Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 Review (Xbox 360)

Here we are once again with the weekly review. This week: "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2" Check it out and spread the word that the Super Game Geek knows his stuff ;) well, hopefully it comes off that way. Enjoy and, as always, thank you for reading!

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 Review

There was a time when X-Men video games were not a top priority for gamers. Almost every single game featuring these mutants was shunned because of poor design, poor controls or they just were not enjoyable. That all changed when developer Raven Software, along with publisher Activision, created X-Men Legends. A fun, action-adventure game with RPG elements that gave the mutants a new name in the video game industry. Allowing gamers for the first time to assemble their own team of X-Men, boosting the stats they wished to increase and finally taking on Magneto in the end. Well, with the sales this game made, a sequel was quickly spawned granting players a larger playable cast and more powers. It wasn’t long until Marvel and developers realized this formula would work perfectly with an entire cast of Marvel superheroes and they leaped for the idea. In the year 2006, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance was released. It featured a cast of over twenty superheroes from the franchise, each with their own unique and individual powers. The game received positive reviews around the board. And now, a couple years later, developer Vicarious Visions has taken the reigns releasing Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 for gamers around the world to eat up and enjoy. But is this a sequel that will satisfy our superpower hunger?

Instead of creating an original storyline like the previous entry, Ultimate Alliance 2 follows the widespread Marvel comic event, Civil War. Due to large amounts of catastrophes and deaths caused by powerful men in capes and masks (mostly the young ones who have no idea what they are doing), the government has passed the Superhero Registration Act. This act forces all superheroes to register with the government so their identity and powers can be known, they can be trained to fight crime properly, and their activity can be monitored. Thus, the heroes are split down the middle with the heroes who are for the act following Iron Man and the ones against it following Captain America. This was a major event in the Marvel universe when it was first released yet it doesn’t really stand firm in a video game. Due to the fact that the game has so many characters, the story can never truly focus on one waypoint except for the standoffs between Captain America and Iron Man. There also isn’t much back story given by the game, so players who haven’t read the series may get confused at some points but this won’t shield any players from following the overall story. Even though the game is based upon Marvel’s Civil War, it does branch off the guide rails and takes liberty of the story towards the end of the game.

The gameplay is reminiscent of the first Ultimate Alliance, featuring a team of four heroes who punch, kick, pound, zap, shoot or claw up the countless waves of enemies. Players are able to decide which hero will be a part of that team. Just beware that not every character from the first game will be available this second time around. Nonetheless, combat and choosing your team are easily the greatest parts of the game. Choosing your favorite superhero (as long as he is a playable character) and then going out into the world to beat down some enemies is awesome. Plus, you get to use their unique powers to add to the final licking of your enemies. This isn’t anything new though because it’s all been introduced in the previous game. What is new are the “fusion” moves. During combat, two players or a player and a NPC (non-playable character) can trigger a destructive combination of powers that either wipes out every enemy on screen or deals a large amount of damage to a particular enemy (usually a boss). If you choose to go solo for this adventure, you should have some fun but this game truly excels when you play with some friends. Four player multiplayer is back and is available for local play and online play. This is the way the game was meant to be played. Busting up cyborgs and thugs with some friends can bring a lot of enjoyment.

Similar to the first game, there are numerous heroes to choose from. Like I said earlier, there are a lot of absentees who made appearances in the first game, but they have been replaced with some better and some worse. It’s all up to the player’s preference. As the game progresses, you are given the choice to choose Pro-registration or Anti-Registration. This choice will limit some of the characters you are allowed to play (if you choose Iron Man’s side you won’t be able to play as Captain America or Luke Cage and vice versa) but there are enough to make most gamers happy. Players are also given the ability to choose which stats to increase for each individual hero. This is where the RPG element comes in. Every hero has their own abilities and the more you pound baddies into the ground, the more experience points you receive. You will also level up as progress is made and can increase the damage or effectiveness of a hero’s power.

In between missions, players will be brought to their commanding officer’s (Iron Man or Captain America) headquarters. When in this area, you can run around freely, enjoying the sights or conversing with other heroes. There is also a simulator where you can replay completed missions or try out one of the many challenges to earn medals. Players can also look at dossiers and storyboard art collected throughout the game. Lastly, there is a trivia game that will grant experience points with each correct answer. And for all the comic buffs out there, you know trivia equals fun, fun, fun!

