to be a slave to the gyroscopes. If nothing else, you'll find yourself hitting the pause button often or just playing in shorter bursts in order to avoid developing carpal tunnel or arthritis.
Control complaints aside, though, Alliance is an undoubtedly a triumph in most ways. The immense stable of heroes and villains, stylish environments, depth of customization, and superb storyline will keep you entertained for a long time; there is easily 20 hours of dungeon crawling going on here. Do everyone a favor, though, and be sure that your forearms are up to the task.
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