Ultimately Disappointing: Marvel Ultimate Alliance (Wii) Review
Posted on
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
by Gary A. Ballard
Some games should be a no-brainer, a game with all the right components in place to make for a perfect game, and yet despite all these components, the game is ultimately a disappointment. Such a game is Marvel Ultimate Alliance for the Nintendo Wii. Developed by Raven Software, MUA is a sequel of sorts to the popular X-Men Legends series of games. I enjoyed the first X-Men game a great deal, and as such was positive I would enjoy MUA even more. Unfortunately, Ultimate Alliance fell well short of my expectations in all the places I never expected it to.
Take the gameplay from the X-Men Legends games, add a roster of 20 playable Marvel characters including my favorite Daredevil, as well as other fan favorites like Captain America, Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Luke Cage and Moon Knight and wrap it around a Wiimote control scheme and you have a sure-fire hit, right? Yet, Ultimate Alliance doesn't seem to pay off any of the parts that made the X-Men series so good.
For one thing, the Wiimote control scheme, rather than being immersive and involving feels like a tacked-on afterthought. Just as PC gamers complain of their interfaces being dumbed-down by console ports, Wii users should be equally critical of cross-platform ports being shoehorned onto the Wii. The use of motion-sensing controls never feels natural, nor like anything other than pre-determined flailing substituting for button-mashing. In addition, the controls are not nearly as responsive as they need to be for the number of actions the player must perform during each battle. Each character has multiple normal attacks, as well as a growing array of special powers which must be used. On a normal console controller, each power is a button; on the Wii, special powers are performed by a particular type of motion performed while holding down the B trigger. But changing the special power being used requires toggling the C button while holding the B trigger and then performing the motion. Why when each power is a separate motion must the player toggle powers? In all, the control scheme seems rushed for a launch release and not well-thought out.
The graphics are a mixed bag. Powers, explosions and other particle effects are vibrant and colorful, but many of the background textures are so detailed that they fight with the action going on in the foreground. It's as if the developers took the same hi-res textures from the Hi-Def 360 versions and compressed them for standard resolutions without considering the visual effect. The character graphics and cinematics are well-done but often lost in the visual orgy of high-detail textures.
One of the hallmarks of the X-Men Legends series was a strong story with equally strong voice-acting. Ultimate Alliance has the voice acting, but the story is weak. Not only does the story ignore all Marvel continuity in order to bring together all the game's villains, it does so without even a word of explanation. It might be acceptable if the matchups weren't so bizzare. Early in the game, the Radioactive Man and the Winter Soldier are paired against the heroes, a pairing which could never happen. But aside from that Internet geek pedantry, the story's dialogue is awful. I don't mean it's normal comic book cheesy, I mean it borders on Dragonball Z-level idiocy. Having it spoke well just makes it more obvious. While Legends was cheesy, it never made me cringe like some of the dialogue in Ultimate Alliance.
The best part of the game is the character progression scheme. Each character has a ton of powers, gear and stats to keep track of and upgrade, and each has multiple costumes based on different Marvel comics publications. Each costume has its own set of character modifiers that can be purchased with coins that drop in the game. But unfortunately, the leveling scheme is driven by an MMOG-style grind through bland, uninspired levels of mob-whacking. The characters plow through tunnel after hallway after tunnel of bad guys that have very little to do with superhero stories and more to do with fantasy dungeon-hacking. The game's insistence on quick action button-mashing (or in this case, Wii-flapping) is ultimately a flaw, making the game feel less like a superhero adventure than a reskinned Dungeons and Dragons module. Were I to recreate the series, I'd go back to old school turn-based combat with less opponents and more tactical gameplay. That would be a different game, of course, but a better one.
In all, the game isn't terrible. It just doesn't live up to its predecessors. Not only does it not innovate on the old gameplay, it straps on a Wiimote control scheme without taking advantage of the Wii's strengths. I'd considered playing this on the X-Box for more natural controls, but the cheesy dialogue and bland level design has convinced me it wouldn't be worth the effort. On a five point scale, I'd give Marvel Ultimate Alliance a 2.5. My hope is that future cross-platform ports are given enough development time to really leverage the Wii's motion-sensing strengths rather than just take the place of button-mashing.