Even with all the entertainment that this game can deliver, it falls flat on its face due to technical problems. First off, the camera is made to ruin you in the heat of battle. There were so many time when I was battling away and the camera would set itself behind an object or wall blocking my vision. This is not a problem when the game gives you slight control of the camera but when it locks itself in place, this can be a real hassle. If the game had allowed the player to zoom in or out this problem could have been easily solved. The other fault this game contains is the bugs. Be ready to have your hero get stuck numerous times whether it is in a wall or in the air. One time I was playing as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and after I jumped to get to an upper platform, he got stuck on the ledge. Another time I was masquerading as Gambit and the next thing I knew he was walking in the air. I couldn’t get back down or jump any higher, I was just stuck walking on enemies foreheads. These problems were solved when I switched the hero out of the team but you shouldn’t have to do that in order to get a video game to work. These are bugs that should have been cleaned out way before release.

The sound is another highpoint in the game. Voice acting works for all of the characters except Thor. In the first Ultimate Alliance, Thor actually sounded like a Norse God which made him seem really cool. In this one he sounds like a whiny Shakespearian actor with raspy voice. The sound effects are great as all the powers all have their unique sounds from Spider-Man’s web attacks to Wolverine’s claw swipes. Each punch and kick is delivered in pure comic book fashion with BAM and POW sounds while characters spew out one-liners. The music does its job as it fits the atmosphere. However, you won’t be hanging out with your friends whistling the tunes. All in all, it is a good but forgettable soundtrack.

From an outside perspective, the graphics look pretty good. This game took a major step up from its cartoonish look in the previous entry. The environments aren’t spectacularly designed but they are far from ugly. Almost all of the character designs are done well but you’ll probably question some alternate costumes. The enemies are monotonous but what can you expect from a genre that forces you to fight wave after wave of them? When you take a closer look at this game however, you will see the rough edges. Graphical problems are a haunting factor in this game. Characters will sometimes run straight through walls or each other. Also, during conversations, half or the characters’ heads will block the screen which isn’t a pretty picture. This begs the question, what made the developers believe they were finished when there were so many errors that needed polishing?

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is a fun game that is just unpolished. It seems like a rushed piece of work that needed to be shipped out in order to make some cash. Sure, there are some good points to the game that make it worth the playing time but in the end, players will become annoyed by technical problems. The story is based on a major comic book event that is sure to pull in some gamers and the action packed gameplay is fun, especially with some friends. Yet the bugs just drag the game farther and farther away from the greatness it’s trying to emulate. They may seem minor at first but the continuous occurrences become a major setback halfway through the game. Play this game only if you were a huge fan of the original and you have been eagerly waiting the arrival of a sequel. Otherwise, just let this super powered adventure fly right over your head.

Maximum Carnage Review (SNES)

Hey, Super Game Geek here and today I am reviewing a game about my favorite superhero ever, Maximum Carnage! That’s right; Spider-Man! Now, normally I would be ecstatic for anything containing Spider-Man, but then I saw that this game was published by LJN. For those of you who do not know the company of LJN, they are responsible for horrid games such as Back to the Future, Friday the 13th and the Karate Kid. After hearing about, and experiencing firsthand, their awful track record, it certainly put a damper on my enthusiasm. Even so, you really shouldn't judge a game until you've played it and, trust me, I put some serious hours into this one.
You actually never have to beat the game to know the entire story because LJN (for once) actually did something really cool with this game let the developers (Software Creations) base it on the Maximum Carnage series (hence the title) in the Spider-Man universe. It was a great series that featured rivals Spider-Man and Venom teaming up along with some other heroes (Captain America, Black Widow, Nightwatch, etc.) to take down Carnage and his gang of baddies (Shriek, Demogoblin, Doppleganger, etc.) For those of you who don’t know the story I’ll shed some light on it without any major spoilers. Carnage escapes from a mental institution/prison he was confined in for being a psychotic serial killer and begins to wreak havoc and chaos around Manhattan with his crew. Venom believed he had killed Carnage but when he senses that his other half is still alive, he seeks out to destroy him for good. While good ol’ Spidey tries to save Manhattan he realizes he can't do so without his rival’s help. And that's end of my brief synopsis. This series was a big deal because not only did it have a great storyline and great characters it crossed over all the Spider-Man comics such as Amazing Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Man, etc. If you are a comic/sci-fi fan and you ever get the chance to read this series, take it the opportunity because you will enjoy every second. If you are a Spider-Man fan you haven’t read it, you really should stop reading this review and get a copy of those issues... like now.

These hobos have no idea what's coming.

When you start, the game displays its huge cast of characters inspired from the series along with some really good music. Well that should be the case because LJN somehow got Green Jelly to do the music for the game and let me tell you, it suits the mood and sets the tone perfectly. Green Jelly is a Grammy-nominated comedic-rock group for those who don’t know. Throughout the entire game the music does an amazing job of pumping you up full of adrenaline so you can go to work on many a thug and villain. I've found myself humming the title theme years after first playing this game.

The graphics are solid for their time. The character designs look really good except for the fact that Spider-man doesn’t have the black web on his costume (he does in the cutscenes but not during gameplay). The levels look kind of bland but at least LJN was smart (for once) and has different settings for most of the game changing the scenery so you don’t get bored after the first level.
When you start the game, a cool cutscene pops on to the screen in comic book form giving you a really good sense of what this game is (that’s a comic book game if you didn’t know what I was going for). After the cutscene, you are given control of Spider-Man and now go through the game beating up baddies left and right to progress through the level. And that’s what this game is, a beat ‘em up. And my, do I love beat ‘em ups. They were great back in the day and it saddens me that no one really dare makes them anymore. But Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage does the genre justice. It’s fun to walk Spidey down the sidewalk and then spank a bunch of Linkin Park wannabes with your web. And the KA-POW sound when you punch and kick fat asses will please the ear drums. Make sure you pay attention on all fronts though because enemies will sneak up and try to sucker punch you from behind while your focus is on someone else. As you continue through the game with your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, you will be able to control Venom as well which was very exciting for its time because this was the first game that allowed you to play as Spidey’s biggest rival! Unfortunately, there isn’t much difference between them except for the way they pull off their moves; but the fact that you can beat someone’s face in with Venom is a welcome change. You are also given the option to call on your other superhero teammates for help, and they’ll dash or flip or cartwheel (whatever floats their boat) and take out everyone in their way.

Classic comic book action.

The game also breaks things up with some climbing and web swinging but this could become really frustrating to some. In one section, while you are climbing up the side of a building, Shriek is constantly firing at you with her plasma blasts as Doppleganger tries to wash the Spider out by attcking from behind. If (and when) you do get hit, you fall until you land on a ledge or hit the street forcing you to start the process all over again. This dragged down even more by the poor swinging controls. While you are trying to avoid Doppleganger's attacks and Shriek’s plasma blasts, you will be need to work out the angle of your swing to land on the adjacent ledge; and since momentum doesn’t apply you’ll most likely get it wrong the first couple of times. Also, if you are not perfectly correct Spidey will hit the ledge and proceed to fall under it instead of climbing on to the damn thing like a spider would (and should) do.
Thankfully, those segments don't happen too often because the rest of the controls are pretty solid. You have your punch and jump button along with your web button. The web swinging could have used some more work (which could have added a great vaiety of options to the ground combat) . Still, this is a 2D beat 'em up so I understand why much focus wasn't put into the web swinging.
There are many ways you can dispose of baddies such as grabbing them and giving the quick one-two, bullrushing them or grabbing to lonely thugs with your web and introducing their skulls to each other. You can string multiple combos together but more often than not, most gamers will probably mash the buttons like wine grapes. You can also pick items up to beat women and hobos with dumpsters, newspapers, trash cans and fire extinguishers. You can only throw the item once but it does walloping damage to those umbrella wielding businessmen. Another cool move that does a lot of damage is your special attack but if you hit any enemies it drains your life bar. I’ve always hated this concept in beat ‘em ups with a passion! I understand that developers don't want players running around using their character's speacial attack to every thing with a pulse, but there are better ways to restrict players than causing damage. I mean, what pain is the character putting his or her self in to do this attack? Is Spidey tearing his groin each time he pulls it off? I don’t know but you will not want to lose your lifebar. It is the one precious thing that you do not want to see decrease (well, besides your... nevermind.)

That's it! No more friendly neighborhood Spider-Man for you, you eight legged freak!

This game is an unrelenting. You are allowed three lives and one continue. If you lose a life you start right back up again as if nothing changed but using your continue will bring you back to the beginning of the level. If you lose both your lives and your continue, well, you probably guessed it! Game over. Be ready to see the game over screen a lot because this game has a really hard difficulty curve. The first couple of levels shouldn’t be too difficult for most gamers to get by but after that the skill level really kicks in. The bosses are ridiculously hard compared to the nobodies you have to fight prowling the streets. You will have to use everything at your disposal to take care of these villains and this is where your ability to call in a teammate for back up really helps out. Another thing that makes this game even tougher is the fact that there is no way to save your game. There isn’t even a password system! That means you have to beat the game in one sitting which most people don’t really have the time for. This doesn't help the fact that you’ll most likely be starting this game over and over again. Because of all this, beating the game should earn you some type of medal.

Nevertheless, once you get past the difficulty (and the frustrating climbing segments), there is a good beat 'em up to be found here. You will enjoy this game especially if you’ve read the Maximum Carnage series or you are just another Spider-Man fan. The music is amazing and graphics (for its time) are easy on the eyes. Even though the web swinging isn’t up to par the combat controls are solid and it’s fun to beat the piss out of hobos. But, this game will give you a run for your money as completing it is a task that will give even the most committed gamer a challenge. Nonetheless, I do recommend Maximum Carnage because I guess even LJN can do something right (for once).