Take the gameplay from the X-Men Legends games, add a roster of 20 playable Marvel characters including my favorite Daredevil, as well as other fan favorites like Captain America, Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Luke Cage and Moon Knight and wrap it around a Wiimote control scheme and you have a sure-fire hit, right? Yet, Ultimate Alliance doesn't seem to pay off any of the parts that made the X-Men series so good.
For one thing, the Wiimote control scheme, rather than being immersive and involving feels like a tacked-on afterthought. Just as PC gamers complain of their interfaces being dumbed-down by console ports, Wii users should be equally critical of cross-platform ports being shoehorned onto the Wii. The use of motion-sensing controls never feels natural, nor like anything other than pre-determined flailing substituting for button-mashing. In addition, the controls are not nearly as responsive as they need to be for the number of actions the player must perform during each battle. Each character has multiple normal attacks, as well as a growing array of special powers which must be used. On a normal console controller, each power is a button; on the Wii, special powers are performed by a particular type of motion performed while holding down the B trigger. But changing the special power being used requires toggling the C button while holding the B trigger and then performing the motion. Why when each power is a separate motion must the player toggle powers? In all, the control scheme seems rushed for a launch release and not well-thought out.
The graphics are a mixed bag. Powers, explosions and other particle effects are vibrant and colorful, but many of the background textures are so detailed that they fight with the action going on in the foreground. It's as if the developers took the same hi-res textures from the Hi-Def 360 versions and compressed them for standard resolutions without considering the visual effect. The character graphics and cinematics are well-done but often lost in the visual orgy of high-detail textures.
One of the hallmarks of the X-Men Legends series was a strong story with equally strong voice-acting. Ultimate Alliance has the voice acting, but the story is weak. Not only does the story ignore all Marvel continuity in order to bring together all the game's villains, it does so without even a word of explanation. It might be acceptable if the matchups weren't so bizzare. Early in the game, the Radioactive Man and the Winter Soldier are paired against the heroes, a pairing which could never happen. But aside from that Internet geek pedantry, the story's dialogue is awful. I don't mean it's normal comic book cheesy, I mean it borders on Dragonball Z-level idiocy. Having it spoke well just makes it more obvious. While Legends was cheesy, it never made me cringe like some of the dialogue in Ultimate Alliance.
The best part of the game is the character progression scheme. Each character has a ton of powers, gear and stats to keep track of and upgrade, and each has multiple costumes based on different Marvel comics publications. Each costume has its own set of character modifiers that can be purchased with coins that drop in the game. But unfortunately, the leveling scheme is driven by an MMOG-style grind through bland, uninspired levels of mob-whacking. The characters plow through tunnel after hallway after tunnel of bad guys that have very little to do with superhero stories and more to do with fantasy dungeon-hacking. The game's insistence on quick action button-mashing (or in this case, Wii-flapping) is ultimately a flaw, making the game feel less like a superhero adventure than a reskinned Dungeons and Dragons module. Were I to recreate the series, I'd go back to old school turn-based combat with less opponents and more tactical gameplay. That would be a different game, of course, but a better one.
In all, the game isn't terrible. It just doesn't live up to its predecessors. Not only does it not innovate on the old gameplay, it straps on a Wiimote control scheme without taking advantage of the Wii's strengths. I'd considered playing this on the X-Box for more natural controls, but the cheesy dialogue and bland level design has convinced me it wouldn't be worth the effort. On a five point scale, I'd give Marvel Ultimate Alliance a 2.5. My hope is that future cross-platform ports are given enough development time to really leverage the Wii's motion-sensing strengths rather than just take the place of button-mashing.
Labels: Comics, Video Games, Wii
posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 12:06 PM
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2 Comments:
That's the thing, the unique controller the Wii has is both it's advantage and diadvantage.
If a game is designed for the Wii, or it's a natural fit (ie a golf game) then I'll happily buy it for the Wii, but for anything that's essentially a port of a controller-natural game, like a mash-em-up such as MUA, well, I'll play it on the PS/Box instead..
It might be better on the X-Box, but I'm still not sure it'd be a good or great game. It just lacked something that X-Men Legends had.
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